Quebec’s “Militia Plot” and the Ghost of Coutts

In 2013, the RCMP stormed through High River during the flood evacuations, not to rescue citizens but to kick down doors and seize firearms from locked homes. No warrants. No accountability. They had done the same at a smaller scale two years earlier in Slave Lake, Alberta. Then in 2016, Fort McMurray residents returning from wildfire evacuation found forced entries and accusations flying, again at the hands of police claiming emergency necessity.

These weren’t isolated missteps. Now the federal cops are back in the headlines, claiming to have dismantled an armed anti-government militia in Quebec, complete with 83 firearms, 16 explosives, and vague talk of “seizing land.” But if history and the discredited charges against the Coutts Four have taught us anything, it’s this: we need evidence, not headlines. We need skepticism, not deference.