Canada’s intelligence agency is warning that extremists could “inspire and encourage” serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community — a threat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says almost certainly will continue over the coming year.

CSIS’s comments come as provincial policies on gender-affirming surgeries and pronoun preferences are being hotly debated across the country.

  • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    5·
    5 months ago

    I have family members who are trans, and I absolutely share your worries. That said, in this particular article’s case, they really can’t do much more. It isn’t an opinion piece by the CBC, it’s a report on a warning from CSIS. They even list many examples throughout the article, like:

    A former University of Waterloo student accused of unleashing on a gender-studies class with a knife last summer — sending an associate professor and two students to hospital — now faces 11 terrorism charges.

    and

    Balsam was commenting on a document drafted by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) and obtained by CBC News through an access to information request. ITAC, made up of intelligence authorities, is set up to keep tabs on threat actors’ intentions and capabilities and to review classified and open-source information to estimate the likelihood of a terrorist attack in Canada.

    Unfortunately, this is what journalism has to look like. Here are the facts. Here’s what was said. Here are examples.

    And of course, I will admit, this isn’t great (but isn’t the CBC’s fault):

    CSIS Director David Vigneault raised his concerns about violence directed at the 2SLGBTQI+ community in a public address late last year. He said the agency is alarmed when rhetoric turns hateful.

    “We’re concerned about the sharp uptick in hate crimes across Canada, and the marked increase in terrorist and violent extremist threats and rhetoric from extremist actors, many of whom are consuming toxic media online, becoming radicalized, and may mobilize quickly to violence,” Vigneault told an audience at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

    Yes, we are all concerned, what are your recommendations, Sir.