On August 24, Russian state media website, RT published a report that claimed Environment Canada is building a new facility in Winnipeg that “includes a sizable firearms storage room, as well as multiple evidence rooms and interrogation rooms.”
The RT report also claims that “most disturbing, given the implications – facilities for housing hundreds of people, including “enforcement officers” working for the ECCC” are being built at the location.
The RT article cites a domestic Canadian far-right platform as a source for its reporting.
Environment Canada has had an enforcement division since 2008, which is responsible for “enforcing legislation and regulations that prevent pollution such as the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act.” Environment Canada has stressed the point that these enforcement officers “are not climate change Enforcement officers”.
Environment Canada addressed the misleading information published by Russian state media in a Twitter thread, stating that Environemnt Canada enforcement officers ”are not climate change Enforcement officers. Our Environmental Officers spend most of their time enforcing legislation and regulations that prevent pollution such as the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act.”
It is true that Canada’s Environment Ministry is building a new facility in Winnipeg. It replaces an existing and aging facility. The new facility does include a storage space for arms and spaces to interview witnesses. However, the nefarious mis-characterization of the space in the planned Environemnt Canada facility by Russian state media is false and feeds into anti-government and anti-environmental conspriacy theories.
RT’s narrative seeks to exploit fears about government overreach in the context of climate change and environmental protection and further polarize Canadians on these issues. This disinformation is consistent with the many other anti-government narratives that have been amplified since 2020 by the Russian government to exploit the Canadian public’s COVID related fears and frustrations.
RT’s broadcast license in Canada was revoked in March 2022 and it has been removed from the broadcast systems in many other Western countries included the United Kingdom. RT is used by the Russian government to weaponize information in order to undermine and destabilize western democracies and to justify the Russian government’s geopolitical goals and criminal activities.
