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Terrorism in Canada 1960-1989 No. 1990-16 Solicitor General Canada Ministry Secretariat '‘/3:. ■"1 Anthony Kellett Bruce Beanlands 79*Ô James Deacon with Heather Jeffrey Chantal Lapalme National Security Coordination Centre, Police and Security Branch Terrorism in Canada 1960-1989 No. 1990-16 This document, prepare(' in 1991, is made available as submitted to the Ministry. The views expressed are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Ministry of the Solicitor General of Canada. This document is also available in French. Ce document est disponible en français. -scuéma C'P..j)tDA NOV 15 2000 SaierrEi.;3: „ OTTAwâ I.C*4 r Cat. No. JS4-1-1990-16 ISBN: 0-662-18303-7 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 The Need for Published Data 2 Existing Data on Terrorism in Canada 3 The "Dark Figure" of Terrorism 6 Endnotes 8 II TERRORISM - MEANINGS AND DIMENSIONS 11 Terrorism as a Concept 11 Terrorism as Behaviour 14 The Purpose Beyond the Act 15 Communication 15 Coercion 16 Disruption 16 The1 "Piggybacking" Substrategy 17 18 Political Motivation 18 The Rationalisation of Terrorism 19 Terrorism's Extranormal Qualities 20 The Medium of Violence 21 The Nature of the Act 22 Unpredictability 22 Summary and Definition 23 Endnotes 24 Ill METHODOLOGY 29 Coding Data 29 Level of Event 29 Date/Time 30 Location 30 Tactics and Activities 31 Targets 32 Casualties 33 Terrorist Event Types 33 Right and Left-Wing Terrorism 34 Nationalist/Separatist and Emigré Terrorism 35 Religious Terrorism 37 Single Issue Terrorism 37 Type Overlaps 38 Validation of Events 40 Primary Source Corroboration 40 Sufficiency of Information 41 Conformity to the Components of Terrorism 41 Summary 42 Endnotes 44 PATTERNS OF TERRORISM IN CANADA 47 General 47 Periodicity . of Terrorism in Canada 47 Domestic Events 48 International Events 50 Terrorist Targets 50 Casualties of Terrorism 51 Terrorist Tactics 53 Terrorist Event Types 54 Nationalist/Separatist Terrorism 54 Religious Terrorism 60 Emigré Terrorism 63 Anti-Castro Movements 63 Yugoslavian Issues 64 Middle East Conflicts• 64 Armenian Issues 65 Sikh Issues 66 Left-Wing Terrorism 67 Single Issue Terrorism 68 Right-Wing Terrorism 69 Summary 70 Endnotes 72 V APPENDICES 79 A. Primary Sourcs and Abbreviations of Sources. 79 B. Some Relevant Criminal Code Sections 83 C. Terrorist Targets 88 D. Terrorist Event Types 90 E. Figures 91 • VI BIBLIOGRAPHY 151 VII CHRONOLOGIES 169 International Terrorism in Canada 171 Index 191 Domestic Terrorism in Canada 193 Index 304 Terrorism Support Activity 307 Index • 334 Excluded Events 335 TAI3I.F-S AND FIGURES TABLES I. Incidence of Terrorism in Canada, 1960-1989,. By Level of Event 49 IL Terrorist Targets in Canada, 1960-1989 51 III. Casualties of Terrorism by Target, 1960-1989 52 IV. Terrorist Tactics in Canada, 1960-1989 54 II FIGURES 1. Province of Event 91 2. Event Type 93 3. Terrorist Tactics 95 4. Tactic by Year 97 5. Terrorist Targets 99 6. Event Type by Level 101 7. Tactic by Event Type 103 8. Level by Target 105 9. Percentage of Successful Attacks by Event Type 107 10. Percentage of Successful Attacks by Target 109 11. Percentage of Successful Attacks by Tactic 111 12. Casualties 113 13. Casualties by Level 115 14. Casualties by Target 117 15. Casualties by Event Type 119 16. Casualties by Year 121 17. Terrorism in Canada 1960-1989 123 18. Terrorism in Canada 1960-1969 125 19. Terrorism in Canada 1970-1979 127 20. Terrorism in Canada 1980-1989 129 21. Event Type by Year 131 22. International Terrorism - Event Type by Year 133 23. Domestic Terrorism - Event Type by Year 135 24. Single Issue Event Type - Tactics and Targets 137 25. Religious Event Type - Tactics and Targets 139 26. Nationalist/Separatist Event Type - Tactics and Targets 141 27. Nationalist/Separatist Event Type - Targets by Year 143 28. Emigré Event Type - Tactics and Targets 145 29. Right-Wing Event Type - Tactics and Targets 147 30. Left-Wing Event Type - Tactics and Targets 149 INTRODUCTION This report' has been prepared .by the Research Unit of the National Security Coordination Centre (NSCC), Police and Security Branch, Ministry Secretariat, Solicitor General Canada. Its contents are based on open source information, and it is intended to satisfy a long-standing need for public-domain research on the incidence of terrorism in Canada. This report comprises a number of sections: this introduction; a discussion of terrorism and its meanings; a description of the methodology of this study; a presentation and discussion of descriptive statistics based on coded variables; and chronologies of terrorism and related activity in Canada. The last section contains four chronologies covering the period 1960 to 1989: • Domestic Terrorism in Canada • International Terrorism in Canada • Terrorism Support Activity • Excluded Events. It is important to note that terrorism is not defined in any Canadian statute. In Canada, acts that may be labelled terrorism are mattérs to be investigated by policing •authorities as criminal activity. In the absence of a - formal definition of terrorism, the authors present a number of components of terrorism, which provided parameters for the collection of data and the classification of incidents. These components, detailed in the following section, do not necessarily reflect the view of the Government of Canada or of the Ministry of the Solicitor General. In the final analysis, any definition - whether it is contained in a statute, scientific discourse, or elsewhere - is a practical instrument providing criteria against which real-life phenomena may be evaluated. Incidents that contained the components of terrorism and which could be validated by at least one primary source were included in the terrorist events chronologies (International Terrorism and Domestic Terrorism in Canada). Those which did not completely or clearly satisfy the requirements were placed in the Excluded Events chronology. The Terrorism Support Activity chronology comprises actions in support of the commission of terrorist acts in Canada either directly (cg., the theft of explosives to be used in a terrorist bombing, or the establishment of training camps) or indirectly (eg., by "fund-raising" activities such as robbery and extortion, or through the use of propaganda). Data on terrorist incidents, support activity and excluded events have been entered into databases to facilitate . Qditing and updating of the chronologies. The date, location and description of each incident as well as all coded variables can be searched. The use of a database assists in undertaldng analyses of general patterns and trends, including frequencies (e.g., of the use of tactics, selection of targets, and commission of types of events) as well asbivariate and trivariate comparisons. It should be noted that this report is not written to provide for an assessment of the threat of terrorism, or to be used as a predictiye instrument. There are presently 428 terrorist incidents in the events chronologies over the study period (62 International and 366 Domestic events). The majority of the incidents took place in 2 Québec (51.9%) and British Columbia (38.1%); 64.2% of all events occurred from 1960-1969, while only 18.9% were committed from 1970-1979 and 16.8% from 1980-1989; bombing and arson were the tactics most often employed; private property, business and transportation were the most common targets. (These observations are elaborated in the section on patterns of terrorism in Canada.) The Need for Published Data At the outset of the 1980s two Canadian analysts concluded that inadequate empirical data constituted a serious impediment to the study of Canadian political violence.' That the problem has persisted is clear from a remark made by a Canadian expert on terrorism at a conference on the subject, which took place at Saint-Jean, Québec in April 1986. At a question-and-answer session one of the speakers, Yoram Hamizrachi, complained that "Those of us who research terrorism, regardless of our affiliation, all suffer from one problem and that is lack of information. " 3 These two statements can be illustrated by reference to the literature on Canadian terrorism. In the first place, that literature is quite slender, demonstrating the deterrent effect of inade,quate open-source information. A recent Canadian bibliography of terrorism found 210 Canadian references out of a total of 3383 references, or 6% of the total.' Even among those studies that have been published there is a reflection of the paucity of Canadian statistical data. A recent publication of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies entitled Terror comprises the papers presented at the Saint-Jean conference.