If he ever harboured any serious ambition to participate in, or contribute to, an international terrorist group, a young Windsor man insisted to an RCMP officer who arrested him that those days were long over.
“What? I haven’t been active in that stuff forever, sir,” Seth Bertrand said in a police-recorded conversation the day a sizeable force of federal and city officers scooped him up as he walked along a Dominion Boulevard sidewalk on the afternoon of May 5, 2022.
What Bertrand, 19 years old at the time, meant by “that stuff” is at the heart of a criminal trial that began Tuesday before Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia.
Advised by Const. Mark Thomaes of the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) he was being arrested for “terrorist offences,” Bertrand is heard replying in a recording played in court: “There’s got to be like some mistake.”
According to RCMP at the time of his arrest, Bertrand had filed an online application to join the far-right extremist group Atomwaffen Division and “offered his skills and commitment to do things for this listed terrorist entity.”
The Atomwaffen Division is an international neo-Nazi terrorist network founded in 2013 in the southern U.S. It’s linked to murders in the U.S. and across the world, with funding from such criminal activities as arms trading and robbery.
The case before Carroccia this week is a blended trial and voir dire, which determines what might be admissible in court. The judge has yet to rule on a Charter application by the defence to toss the case against Bertrand from court due to the accused allegedly not being properly instructed on his rights to legal counsel ahead of a statement he subsequently gave police.
Bertrand’s lawyer Bobby Russon told the court that his client was confused about why he was being arrested, and the defence argued Tuesday that police did not make enough effort for Bertrand to get in contact with his lawyer, who was on vacation at the time. Justice Carroccia is reserving judgment on the Charter challenge until later in the trial, which continues this week and then later in November.
Thomaes, the arresting officer and the prosecution’s first witness, testified that Bertrand responded that he understood what he was being charged with. Asked by the Crown’s Xenia Proestos, a lawyer with the federal Public Prosecution Service of Canada, whether he had any concerns as to the accused’s mental state or “ability to understand what you were saying,” Thomaes responded: “No.”
I’m not a f—ing terrorist, dude
After his arrest, Bertrand was taken to Windsor police headquarters. Thomaes told the booking officer in the holding cell area that Bertrand was being charged with “terrorism.”
According to police audio tape played in court, Bertrand responded: “I’m not a f—ing terrorist, dude.” He had told the RCMP officer earlier: “I’ve been trying to get my life cleaned.”
Just months after his RCMP arrest, Bertrand pleaded guilty to separate hate crimes against members of the local LGBTQ+ community — three charges of mischief, one charge of breaching a court order and one count of inciting hatred.
He was responsible for a string of unsettling vandalism incidents at peoples’ homes and the Trans Wellness Ontario office in Windsor between Feb. 12 and May 20, 2021, and was sentenced to five months house arrest with electronic monitoring.
But Bertrand is fighting the latest federal charges. Under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, conviction on the rarely laid Criminal Code charge of “participation in the activity of a terrorist group” can result in imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Thomaes said the RCMP INSET team — itself overseen by the Federal Policing National Security program — was assisted in its undercover investigation targeting Bertrand by the Windsor Police Service, the OPP’s Provincial Anti-Terrorism Section (OPP PATS) and even the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
On the morning of Bertrand’s arrest, Thomaes told the court about 20 officers met and divvied up their roles for the day as part of the culmination of what was dubbed Project Sueno.
When Russon tried Tuesday to get further details on CSIS involvement, the prosecutor in the case objected: “You can’t ask that.”
It’s illegal to knowingly disclose any information obtained by Canada’s federal spy agency.
A news release issued by the RCMP in May 2022 said the Windsor police investigation into the earlier local vandalism cases led to the undercover probe and discovery of Bertrand’s alleged connection to the Atomwaffen Division.
According to Public Safety Canada, Atomwaffen Division — also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front and listed by Canada as a terrorist group in 2021 — “calls for acts of violence against racial, religious, and ethnic groups, and informants, police, and bureaucrats, to prompt the collapse of society.” The government says the organization has held “training camps, also known as hate camps, where its members receive weapons and hand-to-hand combat training.”
At the time of Bertrand’s arrest, INSET Insp. Cheryl Brunet-Smith said in a news release that “the RCMP remains committed to and stands fast against ideologically motivated violent extremists who threaten the public safety of all Canadians.”