Canada’s RCMP urgently requests federal funding, citing a nearly fivefold increase in terrorism threats in the past year. They warn of insufficient resources to combat this growing danger, especially youth radicalization fueled by “online” extremism
In a newly released ministerial briefing binder, the RCMP revealed that between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, 25 suspects were charged with 83 terrorism-related offences—marking a 488 per cent increase over the previous year.
“Violent extremism is on the rise worldwide and constitutes a prominent national security threat,” the RCMP wrote.
The force said three minors and six young adults were among those charged, and another eight youths were subject to terrorism peace bonds.
“The RCMP is observing disturbing new radicalization pathways online that are contributing to substantial youth engagement with violent extremist ideologies and an increase in the number of youth subjects of interest,” the briefing stated.
The document, prepared in December 2024 for former public safety minister David McGuinty and now in the hands of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly appointed minister, Gary Anandasangaree, outlines severe gaps in national security readiness. It notes that six terrorist plots were foiled over the past year, with arrests in Edmonton, Ottawa, and Toronto.
“This increase in violent extremism has not seen a parallel increase in resourcing,” the RCMP said.
The spike in charges comes amid increasing concern from the United States about the flow of fentanyl and suspected terrorists coming across the northern border.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently said, “Canada is our partner in the north… [but] who has to get stepping? Canada.” He claimed 85 per cent of suspected terrorists are now entering the U.S. through the Canadian border.
Between 2022 and 2024, 1,199 individuals on the terrorist watchlist were intercepted at the northern border, compared to just 205 at the southern border.
In 2024, 741 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the Northern Border — enough to kill over 168 million people.
The RCMP report identifies foreign interference, border integrity, hate crimes, and opioids as additional “hot issues,” but warns that ongoing budget constraints are forcing it to shift resources reactively—often at the cost of broader preparedness.
“Competing priorities, combined with limited resources, have forced federal policing program areas to reactively divert resources to priority threats as they emerge, to the detriment of proactive posturing (e.g. violent extremism resources shifted to address foreign interference – and now border security),” reads the report. “Together with competing demands for more police by contract jurisdictions who have an agreement with the federal government, they have set in motion a growing chasm between the RCMP’s capabilities and capacity to deliver on its federal mandate.
“The RCMP cannot continue to effectively deliver on the full breadth of its federal mandate without addressing significant resourcing challenges,” the document warned.
However, the federal police force said it is working to become self-sustaining, forward-leaning, and properly equipped to fulfil its mandate of protecting Canadians from both domestic and international threats.
The force said it is also struggling with technological gaps as transnational criminal networks become more sophisticated and are outpacing the RCMP in terms of technological capacity.
“Systemic underfunding… means that current capabilities do not always align with immediate and medium-term operational needs,” the RCMP wrote. “This growing technological gap inhibits the federal program’s ability to respond effectively to an increasingly cyber-based, global threat environment.”
Despite the many issues facing the RCMP, it saw a 15.5 per cent increase in applications for the fiscal year 2024/25 compared to the previous year. So far in the year, the number of cadets who have graduated from the RCMP Training Academy at Depot Division has already exceeded the entirety of last year.