Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre pointed to a secret RCMP report while telling the House of Commons Thursday the cost of living is becoming unbearable for Canadians. “Never would we have imagined how bad would things get,” said Poilievre. “Today I look at the newspaper headlines, even the media is noticing how bad things are. A headline in the National Post, and I quote, ‘Secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are.’”“The RCMP has produced a report that says Canadians are so poor, desperate, and miserable, that it may lead to political instability and other turbulence that you could not even have imagined would occur in a first world country eight years ago.”.The report, entitled Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada and published Wednesday in the National Post, warns once Canadians learn about the seriousness of the country’s economic situation, they might revolt. It warns Canadians are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the federal government and what Trudeau usually refers to as “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories” are actually very real and serious concerns Canadians have. “Law enforcement should expect continuing social and political polarization fueled by misinformation campaigns and an increasing mistrust for all democratic institutions,” it states. The document was labelled confidential and intended as RCMP-only “special operational information,” which also would be conveyed to federal “decision-makers.”The report opens with the assertion that Canada is in a bad place now, but it “will probably deteriorate further in the next five years.”“The coming period of recession will accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,” it says. “For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live.”“Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak.".Matt Malone, an assistant professor of law at Thompson Rivers University in BC and an expert in government secrecy obtained the report through Access to Information channels. The report details sub-par and worsening living standards among Canadians and warned unpredictable weather events such as wildfires and flooding could make things worse. Also, Canada is apparently facing “increasing pressure to cede Arctic territory.”.Visible in the heavily redacted report is a subsection called “erosion of trust.” “The past seven years have seen marked social and political polarization in the Western world,” the first sentence states, while the rest is completely redacted by federal censors. .Another barely readable subsection warns of “paranoid populism.” “Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements,” reads the only not-redacted sentence in the section.
