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Canada Is Looking for Help Dealing with Terrorism, Espionage, and, Oh Yeah, Open Rebellion

Ottawa wants a contractor to conduct a risk assessment by detailing all the possible scenarios where shit could get real, and what they'll do about it.
Justin Ling
Montreal, CA

"Welcome to Parliament. Please sign in with our risk assessment team if you plan on fomenting rebellion in the great nation of Canada." Photo via Flickr user Tony Webster

What do you do when your populace rises up against you, throwing off the shackles of their oppression in an effort to replace your democratic government with a commune of like-minded proletariats, hell-bent on abolishing the class system by any means necessary?

That's exactly what the Government of Canada is hoping to figure out.

The Department of Public Works posted a tender to a government contracting site at the end of March, for "security consulting services" in order to develop threat assessments for government of Canada assets and infrastructure in Ottawa.

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The federal government wants a rundown of all the ways its properties might be vulnerable to terrorists, spies, thieves, natural disasters, and the collective uprising of a disenfranchised people.

On top of having someone identify possible risks and security deficiencies, they also want the contractor to suggest improvements that could be made to the infrastructure, and to offer a consultant to oversee the implementation of the upgrades.

A threat matrix from the tender.

That means detailing every sprinkler system, alarm, door, safe room, generator, guard hut, fence, wall, parking lot, surveillance camera, tunnel, elevator, stairwell, and basically anything else relevant to assessing how government properties will react to threats.

Evidently, the request is being done with a eye directly to the chaotic response to the October 22 attack on Parliament. On top of the disjointed and confused police response, the assortment of government buildings in downtown Ottawa lacked coherent plans to deal with real-time threats. Many, including this journalist, were in lockdown for nearly 12 hours, well after the gunman was dead. Those inside the buildings were surprised to learn that there was no real warning system for terrorist attacks.

To that end, Ottawa is looking for a company to put together a plan how to prevent, flag, mitigate, and respond to terror attacks. Some example attacks provided in the report include "bombs, vehicle ramming, backpack, interior."

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Part of the eventual report would include recommendations for "VIP Protection." The need for such a thing was highlighted when Prime Minister Stephen Harper was ushered into a broom closet during the Ottawa attack, as it was the closest secure room his ad hoc security detail could find.

The report that will be produced at the end of this will be classified. Any potential contractor will need to be vetted and screened. Every person working on the project will need secret security clearance (not, however, the highest level of "top secret.")

Terrorism isn't the only consideration for the report, however.

"Insurrection," number 17 on the "specific threats" list, is certainly the most curious.

While it's not clear just how worried Ottawa should be about a revolution, as Canada hasn't really faced an honest-to-god popular uprising since the Red River Rebellion, the fear appears to be ever-present.

It is also possible that Canada could be worried about the possible violent public backlash over a screening of one of the worst-ever Star Trek movies.

Other threats include environmental events, like foods or earthquakes; power outages; "magnetism damage;" "demonstrations/peaceful marches/building occupations/labour disputes; and even "key-employee sickness."

There are also concerns over "foreign intelligence, industrial/commercial intelligence," and "sabotage." Canada, of course, is no stranger to being the target of cyber-warfare and human intelligence directed by foreign governments. Also on the list is "social engineering" which is a favourite tool for affable hackers, and basically involves con-man-style tricks to obtain access to someone's system.

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Some examples—like "penetration," and "misrepresentation"—are provided without example or context.

The document also lists "compromise/disclosure of sensitive information" as a possible threat, which is probably a tribute to the work of Edward Snowden and his clever efforts to collect sensitive data from within the NSA.

In the counter-espionage department, the report would also include information on how someone could gain access to a building's phone and internet systems.

"Where do communication lines enter the facility? (Identify both underground and/or above ground locations)," the report reads.

The government also wants to know its neighbours.

"Please identify any adjacent buildings (government or commercial) that could attract acts of aggression (i.e. protest/demonstration, terrorism, etc)," the report asks.

The eventual winner of the contract will also be asked to assess how to protect restricted areas from unauthorized access. The document asks that the contractor consider "physical, procedural and psychological barriers" for those areas.

The most important issues—which carry priority "A"—would be "a condition or vulnerability which exists which may be exploited by opportunistic person(s) or organizations with hostile objectives; a deficiency or condition which has already occurred and has already or will shortly result in the shut-down of a building or support system."

With files from Ben Makuch

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter.