Terry Newman: Turtle Island Liberation Front terror plot a warning to Canada

Canada can no longer afford to ignore the threat posed by radical pro-Palestinian activist groups.

On Monday, the FBI announced that four alleged members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF) — described as an anti-capitalist, anti-government and pro-Palestinian group — were arrested for allegedly planning co-ordinated New Year’s Eve bombing attacks against several companies in southern California. A fifth individual from the same group was arrested in New Orleans for allegedly planning a separate, unrelated attack.

The Turtle Island Liberation Front’s social media accounts suggest the group is not that old. Its public social media posts are all from this year, with the oldest dating back to July. TILF’s Facebook account references the Instagram account of the group’s Los Angeles chapter. It’s not clear if there are other chapters in the United States.

The group’s first Facebook post appears to be its mission statement: “Peaceful protest will never be enough,” and the “only way out is through resistance.” It tells its audience that they’re “up against fascist colonizers,” and they need to “stop marching in parades and fight back,” without explaining how. I guess that’s where the alleged bomb attacks come in.

The statement continues, “There are no morals for us to appeal to, no sense of justice or what’s right. We cannot vote ourselves out of a mass colonizer occupation.”

Finally, TILF states its goals outright, which are to “free occupied turtle island from the illegal american empire. Free Palestine,” and claims that, “Freeing the world from american imperialism is the only way to a safe and peaceful future.”

One post declares, “Death to America,” which I guess their members felt the need to qualify, because a second post says, “When we say ‘death to America’ and call for an end to colonization, it doesn’t mean the displacement or harm of non Indigenous citizens.”

Another post says, “If you truly want change, there is only one solution. Revolution.”

The group’s Instagram account has much of the same, and more. One video post says, “We embrace the return of our comrades at DAMPL. Free Palestine or scorch the earth.” DAMPL stands for “Direct Action Movement Palestinian Liberation.”

The https://www.instagram.com/p/DRje45ykfWZ/ shows a man whose face is wrapped in a keffiyeh in front of a DAMPL banner. The song “Run This Town” by Rihanna and Kanye West plays, while the caption under the unidentifiable man says, “They are laughing at kids in cages. They are finding joy in families being separated,” referring to an image of people taking pictures at a sign for Alligator Alcatraz — an immigration detention centre in Florida. The video ends with, “Gaza does not need your sympathy.”

Whatever your feelings are about the detention centre, it is clear that Palestinian groups are using American citizens to wage terror against its president and corporations. This much is undeniable.

TILF appears to have been at least partially motivated by an X post made by Democratic Sen. Chris Larson, as it shared the post on both of its social media accounts.

Larson claimed that, “ICE is stockpiling arms, including chemical weapons, guided missile warheads and explosive components. The spending dwarfs anything we’ve ever seen in the agency — a 700% increase. The President is building an army to attack his own country.”

TILF responded by saying, “Please start paying attention to what’s going on. We cannot afford to live in ignorance.”

Wired and several other publications debunked Larson’s post, which appears to have been motivated by a report he didn’t dig deep enough into before opining on.

The most likely explanation for the guided missiles is that human error resulted in the wrong product code being entered for a purchase. As for the chemical weapons, they’re likely flamethrowers and smoke grenades, which have been purchased by the government since 2005.

In other words, aside from the increase in numbers, the materials used by the agency aren’t unique to the Trump administration — a lesson for public officials to be more careful with what they post on social media.

If the name Turtle Island sounds familiar, it’s because Canada has a group called the Turtle Island Solidarity Network, though it does not appear to be connected to the group in Los Angeles. Turtle Island is also the name that many extremist anti-colonial groups call Canada.

For the safety of all Canadians, it’s a good idea for intelligence services to be looking closely at all groups that espouse rhetoric similar to TILF.

In October 2024, Canada, in co-ordination with the U.S., designated the Samidoun as a terrorist entity. According to the government, Samidoun has “close links with and advances the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),” which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S. and the European Union.

Before the designation, members of the group took to the streets in Vancouver on the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre espousing rhetoric similar to TILF. They shouted, “death to Canada,” “death to the United States” and “death to Israel,” and declared, “We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.”

Another group that allegedly has strong ties to the PFLP is the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which calls itself a “national liberation movement that understands Zionism as an adversary to all Arab peoples.” According to NGO Monitor, the group offers an annual scholarship named after a deceased PFLP leader.

In response to October 7, the PYMs X account posted, “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.” The group glorifies martyrdom, making statements like, “The blood of the martyrs is the price paid for Palestine’s liberation.”

Likewise, groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which also goes by the name Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, have sprung up on university campuses throughout North America and also allegedly have ties to the PFLP.

According to Canary Mission, SJP has “endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and promoted” the PFLP. The group openly celebrated Hamas’s October 7 attack, taking to Instagram shortly afterwards to call it a “heroic attack” that “set a new precedent” in the liberation of their land “from the fangs of the enemy.”

So far, Canada has escaped several Islamist terror plots. In 2024, two Ottawa teens were charged with planning “to violently attack Jewish persons in Ottawa, possibly through the detonation of an explosive device at a pro-Israel rally at Parliament Hill,” according to court documents.

Also last year, a father and son’s terrorist plot was foiled in its advanced stages. It was later revealed that the father was the beheader in an ISIS video, which pointed to major holes in Canada’s national security vetting process.

A few months later, a Pakistani national that Canada had accepted as an international student was arrested on his way to New York, where he allegedly planned a mass shooting targeting Jews. And this summer, a Montreal teen was charged with planning an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.

A recent CSIS report made it clear that youth are increasingly being radicalized “through online echo chambers that promote hateful rhetoric and incite others to commit violent acts.”

Many Canadians may think such hateful and inciting rhetoric exists only in the deepest corner of the dark web, but today, that’s no longer the case. Support for the October 7 terrorist attack can be readily found on social media. Groups like the Turtle Island Liberation Front that inspire people to commit violence should provide a stark warning to Canada.

National Post
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