OTTAWA — Drop the donut and show me your hands.
A hankering for Tim Hortons after a hard day of training went horribly wrong for some of Canada’s super-secret commandos, who wound up handcuffed and face down along a major highway.
The elite special-forces soldiers, travelling in a convoy of civilian vehicles, were pulled over in late 2009 along Highway 401 in southern Ontario after a panicked member of the public spotted the burly men at a coffee shop.
Ontario Provincial Police were called, though it’s not clear whether it was because someone had spotted a weapon or some other reason.
Officers from the Brighton detachment, west of Belleville, Ont., followed the vehicles east along the highway, where they executed “a high-risk takedown,” with weapons drawn.
The incident came to light through military records obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
“The OPP responded with a high-risk takedown on the vehicle which left Tim Hortons,” says a Defence Department report into the Nov. 27, 2009, incident.
“With weapons drawn the OPP ordered (censored) from the vehicles where they were searched, cuffed and laid on the ground beside the highway in plain view of passing motorists.”
The documents provide a rare glimpse into the special forces, which include highly skilled JTF-2 operators.
Soldiers, who had been conducting a counter-terrorism exercise, were heavily armed and possessed high-tech surveillance gizmos to combat terrorists and criminals. They explained to provincial cops that they were members of the special forces.
“The (censored) involved were completely compliant and answered all questions truthfully. Once it was explained to the OPP that there were (members) of the (Canadian Forces) they were able to de-escalate the situation.”
The soldiers in the incident are thought to be members of JTF-2, the counter-terrorism unit whose operations are shrouded in secrecy. The military would not confirm, but the fact the soldiers were operating in a “civilian-patterned vehicle” fits the profile.
JTF-2, with up to 600 members, is one unit of the special forces. There is also the Special Operations Regiment and the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit.
A spokesman for the headquarters that oversees all commando units said the mix-up happened because local police were not notified that the troops had been training in area.
“In this particular instance we’re reminded of the importance of continuous co-operation with local law enforcement agencies,” said Maj. Doug McNair, of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
Local cops in the immediate vicinity of exercises are usually notified, but not in regions where soldiers may be driving back to base — something that has now changed.
McNair wouldn’t say where the exercise took place, nor how many soldiers were involved. Precisely what alarmed the member of the public wasn’t clear, but McNair said the special forces are authorized to carry weapons when travelling within the country.
At the time, military police were sent from the nearby air base at Trenton, Ont., once they heard on the radio that the takedown might involve members of the special forces.
“Once the OPP positively identified the (censored) they were released and all returned to (censored) without further incident. No injuries were sustained during the incident and no weapons or equipment was confiscated,” says a summary of the incident.
McNair said the soldiers followed the appropriate regulations for the transport of their weapons and, given the secretive nature of their work, commandos don’t go around in “military vehicles, with green paint and Canada flags all over them.”
Military police decided there were no grounds for a full investigation.
McNair shrugged off the incident.
“The OPP were doing their job and so were we,” he said.