Everyone knows that bullying is not tolerated in a civil society. Verbal bullying can include harassment, humiliating or insulting language, and subtle threats. We assume that it takes place mostly amongst our youth and that in extreme situations law enforcement officers are brought in. But what happens when that law enforcement agency—in this case the RCMP—is the bully and the victims are professional adults who are quietly trying to make the world a better place?

In the RCMP document recently obtained by Greenpeace, strong language was used to identify the “anti-petroleum” movement as a growing and violent threat to Canada’s security. They identified several organizations, including the Sierra Club, as “growing, highly organized…well-financed [and] anti-Canada” groups which consist partly of “militants and violent extremists”. Whew. Did the authors take a “Bullying Tactics 101” course?

As one of the RCMP’s victims, I take exception to that verbal bullying. I’m a relatively mild-mannered retired academic who serves on the volunteer board of the Sierra Club of B.C. along with several lawyers, another academic, an accountant, and a couple of business consultants. None of us comes close to fitting the RCMP’s abusive descriptions.

But don’t take my word for it. Let me describe part of an average working day in the life of the Sierra Club’s staff members. They are the folks whom we, as a board, oversee. They are the (mostly younger) people who are also tarred by the RCMP’s hyperbolic dirty brush. Several of them lead schools education programs where the focus is on stewardship and B.C. ecology. Others work on youth programs where leadership skills and sustainability solutions are the goals. The forest and climate campaigner teams up with coastal industry and local First Nations to ratify the final Great Bear Rainforest document. Campaigners work with B.C. residents to ensure that fracking is done without harming drinking water, and that pipelines and tankers will not become a threat to human, wildlife, and fish habitats. Several volunteer local Sierra Club groups around the province work towards healthy and sustainable communities by, for example, raising money to build or extend trails.

Does this represent a bunch of violent environmental extremists? You be the judge.

The bullying tactics don’t stop there. We are accused of being “foreign-funded”. Again, let’s look at the group that I know best, the Sierra Club of B.C. About 20 percent of our income is derived from American charitable foundations, and these funds are always directed towards an agreed-upon project, such as saving the Flathead Valley to create a wildlife corridor from Yukon to Yellowstone. Funding “extremists in the movement [who are] willing to resort to violence” is simply never done by these foundations. I believe that this accusation would shock and offend them.

Yes, we want society’s dependence on fossil fuels reduced. Yes, we are keen to discuss, publicly, ways of moving towards a society that supports renewable energy. And finally, yes, we are intelligent enough to understand and fear that climate change is a huge threat to our children and grandchildren. Clearly the RCMP does not understand this. Their report placed comments about climate change—using such waffle words as “claim” and “reportedly” in quotes—to imply that there is no threat.

I pay taxes to support a non-partisan RCMP. I want them, as well as their bosses in the federal government, to stop threatening and bullying us just because we stand up for our legal principles (and not coincidentally, the future of this planet). We are loyal Canadians and work every day to ensure that our country is a safe, democratic place to reside.