Statement from ALERT’s ICE Unit regarding the recent Anonymous video entitled “48 Hours”

We are aware that a new YouTube video has been posted by Anonymous and our position on the matter remains the same. We have been, and continue to be, willing to work with Anonymous if this complainant has further information to share. Anonymous knows how to reach us. We will not continue to have this conversation through the media. The video postings this week have not only hampered our investigations, but have also distracted our ICE team and investigators from other work. The time we have spent dealing with these videos has been at the expense of other important child sexual exploitation investigations.

It is an unfortunate reality that our ICE team deals with hundreds of complaints every year. Our investigators are solely dedicated to tracking and stopping those who prey on our children online. These investigators are exposed daily to the worst in human behaviour and view thousands of images of children being abused. To have their integrity and dedication questioned by someone or some group unwilling to cooperate with police, is extremely disappointing.

Bottom line, the information provided to date is not sufficient to proceed. We have given this complainant several opportunities to work with us, and they haven’t. We do not support this type of vigilante justice and we encourage the public to let police do their job. When a suspect is tipped off to an investigation, any evidence or cooperation police may have been able to obtain is quickly lost.

Of course, we encourage anyone who has information about a child being sexually exploited online to provide that information to police. If the complainant wishes to remain anonymous, they may do so by contacting Crime Stoppers or Cybertip.ca.

Our focus in on rescuing children. We would like to get back to doing that job.