Canadaland

When governments and corporations want to stay on top of the “threats” posed by protest movements — from climate campaigns to animal-rights advocacy — there’s one company that they tend to turn to: Welund. Founded in the UK in 2007, it expanded to North America about a decade later, setting up shop in Calgary (where it’s now called Foresight Reports). So who are they? And what does it mean when public-sector bodies farm out their intelligence gathering to a private firm?To find out, we put our own open-source intelligence skills to the test.Host: Jesse Brown Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), André Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)Further reading:Secretive intelligence firm with Alberta government contract spying on journalist Brandi Morin — RicochetThe Private Intelligence Firm Keeping Tabs on Environmentalists — Mother JonesBAE spy named by campaigners is friend of leading