Nathan News

Anti-hate experts are urging policymakers to take action against what they describe as growing right-wing extremism in Canada.

One such expert says research suggests millions of Canadians have been dragged into the far right during the pandemic, some of whom have been indoctrinated with misinformation and lies that were then amplified by the Freedom Convoy. .

Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says convoy organizers were able to successfully use the February-long protest to recruit vaccine-hesitant people into their movement.

“They were now rubbing shoulders with, you know, racists and bigots and people who would use violence to overthrow the government. Some of these people become more radicalized.

COVER EXTREMIS

Balgord was one of more than a dozen experts who spoke at “Hate Among Us,” an international conference held in Ottawa on Tuesday that discussed solutions to growing extremism.

Although some convoy leaders now face criminal charges, Balgord says the movement’s ideas are entrenched in the mainstream.

Balgord, whose organization has tracked right-wing groups and monitored their activities and influence, says that six years ago there were about 20,000 white supremacists in Canada. This is no longer the case, says Balgord.

Balgord estimates that there are now 10-15% of Canadians who hold far-right views, which encompasses a wide range of extremist views, including anti-government and anti-science perspectives as well as racist beliefs and homophobic. Some of them may not consider themselves racist, but they cover for extremists, he says.

A recent Abacus Data poll indicated that 44% of the Canadian population, or 13 million Canadian adults, believe in at least one conspiracy theory. These theories include racist beliefs that political elites are trying to replace native Canadians with immigrants who support them, or that the World Economic Forum has a secret strategy to impose its economic plans across the world.

GAIN POLITICAL POWER

Meanwhile, polling data released earlier this month by EKOS Research showed that 25% of Canadians support the anti-vaccine mandate views espoused by convoy organizers.

Moreover, Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research, says that at least 10%, or more than three million Canadians, consider the current government to be illegitimate. The supporters are mostly male and under 50, with a high school diploma. Graves says this group has become a political force in Canada and gravitates to parties on the right of the spectrum.

The new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, embraced convoy supporters and marched with a Canadian soldier who refused to be vaccinated.

Graves says the convoy’s committed supporters could be a new source of political success.

“But what you need then is to just find 10% more voters who are fed up with the current government… And I think that would pave a successful path to power. I’m not saying it’s a sure thing, but it’s certainly not implausible.

Far-right elements in that 10% of voters who view the government as illegitimate can, in extreme cases, be dangerous or delusional, anti-hate experts say.

This was evident in Coutts, Alberta, where the RCMP stopped weapons and tactical gear seized from a group that had taken part in the border blockade. Some members may have had ties to the neo-fascist group Diagolon.

Court documents showed the RCMP feared extremists would shoot to kill officers.

A truck convoy of COVID-19 vaccination mandate protesters continues to block the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

In August, supporters of Queen Q-Anon Romana Didulo, who do not recognize the rule of law, tried to station police in Peterborough, Ontario. under citizen’s arrests.

Then, two weeks later, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was ambushed by a Freedom Convoy supporter who verbally assaulted her.

Stephanie Carvin, a former national security analyst for the Canadian government, says that before the pandemic, police were concerned about terrorist attacks by foreign actors like al-Qaeda. But as the United States learned on January 6 of last year in the attack on the Capitol, the risk picture has changed – the main threats here are home-grown.

Stephanie Carvin of Carleton University says national security risks in Canada have grown from large-scale threats to buildings to targeted personal attacks on politicians.

“Jan. 6 changed things in Canada. We don’t worry so much about bombs anymore. We worry about a mob armed with hockey sticks and fire extinguishers charging at the historic Parliament Buildings,” Carvin said.

In June, the Parliamentary Protective Service distributed panic buttons to MPs, some of whom received death threats. Since the pandemic, threats have become more pervasive, personal and harder to counter, says Carvin, who now teaches at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“It’s a much more dangerous situation when people see politicians as legitimate targets for violence.”

POLITICAL AND PUBLIC SOLUTIONS

To counter this growing threat to democracy, Heidi Beirich of the US-based Global Project Against Hate and Extremism says extremists are exploring real grievances, such as job losses and rising costs of living. , which policy makers need to address. She says Canada should pass a digital accountability law that requires social media companies to crack down on misinformation shared on their platforms.

Bierich says community groups can organize to fight the hate movement. One example is the “Battle of the Billings Bridge” in Ottawa in February this year, where concerned residents blocked a road for hours, preventing a convoy of vehicles from joining the protest of truckers occupying Parliament Hill.

Heidi Beirich works with the Global Project against Hatred and Extremism. She’s researching white supremacist terrorism.

“It’s a situation where we have a growing far-right movement that threatens a lot of things: climate change, racial injustice, and sensible immigration policies. The list could go on,” Bierich said.

Beirich added that it is important that the media continue to report on the far right and its views.

“It’s not about giving them oxygen. They have oxygen. The question now is whether they are properly scrutinized and questioned by the press about their beliefs and ideas so that other people can be inoculated from their opinions.