The anger and widespread distrust of media, governments and health authorities that fuelled the recent convoy protests in Ottawa are here to stay and will have a long-term impact on Canadian politics, say experts who monitor extremism and the far-right.
So will the convoy organizers, some of whom espouse far-right, extremist views, they said.
“This is something that we can’t ignore,” Kurt Phillips, a board member with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said in a recent interview. “We can recognize this as a problem here and deal with it … or we could do what we did before and stick our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist until we have another blow-up.”
Billed as the “Freedom Convoy 2022,” the demonstration began Jan. 28 as transport trucks and thousands of people converged on Parliament Hill and took over downtown Ottawa for about three weeks, ultimately prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to invoke the federal Emergencies Act. Arrests began Feb. 17, and by the end of the following day, police charged more than 100 people with various offences.
Participants said their movement was largely in opposition to the country’s COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.
Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor at Queen’s University’s school of religion and senior fellow with the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, said the vast majority of convoy participants were not extremists, adding that he doesn’t think it’s fair to categorize the entire demonstration as a far-right rally.
“I think the organizers are definitely far-right and definitely extremist, but the movement is a bit more eclectic and broader than that,” he said in a recent interview.
Organizers and frontmen included Pat King, who has been on the radar of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network for some time. He’s also seen in a video posted to Twitter in 2019 saying there is an “endgame” to “depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race.”
King was arrested Feb. 18 and charged with several offences, including counselling to commit mischief. Last Friday, he was denied bail. Neither King nor his lawyer, Cal Rosemond, responded to a request for comment.
Another convoy organizer, Benjamin Dichter, is reported by the Toronto Star to have told a 2019 People’s Party of Canada convention that, “Islamist entryism and the adaptation of political Islam is rotting away at our society like syphilis.” He objected on Twitter to being called extremist when asked for comment, and he didn’t respond to an interview request.
Dichter made an appearance on the popular Fox News show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Jan. 27, and King became a kind of celebrity during the convoy demonstration, with protestors stopping to high five him and take selfies, Amarasingam said. King also appeared on Fox News’s business channel, Fox Business, as a “co-founder” of the convoy.
“I think that convoy really boosted the profile of a lot of these people and made them celebrities across Canada,” Amarasingam said. “We might start to see them organize a bit more formally or just continue as a grassroots right-wing populist movement that will have a voice in Canadian politics in some form or another.”
Overall, Amarasingam said the convoy protests resulted in a “maturing and mainstreaming” of a right-wing Canadian populist movement similar to the Tea Party in the United States, which emerged in 2009. “It’s much more about this groundswell of support for this ‘people’ against the ‘elite’ [narrative] and all that entails,” he said.
Phillips is the founder of the Anti-Racist Canada website, where he tracked Canadian far-right movements for over a decade. He said he hopes the involvement and amplification of far-right influencers in the convoy protests serves as a wake-up call for the country to start taking the politics of these people seriously.
Canada has long punched above its weight when it comes to producing home-grown far-right influencers, Phillips said, pointing as an example to the Proud Boys, who were listed by the federal Liberal government as a terrorist organization following the January assault on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
“My big worry is now that this has slowed down … are we going to go back and pretend it doesn’t exist?” he asked. “If we do that it’s going to continue to fester and grow.”
David Hofmann, an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick who studies extremism, says he has no doubt Canadian far-right groups saw the convoy as a success.
“There’s energy,” he said in a recent interview. Buoying that energy, he said, is a growing public tolerance for symbols and attitudes of hate and extremism.
“What we need to do as Canadians is push back, and push back in a non-violent way,” Hofmann said. “We need to … make it clear that this type of hateful rhetoric, these types of viewpoints are not acceptable here in Canada or elsewhere. And what it takes is individual Canadians stepping up.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2022
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
