Cowardly alt-right is running scared

Key players are coming under more intense scrutiny — and it’s having an effect

Raphaël Lévesque is a terrible example for the white race.

The Quebec City native’s lengthy criminal record is strewn with a variety of indictable indiscretions in the latter 16 of his 34 years, including assault, threats and drug trafficking. He has served time in jail, most recently in 2016. His criminal activity has cost him at least one job, according to his lawyer.

Last year, he threatened to burn down the offices of the province’s anti-radicalization force should it set up shop in Quebec City. In short, Lévesque isn’t the best role model for anyone, least of all us Caucasians.

This is wholly ironic, since Lévesque considers himself a warrior of sorts who exists only to defend the white Québécois race. Lévesque is leader of Atalante Québec, an openly racist group based in Quebec City. The group seeks a “renaissance of the neo-French in Quebec.” The Québécois de souche, Atalante opined last year, is victim of “150 years of attempted extermination.” The answer: immigration restricted to individuals from “compatible European (countries).”

This isn’t particularly novel stuff. In fact, it’s as tired and clichéd as Lévesque’s myriad neck tattoos. Yet the mainstreaming of the alt-right has coaxed Lévesque and his ilk out of the shadows and onto the streets. Last week, Lévesque and nine masked cohorts stormed into Vice Canada’s Montreal office to present journalist Simon Coutu with an “award” for “garbage journalism.”

Lévesque lectured Coutu on the latter’s supposed “bad journalism” then left just as he came — running. The whole affair, which lasted about three minutes, reeked of cowardice masquerading as bravado.

I’ve come to expect this kind of behaviour. Having reported on the identity movements, the alt-right and white nationalism, most recently for Vice, I’ve noticed how these types consider themselves the picture of courage and strength when online.

Atalante’s Facebook page is strewn with pictures of men wearing the same black shirts and the same tattoos, forever basking in their strength in numbers. Their poses, all sneers and tough-guy posturing, are as affected as those in your average Victoria Secret catalogue — though thankfully with a lot less exposed skin.

Xenophobia, espoused far and wide, is the ordre du jour on these pages for good reason. It allows its adherents to demonize one’s enemies with a broad brush while excusing or minimizing one’s own behaviour. This cognitive dissonance is particularly jarring in Lévesque’s case: a convicted drug dealer, a man who has been found guilty of assault, blaming immigrants for wrecking society.

Things tend to change when exposed to sunlight. “Zeiger,” the notorious Montrealbased white nationalist, denigrated blacks, Jews, Muslims and other assorted religious and sexual minorities with gusto for more than a decade online. Yet Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, the man behind Zeiger’s hateful words, scurried off to the recesses of the internet when the Montreal Gazette identified him a few weeks ago. He has been far less verbose ever since.

Lévesque’s clownish stunt betrayed the same fearful emotion. His allegedly impromptu visit to the Vice offices came after the outing of Sohier-Chaput and Vice’s identification of Thomas White, a notorious white nationalist figure in Thunder Bay, Ont. (I was a co-author on this piece. There are more to come.) It followed Coutu’s own critical piece about Atalante, which spoke of the group’s many difficulties in establishing a foothold in Montreal.

In short, the media is casting a critical eye on the various players in the alt-right, with demonstrable consequences. Clearly not a fan himself, Lévesque last week resorted to kneejerk confrontation of the messenger. It’s the kind of thing scared people do.

And it has already backfired. Coutu remains undaunted in his pursuit of stories about Atalante, Soldiers of Odin and the rest of the boneheaded losers who populate the blinkered world of race-based hatred. “Never have I wanted more to work on articles about these guys,” Coutu told me recently. Clearly Lévesque needs a new trick.