Ideologically motivated extremism on the rise

The threat posed by extremist groups like neo-nazis and violent misogynists is on the rise, law enforcement and security agencies told MPS Wednesday.

Dominic Rochon, a senior assistant deputy minister at the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, said at a parliamentary committee meeting that such ideologically motivated violent extremism is “one of the most serious threats we are facing today.”

Michael Duheme, deputy commissioner of federal policing at the RCMP, told the committee meeting that “hate-motivated violence incidents and criminal threats related to IMVE are increasing in frequency across the country.”

The RCMP is worried about the “rapid growth” of hateful and IMVE content it’s seeing online, he outlined. “We are gravely concerned with the extremist views that are first fostered online,” which “can and have led to actual physical violence," Duheme said.

The meeting was part of the public safety and national security committee’s study of ideologically motivated violent extremism. Liberal MPS asked the committee to study the issue earlier this month following the release of reports from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians showing a rise in this kind of violence.

The MPS pointed to the CSIS 2020 report, which stated that since 2014, “Canadians motivated in whole or in part by their extremist ideological views have killed 21 people and wounded 40 others on Canadian soil.” That’s more than violent extremists motivated by political or religious factors.

CSIS defines ideologically motivated violent extremism as distinct from religious or political extremism. It said in 2019 IMVE is “often driven by a range of grievances and ideas from across the traditional ideological spectrum.” That can result in gender-driven violence, xenophobic violence by white supremacists or neo-nazis, or violence against authorities such as governments or law enforcement, as in the 2014 Moncton shooting.

CSIS said in its 2020 report that the COVID-19 pandemic has “exacerbated xenophobic and anti-authority narratives, many of which may directly or indirectly impact national security considerations.” During the committee meeting, MPS brought up recent incidents where anti-mask protesters flew white nationalist flags.

Timothy Hahlweg, assistant director of requirements at CSIS said the COVID-19 pandemic united ideologically motivated groups that wouldn’t have had much in common otherwise.

“With COVID-19, we have seen various groups that previously weren’t allied or individuals that perhaps were not sharing the same ideology or the same motivation come together under a common cause, whether that is anti-government activity, whether that is anti-vaccination activity,” he said.