Report finds right-wing groups active in Canada
YOU DON’T KNOW WHEN THEY’RE GOING TO LASH OUT.
Canada’s right-wing extremist movement is a motley crew of white supremacists, anti-government “sovereignists” and pro-militia crusaders who, despite being disorganized and prone to boozefuelled infighting, are “more extensive and more active” than most people think, says a new study.
While some members have tried to create a “façade of legitimacy” by toning down their rhetoric, running in municipal elections and joining military ranks, others remain a public threat, aligning themselves with organized crime groups and exploiting hatefilled white power music and Internet chat rooms, it found.
“They’re very prevalent in a number of communities. They’re very unpredictable. You don’t know when they’re going to lash out,” said Barbara Perry, the lead author, a criminology professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Perry and Ryan Scrivens, a PhD student at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University, talked to law enforcement officials and community activists, as well as current and former hate group members. They also scoured court records and media reports to create one of the few comprehensive portraits of the movement in Canada. Their findings were published this month in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.
At least 100 right-wing extremist groups, from “three-man wrecking crews” to dozens-strong, have been active in recent years. They are concentrated in Quebec, western Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
While some members have engaged in random acts of violence, others have carried out targeted attacks on Muslims, Jews, people of colour, aboriginals and LGBTQ people.
“We see the right-wing extremism movement rear its ugly head once and a while, but it just doesn’t really gain the same traction as Islamic extremists,” Scrivens said of the media coverage.
The researchers cited the fatal shooting last year of an Edmonton hate-crimes officer as he attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Norman Raddatz, who was suspected of anti-Semitic bullying of a family.
They also mentioned the June 2014 shooting deaths of three Mounties in Moncton, N.B., by Justin Bourque, whose social media trail was laden with pro-gun and antiauthority messages.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has acknowledged the presence of right-wing extremists, but they don’t appear to be a high priority.
“Right-wing extremist circles appear to be fragmented and primarily pose a threat to public order and not to national security,” a spokeswoman said.
Many police agencies have created special teams to monitor groups and respond to hate crimes. A lieutenant from the Sûreté du Québec division that investigates domestic terrorism told a parliamentary committee in late 2014, “a majority of the service’s active files deal with the extreme right.”
One place where rightwing extremists find support is online. Sub-forums of the white supremacist website, Stormfront.org, are among the most popular, the researchers found.
Topics of recent discussion threads included “Brown people are still invading” and “I am sorry but only white people are Canadian.”
“One officer voiced his concern about websites that urged its audience to ‘kill the Aboriginals, kill the Jews, kill the blacks, kill the gays,’” the researchers wrote.
Members have also found solidarity around the white power music scene. Quebec is ground zero for skinhead music, while Alberta is a hotbed for the more “subtle” black metal, which is less xenophobic and more apocalyptic.
While the face of the extreme right may be a tattooed, angry, young white male, the contemporary movement includes people who are trying to soften that image, the study found.
During municipal elections in Ontario in 2014, several candidates included far-right actors, such as John Beattie, founder of the Canadian Nazi Party.
Other right-wing extremist sympathizers and activists have joined the Canadian Armed Forces. A 2012 Ottawa Citizen article cited an intelligence report warning of growing white supremacist membership in the military. (A military spokeswoman said any racist behaviour will not be tolerated, as “such attitudes are totally incompatible with the military ethos and with effective military service.”)
Despite efforts to become more mainstream, many right-wing extremists still have a proclivity for violence, the study found.
Some adherents have rallied around mixed martial arts, as it provides “an outlet and training grounds for violence.”
Even more alarming, some groups have joined outlaw biker gangs, who “share similar subcultural characteristics, such as slang, language, dress and a propensity for violence.” Others have morphed into drug gangs.
Some extremists choose not to be part of any group, preferring instead to provide “ideological fodder on which others may feed.” One of Canada’s most notorious white nationalists, Paul Fromm, has spoken to various groups, including the U.S.-based Council of Conservative Citizens.
Dylann Roof, the young man accused of gunning down nine black worshippers in Charleston, S.C., last year credited the council for drawing attention to “black on white crime.” The council said it did not condone violence and Fromm said the murders were “absolutely wrong.”
Still, authorities appear to be closely watching Fromm. In a recent YouTube rant, he described how, on a return trip from London, he was detained by border authorities at Toronto’s airport for more than two hours so they could search him for “hate propaganda.”
It’s not just law enforcement right-wing extremists have to be watchful for; sometimes the enemy is their peers. Fighting in and between neo-Nazi groups is common as members jockey for power and status, the study said.
“They hate so much and so many that they start to hate one another,” one officer said.
Some who have left the movement simply grew tired of constantly having to justify their racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic stances.
“Hating,” it turned out, “was exhausting.”