A look at the controversial anti-hate tool kit

Here are some claims in the material Sask. doesn't want used in its schools

The Government of Saskatchewan is trying to purge its classrooms of something known as the Canadian Anti-hate Network tool kit.

Developed using $268,400 in federal funds and actively promoted by the Trudeau government, the materials are pitched to teachers as a way to “prevent hate” in the classroom. But according to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, the 53-page package is “not high quality” and loaded with political bias.

Saskatchewan isn't the first to criticize the tool kit. In a recent blog post, former Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis claimed that the tool kit was itself “shockingly hateful.”

What follows is a summary of some of the more out-there assertions in the “anti-hate” materials.

CANADIAN SCHOOLS ARE `BATTLEGROUNDS' FOR HATE MOVEMENTS

The tool kit repeatedly asserts that Canada — and Canadian schools in particular — are plagued by a worrying rise in “hate-promoting social movements” and that violent extremism is a “massive problem” in Canada. “Because schools are hubs of our communities, they have become battlegrounds for hate-motivated organizing,” it reads.

What the report does not do is provide much context as to the actual size of the Canadian hate movement. It says that Canada has a “massive problem” with hate because Canadian users are the third-largest nationality on the fascist web forum Iron March (behind the U.K. and the U.S.). What it doesn't mention is that the total number of Canadian accounts on Iron March is just 88.

This isn't entirely off-brand for the Canadian Anti-hate Network. On its website, the group has a bit of a habit of citing threats from “hate groups” that are occasionally just a poorly constructed social media page with a handful of followers.

CANADA'S PRE-1965 FLAG IS DUBBED A HATE SYMBOL

“Canada's flag until 1965 has been appropriated by white supremacists,” reads the tool kit. And the materials are correct that the flag has been taken up by fringe Canadian white supremacist groups, who have adopted the banner as a symbol of a Canada that, in their view, predates mass non-white immigration.

But it's still the flag that was flown by Canada when it was battling Nazis in the Second World War. This much is acknowledged by the tool kit, but it instructs educators to stamp out classroom use of the flag. “A teenager with a Red Ensign profile picture merits a second look because of its prevalence in young white supremacist groups,” it reads.

THE MATERIALS GET IT WRONG IN DESCRIBING THE 2018 VAN ATTACK

The 2018 Toronto van attack — which killed 10 people — is cited as evidence that Canada is susceptible to violent extremism by “incels” — groups of misogynistic men who blame their celibacy on women. Attacker Alek Minassian “cited his beliefs that women should be punished for not wanting to be sexually active with him,” it reads.

There's just one problem: It came out during trial that this admission never really happened, that Minassian wasn't an incel and that he was mostly motivated by a desire for notoriety. Nevertheless, Minassian's case is twice cited in the tool kit.

MERE USAGE OF POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS ARE CITED AS A `RED FLAG'

Teachers are told to be on the lookout for student usage of Tiktok and Telegram. Canada has about 8.3 million users of Tiktok, which specializes in short, personalized videos. Telegram is an instant messaging service used by roughly nine per cent of the world population.

“As the Tiktok platform is intended for short videos, it's easy for youth to fall down rabbit holes,” warns the tool kit, saying they risk sliding into “blatant hate content.” The tool kit acknowledges that Telegram is often used as a safe mode of communication by dissidents in authoritarian regimes such as Russia and Iran, but that it should still be seen as a “red flag ” in Canada; indeed, many researchers monitor social media, such as Telegram, to keep tabs on extremism activity.

REMEMBER WHEN CANADIANS GOT MAD AT WEEKS-LONG ANTIPIPELINE BLOCKADES? THAT WAS APPARENTLY A HATE CRIME.

In early 2020, illegal rail and road blockades held across the country caused an estimated $270 million in damage to the Canadian economy. The protests were held in support of an anti-pipeline breakaway faction within the Wet'suwet'en First Nation. Although the faction framed themselves as the only legitimate representatives of the community, they were actively disavowed by both the community's elected leadership and much of its hereditary leadership. None of that context is mentioned in the tool kit, and the blockades are only cited in order to mention the “threats” faced by blockaders as evidence of anti-indigenous racism.

`THIS IS A FREE-SPEECH ISSUE' IS CITED AS A COMMON DEFENCE FOR `HATE PROPAGANDA'

The tool kit includes a page listing “five common defences of hate propaganda.”

Number two is the phrase “this is a free-speech issue.”

The materials then note that — unlike the United States — Canadian speech is criminalized in any instance in which it's deemed to be promoting harm against an identifiable group.

“A range of legally upheld policies support the rights of schools to keep hate speech out,” it reads.