The white, male pity party springs from the heartland

OTTAWA—It is easy to dismiss the Ottawa Occupation and border blockades as an anti-vaxxer clown show. Or a radicalization buffet for working-class pretenders marching against Canadian elitism, dressed in the sartorial splendour of hoser chic, fuelled by pig roasts, legalized pot, and foreign demagoguery. Not so easy if you were spat upon, assaulted, harassed, intimidated, or the target of attempted arson in Ottawa and an attempted murder plot of RCMP officers. Are these activities interconnected and coordinated? Not quite, but they all spring from the same ideological cesspool. Canadian complacency—and denial—about the strength and sophistication of homegrown, white-centric, domestic extremism has cost us big time. We have been shaken from our historic and cozy delusion that terrorism threats in Canada must have a foreign nexus; al-Qaeda and ISIS-inspired radicalization, Babbar Khalsa, Tamil Tigers, Hezbollah, and PIRA, for starters. Yes, our far-right activists were celebrated and energized by Trumpian demagoguery, foreign-based gas money and—possibly—state-driven disinformation. However, the extremist narrative—the white male pity party—springs from the heartland. A string of intelligence assessments from the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) warned in late January 2022 that it was likely that extremists were involved in the developing Trucker Protest. And that the scale of the protests could pose a "trigger point and opportunity for potential lone actor attackers to conduct a terrorist attack." ITAC further advised that supporters of the convoy have "advocated civil war," called for violence against the prime minister, and said the protest should be "used as Canada's 'January 6.’" Would these warnings—rare disclosures for the Federal Government—have been taken more seriously if the subjects of discussion were ISIS/Daesh-inspired or Hezbollah supporters? Yeppers. ITAC also highlighted a sparkling constellation of other extremist groups attending "freedom" movements across Canada, including Québec City, where the QAnon flag fluttered in a bitter February breeze. And "La Meute (The Pack) stated that approximately 100 of their members participated in the protest." La Meute is one of Quebec's most influential far-right anti-Islam organizations. They may have sent their flag wavers to Ottawa for the street parties and corn roasts. White supremacist activity in Canada is not new. There was an explosion of right-wing activity in the 1970s and 1980s, with close to 130 groups operating in 1987. For example, Toronto's Heritage Front—emerging from the Nationalist Front in the early 1990s—was a cornucopia of racists, anti-Black, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi skinheads, and Holocaust deniers, led by Wolfgang Droege. (He had participated in a failed American and Canadian white supremacist/KKK plot to overthrow the Government of Dominica in 1981). The Heritage Front was aggressively targeted by CSIS, "leading to over eighty threat assessments, the deportation of five white supremacists and the weakening of some racist efforts against Jewish groups and anti-racists," according to SIRC's report on the Heritage Front Affair released in 1994. What has changed in this threat environment during the intervening years? Social media has become an accelerant for white supremacist radicalization and recruitment. The communication among groups and individuals has been superb. While the nation's capital was occupied and border points were blocked, a group of extremists protesting mandates in Alberta plotted to murder RCMP officers. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino stated that some of the 13 arrested in Coutts were tied to far-right extremists. Some in that same extremist group gathered in Ottawa as part of the broader Freedom Convoy. Of the four men accused of conspiring to murder RCMP officers, two have ties to a man who founded a Neo-fascist, white supremacist group that aims to accomplish its goals through violence. Two of the four charged have links to the Nova Scotia founder of Diagolon, an American-style militia movement. The Ottawa Occupation and border blockades provided fertile recruiting grounds for white supremacist organizations. However necessary and justified the police action was in liberating the Ottawa core and border crossings, it may become an enabler, strengthening the extremist narrative of governmental persecution, promoting the martyrdom dream wish that all extremists live to die for. Much work lies ahead on the national security front, especially with the insider threat tangents to this domestic terrorist threat. White supremacists were encouraged by the ease with which they could seize control of a freedom march about a cloth mask. They have become inspired by the lethargic and “who’s-on-first” government response at all levels, despite numerous warnings that something dark could happen. Dan Stanton served as an executive manager in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Retired, he is an instructor in national security at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute. The Hill Times

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The white, male pity party springs from the heartland

Canadian complacency—and denial—about the strength and sophistication of homegrown, white-centric, domestic extremism has cost us big time.

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