(September 2, 2021) The image of right-wing extremism in Canada that has been dogging the prime minister’s election campaign is angry, ugly, crude, and full of grievance. Men, women and sometimes children making lewd gestures, faces screwed up into gargoyles of anger, twisted by rage and hate. The actions of protestors is not a pretty sight. Some of them, such as the ones in Bolton, Ontario have been carrying the election signs of the local Conservative Party of Canada candidates. The party condemned the actions, of course, no sooner having finished that than they had to get busy containing the online presence of 20-year veteran Ontario MP Cheryl Gallant, who has made outlandish claims about the Trudeau government.
The right-wing protests dogging the prime minister’s campaign trail have caused events to be cancelled. The Toronto Star reported, “A loose network of COVID-19 vaccine and lockdown protesters is using digital tools to make the campaign on of the vitriolic in recent memory. But these protests are no ordinary electioneering.
The rise of the extremist right wing politics in this country, the anti-mask cohort bringing together an inarticulate mess of white supremacists, anti-vaxers, right-wing hobbyists and politicians is no surprise to those paying attention.
The number of hate groups operating in Canada has tripled in recent years, according to an Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) report released on June 19, 2020.
“We identified 6,660 right-wing extremist channels, pages, groups and accounts across 7 social media platforms,” write report authors Jacob Davey, Senior Research Manager, Far Right & Hate Crime, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and Cécile Guerin, Coordinator, Technology, Communications & Education at ISD, who supports the organisation’s European development and analysis work.
“The reach of these channels, pages, groups and accounts was significant, and collectively they have reached over 11 million users across these platforms.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Trudeau rhetoric are the most salient topics of conversation among RWE actors in Canada.
The pictures we show you today are ugly, but they are real and taken within the past week on the campaign trail.
A protester reacts as Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at his election campaign tour in Nobleton, Ontario, Canada August 27, 2021. In scenes rarely seen in Canada during federal campaigns, demonstrators in two Ontario towns shouted death threats and screamed profane abuse at Trudeau, many referring to the government’s push for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
Protesters react while awaiting an election campaign visit by Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which was cancelled citing security concerns, in Bolton, Ontario, Canada August 27, 2021. Trudeau’s team took the unusual decision to cancel an evening rally planned for near Bolton on Friday, saying the protests could endanger public safety. His announcement on Sunday of policies to combat climate change was in part drowned out by the crowd in Cambridge. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio
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