The Jewish Group Near the Heart of the Canadian Far Right

IN FRONT OF Toronto City Hall, more than a hundred anti-fascists encircle a Muslim woman who’s holding a microphone. It’s fall, but it’s warm enough for t-shirts. The anti-fascists are anarchists, communists, socialists, labor activists, Jews, and Muslims from several different groups. Some are wearing masks. They have shown up early to counter a rally hosted by far-right organizer Ronny Cameron. It’s being called an anti-Trudeau rally, but it’s put on by the same groups that hold regular anti-Muslim demonstrations (they’re trying to rebrand).

These scenes will be at least somewhat familiar to anyone aware of the rejuvenated far right active across North America, especially since the 2016 American election. From Berkeley to Charlottesville to Toronto, tussles between fascists and anti-fascists act out in miniature the political struggles defining our societies today. The United States has a white nationalist movement and an alt-right movement that hate people of color, women, Jews, Muslims, liberals, LGBTQ+ (particularly trans people), and the media. It’s different in Canada, where the new far right is primarily an anti-Muslim movement. At the center of that movement is the belief that there’s a Muslim conspiracy to take over the West and impose Sharia (Islamic) law through multiculturalism, immigration, and demographic change, and that the Liberal government is either complicit or ignorant of this takeover. The far-right rallies and counter-rallies at City Hall in Toronto—beginning with anti-Muslim provocation and met by anti-fascist activists—occur so often that they’ve become routine.

An American scanning the Canadian scene above would encounter familiar symbols: Christian flags, Make America Great Again hats belonging to both visiting pro-Trump supporters and alt-right Canadians, and even the “Kekistan” flag (Kekistan is an alt-right meme of a make-believe country). But perhaps jarring for one unfamiliar with Canada’s far right is that often, shirts bearing Jewish stars can be seen amidst these other symbols.  (more...)

The Jewish Group Near the Heart of the Canadian Far Right

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My experience in Canada's academic world contradicts the meme that our universities are monopolized by left-wing radicals. What I observed was a velvet glove covering an iron fist. The salon Marxists were a fig leaf for a hardcore Malthusian, eugenicist and population control elite. The left and right were in bed with one another and used the distraction of dialectic gamesmanship to conceal their true agenda. And, fueling it is a limitless reservoir of funds to keep the engine running at full tilt.