Paramilitary “Fitness Clubs.” Anti-Trans Crusades. Far-Right Extremism Is Here
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Ku Klux Klan in Canada
12 min read
The article mentions the KKK forming its first Canadian chapter in 1921 but doesn't elaborate. This Wikipedia article provides crucial historical context about how white supremacist organizations took root in Canada, challenging the 'it couldn't happen here' mindset the article critiques.
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Rise Above Movement
10 min read
The article references Robert Rundo and his 'Active Club' model but doesn't explain its origins. The Rise Above Movement was Rundo's original neo-Nazi organization that pioneered the fitness club recruitment strategy now being adopted by Canadian groups like Second Sons.
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Canada convoy protest
13 min read
The article identifies the 2022 Freedom Convoy as a 'linchpin' that unified disparate extremist movements but provides limited detail. This Wikipedia article documents the event comprehensively, explaining how it became a rallying point for the coalition of groups now targeting trans rights and other issues.
Reddit / The Walrus
This story was originally published on thewalrus.ca
By Rick Goode
Black-clad white men stand at attention. They chant and hold crude banners with “D.E.I. IS HOW NATIONS DIE” and “MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW” scrawled across them. A man screams through a megaphone about “foreign blood” and “retak[ing] our nation” while his followers intone the words “honour,” “heritage,” and “triumph.”
This scene—from a video posted to white nationalist Telegram channels—is footage of a rally held in Toronto on May 3 of this year. It was organized and executed by a collection of Canadian white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups collaborating to take their hate from online spaces into the real world.
Canadians tend to think of far-right extremism and white nationalism as a strictly American problem, adopting an “it couldn’t happen here” mindset, or seeing it as a lunatic fringe that should just be ignored. But these movements are gaining a foothold in mainstream culture, and the structure for that to happen has been in this country since its inception.
You can’t share stories from thewalrus.ca on Facebook or Instagram because of Meta’s response to the Online News Act, but you can share this Substack article there
White supremacy arrived in Canada in the fifteenth century, with the first Europeans. Since then, Canada has waged a cultural and literal genocide against Indigenous peoples, including the horrors perpetrated as early as 1831 at Christian church- and government-sponsored residential schools, which were designed to strip children from their families and their culture, with the last federally run residential school closing in 1996. In 1911, the government passed an order-in-council to ban Black immigrants from entering Canada (it was never invoked). In 1921, the Ku Klux Klan formed its first Canadian chapter. In 1946, Viola Desmond was arrested for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a movie theatre. The last segregated school in Canada didn’t close until 1983.
The late 2010s brought with them the “alt-right” era, a term coined by white nationalist Richard Spencer to differentiate his views from traditional American conservatism. Originally characterized by online trolling, the “alt-right” was a random and reactionary series of chats, pages, memes, and shitposting accounts—mainly from the US—as well as a loose collection of more serious actors like the Proud Boys and Atomwaffen. Over the years, its membership has become increasingly public, participating in rallies and engaging in acts of violence in
...This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.