Right-Wing Extremism in Canada
Dr. Richard A. Parent & James O Ellis III
Does Canada Have Right-Wing Extremism?
Louis Proctor joining the Calgary KKK (Calgary Sun Aug 14, 1981)
Research Questions
The research questions for this project were:
• What factors may promote violent right-wing extremism in
Canada, and how is it connected to similar movements in
the US and Europe?
• What impacts might this violence have on radicalization
within other communities, and what strategies can security
and intelligence organizations employ to detect or reduce
violent right-wing extremism?
Definitions
There is much disagreement over the definitions of
extremism and terrorism.
For this working paper, extremism was defined as:
•Holding political, social, economic, or religious views that
propose far-reaching changes in society that conflict with, or
pose a threat to, the democratic order, while supporting
criminal and non-criminal acts to achieve these aims.
Violent extremism was defined as:
•Serious threats, harm, murder, mayhem, and damage to
property which are motivated and justified by extremist
beliefs.
Definitions
A terrorism act is defined by the Canadian Criminal Code as:
•Committed “in whole or in part for a political, religious or
ideological purpose, objective or cause” with the intention of
intimidating the public “…with regard to its security,
including its economic security, or compelling a person, a
government or a domestic or an international organization to
do or to refrain from doing any act.”
•Terrorist acts can produce death and bodily harm, risks to
the health and safety of the public, significant property
damage, and interference with or disruption of essential
services, facilities or systems. Terrorism represents a
specific form of violent extremism that is criminal and
political in nature.
Right-Wing Extremist Beliefs
Right-wing extremism contains a complex set of interrelated,
and occasionally, conflicting beliefs, including:
• anti-government/pro-individual sovereignty;
• racism;
• fascism;
• white supremacy/white nationalism;
• anti-Semitism;
• nativism/anti-immigration;
• anti-globalization/anti-free trade;
• anti-abortion;
• anti-gay;
• anti-taxation;
• pro-militia/pro-gun rights stances
Types of Right-Wing Extremists
1) General White Supremacists (e.g., Aryan Brotherhood, Ku Klux Klan).
2) Single Issue Extremists fixated with one particular ideological issue, such
as taxes or abortion.
3) Neo-Nazis who maintain an anti-Semitic, racist, nationalist, and
homophobic ideology.
4) Militia and Patriot Movement members that are skeptical of centralized
government.
5) Christian Identity adherents that believe Whites are the true “chosen
people.
6) Sovereign Citizens that hold the Federal government is currently
illegitimate.
Overarching Themes
• Right-wing extremists usually argue for the innate
superiority of the own race or national group, while
simultaneously expressing intolerance towards contact or
mixing with other cultures, nationalities, or ethnicities, to
maintain their “purity” or distinctiveness.
• The future extinction of their liberty, culture, or race is
assured unless action is taken.
• Political, racial, or religious ties can extend beyond
traditional national boundaries.
Dehumanization Process
1) Perceive a harm committed to oneself or one’s community.
2) Find or invent an external source for this harm to blame.
3) Construct a negative image of the enemy to spawn a shared hatred.
4) Diminish enemies by describing them as:
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subhuman (mud people);
inhuman (the System);
animals (pigs or monkeys);
parasites (leeches or vampires);
disease (plague or cancer);
or evil incarnate (demons or Satan’s spawn).
5) Underscore harm will continue or grow worse if nothing is done.
6) Call for action and violence to stop the threat.
Examples of Historical Racism in Canada
• Despite public perceptions, there is a long tradition of
racism and anti-immigrant sentiment within Canada.
• Canada’s first race riots took place in 1784 in Shelburne
and Birchtown in Nova Scotia.
• Race segregation was legalized in Ontario schools in 1849.
• Chinese, Japanese, and South Asian migrants were heavily
targeted in British Columbia in the early 20th century.
• The Canadian Immigration Act used “climatic suitability” to
block entry of various nationalities deemed undesirable.
Fringe Religious Extremism
• Canada has played host to a variety of small, religious
fringe communities that occasionally produce violence.
• The Sons of Freedom Doukhobors typify how a small
segment of a fringe religious community can generate
widespread political violence.
• Following early protests against public schooling in
Saskatchewan in 1929, the Sons of Freedom conducted
over a hundred bombing and arson attacks in the 1960s
against government buildings, businesses, railroads,
power stations, and co-religionists, accounting for the
second largest source of terrorism in Canada.
Christian Identity Movement and Canada
• Born in Newfoundland, Richard Brothers, developed
British-Israelism in 1794, claiming that Anglo-Saxons were
direct descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
• W. H. Poole brought the ideology back to Canada and
transformed it into a strongly anti-Semitic belief system in
British Columbia in the 1930s, which spread to the Ku Klux
Klan through a series of meetings and conferences.
• Another Canadian, William J. Cameron used his position as
chief spokesman for Henry Ford and editor of the Dearborn
Independent to spread anti-Semitism south of the border,
particularly through the 1920s series The International Jew.
Christian Identity Beliefs
• Modern Christian Identity spread to the US and beyond,
spurring attacks by groups like the Aryan Nations, the
Order, the Christian-Patriots Defense League, and The
Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord.
• There is no central Christian Identity church or leader.
• Christian Identity doctrine states non-whites are “beasts of
the field,” Jews descend from Eve and Satan, and the white
race descends from Adam.
• Christian Identity “true believers” can only bring about
God’s Kingdom on earth by fighting the forces of darkness
(identified as Jews, non-whites, Communists and others).
Odinism
• Odinism, or Ásatrú, is a fringe religion based on Viking
traditions combined with the occult, Nazism, and white
supremacy.
• Odinist followers range from neo-Nazis, to bikers, to
skinheads, and more. Canadian and American Odinists are
linked to those in the United Kingdom, Germany, Iceland,
Scandinavia, South Africa, and Australia.
• Australian Alexander Rud Mills made Odinism more antiSemitic following WWII, and Else Christensen spread these
beliefs through the Toronto-based Sunwheel and the
American-based The Odinist. Her Odinist Fellowship
became a prison ministry, geared towards rehabilitating
white prisoners by instilling them with racial pride.
Holocaust Denial
• Canada has hosted outspoken
Holocaust deniers like Ernst
Zündel since the 1970s.
• Zündel moved briefly to the
United States in 2000, but he
was subsequently deported
back to Canada.
• He was deported to Germany
in March 2005, where he was
charged with inciting racial
hatred and defaming the
memory of the dead.
Toronto KKK (Sher 1983)
Right-Wing Extremist Groups in Canada
Groups active in Canada over the last 50 years:
•Aryan Guard
•Aryan Nations
•Berzerker Boot Boys
•Blood & Honour
•Canadian Anti-Soviet Action Committee
•Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFÉ)
•Canadian National Socialist Party
•Canadian Nazi Party
•Celts of Quebec
•Church of the Creator (COTC)
•Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform (C-FAR)
•Combat 18 (C-18)
Right-Wing Extremist Groups in Canada (continued)
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Concerned Parents of German Descent
Edmund Burke Society
Hammer Skins
Heritage Front
John Birch Society
Ku Klux Klan
Nationalist Party of Canada
Northwest Imperative
Social Creditists of Quebec
Social Credit Party of Alberta
Western European Bloodline (W.E.B.)
Western Guard Party
White Aryan Resistance (WAR)
White Boy Posse
Canadian KKK
• The KKK is the oldest
right-wing extremist group
active in Canada, crossing
into the country from the
United States in the 1920s.
• Klan groups appeared in
Ontario, British Columbia,
Alberta, Saskatchewan,
and Quebec under various
names, such as the
Kanadian Ku Klux Klan,
the Ku Klux Klan of
Canada, and the Ku Klux
Klan of the British Empire.
Invitation to Vancouver KKK (Baergen 2000)
Canadian KKK Early Days
• A Klan klavern appeared in Montreal in 1921, followed by
one in Vancouver in 1924.
• The British Columbia Klan claimed five MLAs amongst its
members, and it built onto extant anti-Asian sentiments
and calls for deportation of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian
immigrant workers.
• In Alberta, the Ku Klux Klan focused more on European
immigrants and Catholics.
• The Klan made major inroads in Saskatchewan, boasting
between 15,000-40,000 members.
History of the Ku Klux Klan in Canada
First Public Meeting of KKK in Edmonton in 1932 (Baergen 2000)
History of KKK in Canada
KKK in Edmonton in March 25, 1932 (Baergen 2000)
KKK in the Modern Era
• The Canadian Klan was violent from the beginning, starting
with a rash of anti-Catholic arsons in 1922 in Quebec,
followed by a 1924 arson at St Boniface College in
Manitoba that killed 10 Catholic students, another at
Juvenaut College, and a church robbery in Samia, Ontario.
• After WWII, the Klan settled into its familiar pattern of
attacks against visible minorities, Leftists, Jewish and
immigrant communities.
• In the 1980s, the Canadian KKK was further influenced by
David Duke via Alexander McQuirter, and in the early
1990s, Dennis Mahon of Oklahoma also crossed the border
to better encourage and network with Canadian klaverns.
The Canadian Klan has lost many of its leaders to prison.
Church of the Creator
• Ben Klassen, the founder of the Church of the Creator (an
anti-Christian, racist organization), developed his radical
ideas during his formative years in Canada from 1925-1945.
• Klassen established his “church” in the US in 1973.
• Creativity was later spread by the Canadian band
RAHOWA, whose name is an acronym for RAcial HOly WAr.
• The term “RAHOWA” is now used as shorthand by rightwing extremists across the world. The band’s record
company, Resistance Records, was later acquired by
William Pierce - chairman of the National Alliance and
author of The Turner Diaries.
Creativity Beliefs
• Klassen authored Nature’s Eternal Religion (1973), The
White Man’s Bible (1981), and Salubrious Living (1982).
• Klassen felt Christianity was fundamentally flawed by
recognizing Jews as the chosen people, and he believed
that it was a conspiracy to subvert the White race, part of a
millennia-long struggle between Jews and whites.
• He believed an ethnically-based religion could advance the
white race as a whole. Creativity sought to define the white
race’s purpose in the world, and it claimed to answer all
fundamental questions about life through racial pride.
• Creativity also spurred many ZOG conspiracies.
Skinheads
• Skinheads emerged from the British punk music scene,
adopting fashion from Nazism to maximize shock value.
• By the 1980s the skinhead movement became associated
with right-wing groups like the UK’s National Front, which
identified immigrants and Jewish elites as the banes of the
British working class.
• Many skinheads are motivated by unemployment and
economic dislocations.
• They attack immigrants out of the belief they are stealing
jobs or housing from the white working-class.
Canadian Skinheads
• Skinheads came to Canada in the 1980s.
• Skinheads exist in over 30 different countries.
• According to a previous survey of worldwide Neo-Nazi
Skinheads by the Anti-Defamation League, Canada ranked
11th in skinhead activity, despite its small population.
• Canadian skins have been labeled anti-American, antiimmigrant, anti-free trade, and anti-gay, and many have
belonged to the cadet corps or military reserve.
• Most skins have no formal organizations.
Conditions in the United States
• According to the Extremis
Crime Database (ECDB), there
were 370+ homicides
committed by US right-wing
extremists from 1990-2010,
claiming over 600 lives.
• There are 150 hate crimes
reported in the US every week.
• US right-wing extremists are
fragmented and heavily
influenced by religion,
particularly Christian
fundamentalism.
Martyrs in the US
• US right-wing extremists are
heavily influenced by cherrypicked martyrs, in whose
memory they often dedicate
their actions.
• Examples include: tax
protestor Gordon Kahl; The
Order’s Robert Mathews; and
Randy Weaver’s wife and son
killed at Ruby Ridge; and
David Koresh and The Branch
Davidians of Waco, Texas.
US Right-Wing Extremism After 1995
• The demobilization of the Patriot movement following the
1995 Oklahoma City bombing led to growth in the white
nationalist and related supremacist organizations.
• Right-wing leaders, such as David Duke, Tom Metzger,
Jared Taylor, and William Pierce, tried to shift the attention
away from militias towards non-European immigration.
• The 9/11 attacks were used to criticize pro-Israel US foreign
policy and to highlight the dangers of immigration and
diversity as an attack on white culture.
• US right-wing extremists reached out to foreign terrorists
who also opposed the US government and Israel.
US Threat Assessment
“The combination of environmental
factors that echo the 1990s,
including heightened interest in
legislation for tighter firearms
restrictions and returning military
veterans, as well as several new
trends, including an uncertain
economy and a perceived rising
influence of other countries, may
be invigorating rightwing extremist
activity, specifically the white
supremacist and militia
movements. To the extent that
these factors persist, rightwing
extremism is likely to grow in
strength.”
Lone Wolf Terrorism
• Though not confined to right-wing extremists, lone wolf
attacks are chiefly linked with white supremacists,
Christian Identity adherents, tax protestors, survivalists,
sovereign citizens, and antigovernment activists in the US.
• The threat from lone wolves in the United States has been
consistent over the last two decades, and it represents a
significant proportion of the attacks in the country.
• DHS assessed that “[W]hite supremacist lone wolves pose
the most significant domestic terrorist threat because of
their low profile and autonomy—separate from any
formalized group—which hampers warning efforts.”
Lone Wolves and CBRN
• On April 8, 1993 Thomas Lewis
Lavy was caught trying enter
Canada near Beaver Creek,
Yukon Territory.
• He had 130 grams of 7% pure
ricin, $89,000, along with a
shotgun, rifles, and thousands
of rounds of ammunition.
• He committed suicide while in
custody for terrorism charges
in 1995.
Post and Courier Dec 24, 1995
Conditions in Europe
• Primary ideological drivers for
European right-wing groups
are unemployment,
immigration, nativism, antiSemitism, and anti-Islamic
sentiment.
• European right-wing
extremists tend to follow a
more secular ideology than
those in the US, however there
are strong ties amongst North
American and European
organizations and individuals.
Anti-Immigrant Attacks in Europe
• A small cell of neo-Nazis were
linked to 10 murders of
Turkish and Greek merchants
and a female police officer
from 2000 to 2007.
• They also carried out a dozen
bank robberies and a bombing
in Cologne in 2004.
• Three of them had previous
criminal records from a failed
1998 bombing plot, but
weren’t kept under
surveillance following release.
Lone Wolves in Europe
• Franz Fuchs carried out a
bombing campaign from 1993
to 1997 that targeted
immigrants and those working
their behalf, killing 4 and
wounding at least 10.
• He used 25 mail bombs and 3
pipe bombs to fight
discrimination against
German-Austrians.
• Fuchs was arrested in October
1997 after blowing off his
hands and one forearm.
Canadian Threat Assessment
• “Although very small in
number, some groups in
Canada have moved beyond
lawful protest to encourage,
threaten and support acts of
violence. As seen in
Oklahoma City in 1995 and in
Norway in 2011, continued
vigilance is essential since it
remains possible that certain
groups—or even a lone
individual—could choose to
adopt a more violent, terrorist
strategy to achieve their
desired results.”
Research Findings
• There has been steady right-wing extremist activity within
Canada over the last 50 years, and anti-immigrant
sentiment continues to crop up across the country.
• Canadian right-wing extremists have been surprisingly
influential in the global movements associated with white
supremacy, Neo-Nazism, Identity Christianity, Creativity,
skinheads, and others.
• Based on historically strong connections and exchanges
between Canadian extremists and those abroad, it would
be imprudent to presume that Canada is immune to the
importation of rising right-wing extremism in the United
States and Europe.
Policy Implications
• Canadian security officials and intelligence organizations
should remain vigilant in monitoring the highly
heterogeneous right-wing extremist network, including a
variety of financial and non-traditional media like white
power music.
• Both the United States and Norway have modified their
policies to better handle lone wolf terrorism following
recent attacks. Canada would do well to reorient more of
its focus towards detecting and intercepting lone actors,
since it will likely see similar future incidents.
• The radicalization processes of lone operators and small
cells are not well-studied, and more work is needed in this
area.
Policy Implications
• There are historical precedents for reciprocal radicalization
between right-wing extremists and other groups, so
Canada should not discount the potential for violent
escalations.
• There is room for more engagement of civic leaders,
charities, and immigrant interest groups in identifying hate
crimes and low-level violence before they build into more
lethal manifestations.
• More can be done to articulate the threat, as well as the
history of political violence and extremism in Canada via
the Canadian Incident Database (CIDB).
Canadian Incident Database
• CIDB will be a free-access
resource to provide
unclassified information to
national security researchers,
which can be used to identify
patterns and trends in order to
improve our understanding of
terrorist/ extremist crime in
Canada.
• The CIDB contains data on
incidents of terrorism and
extremist crime occurring
within Canada or with a
Canadian link since 1960.
Contact Information
Principal Investigator
Dr. Richard A. Parent
rparent@sfu.ca
James O Ellis III
james.ellis@ubc.ca