Two more extreme right-wing groups join Proud Boys on Canada's terror list
The Trudeau government has added two more right-wing extremist groups and an American neo-Nazi to its list of terrorist entities as it tries to counter the rise of white nationalist violence.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced Friday that the Three Percenters and Aryan Strikeforce will join the list alongside the Proud Boys, who were added in February after the storming of Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 6.
A 69-year-old white supremacist named James Mason, who senior intelligence officials describe as a lifelong neo-Nazi whose writings laid an ideological foundation for multiple terrorist groups, has also been placed on the proscriptive list.
Groups on Canada's terror roster, created after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, may have their assets seized, and there are serious criminal penalties for helping listed organizations carry out extremist activities.
Blair said the threat of white nationalist violence is a growing concern that has exploded into public view recently with tragedies such as the deadly attack against a Muslim family in London, Ont., earlier this month as well as a spike in other Islamophobic, antisemitic, anti-Asian and misogynist incidents.
“These acts that have been taken over the past several weeks and months against the Muslim community - women who've been attacked for simply wearing the hijab, a Canadian family out for a walk on a Sunday evening being attacked and murdered by an individual clearly motivated by hatred - and the ideologies which drive many of the groups which we've spoken about this morning is deeply concerning to us,” he said at a virtual news conference.
Members of the Three Percenters, a militia movement, have been linked to a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and officials say Canadian chapters have carried out firearms and paramilitary-style training in Alberta, with another chapter in British Columbia.
“Their adherents are active in Canada. We monitor their activities in Canada with growing concern,” Blair said.
The Aryan Strikeforce also has chapters in Canada as well as the United States, eastern Europe, South America and South Africa, he said.
An affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant based in the Democratic Republic of Congo has also been placed on the terror list.
The four latest additions follow 13 others named in February, four of which were right-wing extremist groups, including the Proud Boys.
Blair warned of an abiding risk that far-right ideologies will take root in the rank and file of police and the military.
“Both the Aryan Strikeforce and the Three Percenters have indicated their interest in recruiting among our law enforcement and military agencies, and they do attract some adherents who are former law enforcement and former military,” he said.
The problem is a matter of concern - “and, I'm sure, of action - by law enforcement and the Canadian Armed Forces, he said.
The Three Percenters, whose name references the false belief that a minuscule proportion of colonists fought against the British in the American Revolution - has been linked to bomb plots targeting U.S. federal buildings and Muslim communities. One member was convicted of assault after shooting and wounding five men at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minneapolis in 2015.
Aryan Strikeforce, a United Kingdom-based neo-Nazi group, views violence as a means of inciting a race war and eradicating racialized minorities. Adherents of the decentralized skinhead movement planned a suicide bombing attack on counter-protesters during a 2016 white supremacist rally in Pennsylvania, and have been convicted of crimes in the U.K. and U.S. involving chemical weapons production and bomb-making instructions.
Officials lump such groups under the catch-all term “ideologically motivated violent extremist entities.”
Conservative public safety critic Shannon Stubbs said her party supports the latest designations, but demanded the Liberal government also list Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The IRGC is not only the largest sponsor of terrorism in the world, it's responsible for the killing of 138 individuals with ties to Canada with the downing of flight PS752,” Stubbs said in a statement, noting that Liberals backed a Tory motion calling for its listing in 2018.
A forensic report on Thursday found that Iran did not plan last year's deadly downing of the passenger jet in advance, but a series of failures by the regime's civil and military authorities set the stage for the shoot-down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 minutes after it took off from the Tehran airport on Jan. 8, 2020.
In Canada, the terror listing process begins with intelligence reports that provide reason to believe an organization has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity.
If the public safety minister believes the threshold is met, they may recommend to the federal cabinet that the organization be tacked on the list. The listing is then published if cabinet agrees with the recommendation.
A listed group is not banned, nor is it a crime to be on the roster. However, the group's assets and property are effectively frozen and subject to seizure or forfeiture.
Canada previously placed two right-wing extremist groups on the list in 2019: Blood and Honour, which is an international neo-Nazi network, and its armed branch, Combat 18.
They joined more than 50 other listed organizations at the time - the number has since swelled to 77 - including al-Qaida, the Islamic State militant group Boko Haram, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, identified just over 100 far-right and white supremacist groups in 2015. But an updated study she's completing highlights more than 300 active groups, “some of which are explicitly Islamophobic,” she said in an interview.
The “atomization” of hate movements is another phenomenon of the past five or six years, she said.
While groups remain central, there is a growing number of “floaters” - individuals who are unaffiliated with organizations and drift “in and out of social media platforms associated with an array of different groups, cherry picking bits and pieces of their ideologies that suit their needs,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2021.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Hulk Hogan, hurricanes and a blockbuster recording: A week in review of the Trump hush money trial
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Drone footage shows Ukrainian village battered to ruins as residents flee Russian advance
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Police arrest 3 Indian nationals in killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Local Spotlight
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.