The following text was written by the CLAC, the IWW and Montréal Antifasciste and was distributed at the Montreal climate demonstration on September 27, 2019. It can also be downloaded to print here.
1. GOVERNMENTS WON’T SAVE US
Those who benefit from poisoning the land and exploiting people you care about won’t be reformed. They’ll make it seem like they hear your voices and occasionally put on grand spectacles to temporarily appease your anger. They’ll encourage you to channel your anxiety into pointless practices that only reinforce individualism. So while some of us compete to take shorter showers or to reduce our trash output, government officials, universities, and corporations shamelessly invest in more pipelines, host uncritical academic conferences, or fly jets to fancy meetings where empty promises are made.
The impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases on climate has been known since the late 19th century. The view that carbon dioxide affects global warming has been widespread since the 70s. Since the 80s and 90s, observations and computer models have overwhelmingly pointed to human-made activities as important factors in climate change. It’s been more than 30 years since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created to compile information and advise world governments on how to minimize the anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change that has already claimed innumerable human lives and caused the extinction of many other animal species. This same panel now says we only have 10 years left before we reach a point of no return towards the death of this planet. Our countries are consuming the bulk of the planet’s resources. Yet here we are, asking for the same colonial governments and political class that put us in this mess to ban plastic straws and increase carbon taxes. We have been begging them for decades now. It’s time we start taking power ourselves.
2. CAPITALISM AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Capitalism is a socioeconomic and political system under which a privileged few own what the rest of us need to survive. That means the worth of sentient beings and plants is based on their ability to generate wealth. It’s the idea that land, workplaces, trees, animals, housing, and water, are to be owned privately by individuals or corporations, which gives them power to exploit these things however they want, regardless of our concerns, needs, and well-being. This economic system is why corporations are free to build fossil fuel infrastructures on unceded Indigenous land as governments use militarized police to suppress any form of resistance.
To exist, capitalism must uphold hierarchy, power, and obedience. That’s why your acts of rebellion are framed differently than their acts of systemic violence (e.g. stealing food from Walmart vs stealing land from Indigenous peoples). Our efforts towards a better future are meaningless without a radical departure from the system that made violence and destruction the normal (and legal) state of affairs.
3. COLONIALISM, RACISM, AND DESTRUCTION
To be green is to also to oppose colonialism and racism. Both of these things have everything to do with the climate crisis.
Atmospheric pollution can’t be calculated without taking into account past and present colonial realities. Our understanding of how different countries contribute to climate change must take into account historical greenhouse gas emissions, and most importantly, who profits from the destruction. Industries and empires have been built on the labor of Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. Canadian and American companies murder land defenders for minerals in Latin America and Africa, poison air and waterways in Asia, and put our trash on boats to be dumped far from our eyes.
Repeatedly in Canadian history, ecological devastation has been used as an intentional weapon against Indigenous peoples. Overhunting of bison by settlers led to famine in the Prairies in the 19th century, which was consciously encouraged by the Canadian government under John A. Macdonald as a tool of genocide to “clear the West.” Such practices continue to this day. Grassy Narrows is an Indigenous community near Ontario’s border with Manitoba; its water was contaminated by tons of mercury dumped into its water system by an upstream paper mill. One study estimated that 90 per cent of the population suffers from some degree of mercury poisoning, which can cause everything from cognitive impairments to hearing loss and emotional changes. The heavy metal can be passed from mothers to babies they carry, making it a problem that lasts generations. This is the legacy of Canadian colonialism and genocide; for many people the ecological catastrophe is already centuries old.
In so many ways, the most oppressed always pay the price for Western lifestyles and the out-of-control growth that accompanies them. Droughts, floods, and famines, are increasingly common and displaced people need new places to call home. Thus, as we fight climate change, we must also fight the system of borders that values some lives above others. We must fight the police entering migrants’ homes in the middle of the night to take parents away. We must fight the construction of a migrant prison in Laval that has kids growing up behind bars. We must fight against oil wars that leave entire countries destroyed. We must fight white-supremacy whether it takes the form of neo-fascist militias, conservative columnists, or colonial states claiming sovereignty over Indigenous land. Ultimately, we must also confront anyone who accepts any of this is without feeling profound anger. We can’t allow the most privileged people on this planet to use terms like « overpopulation » or « migrant crisis » because they are too scared and selfish to stand up to real perpetrators of the destruction of our world.
4. RESIST SCAPEGOATING AND THE FAR RIGHT
Certain groups are taking advantage of the catastrophes taking place to put their own hateful and nightmarish ideas into practice.
Following hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005, white supremacist militias took advantage of the disaster to murder random Black people they found trying to survive the floods. More recently, in 2019 in both Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas, neo-nazi gunmen committed massacres, killing dozens of people of color, in attacks which they explicitly framed as being to “save the environment.” All over the world, many people in the rich nations which are creating the most ecological damage are demanding tighter border controls and restrictions on immigration, often citing the need to protect natural resources. At the same time, some racists suggest that there are too many people in the world and target racialized people and people in the Global South with coercive “population control” measures. Here in Quebec, members of far right anti-immigrant groups have sometimes found themselves welcomed in environmentalist spaces and mobilizations, while the concerns of people of color and anti-racists have been simply brushed aside.
This legacy of eco-fascism must be confronted, otherwise the movement to save the planet could very easily find itself manipulated and turned into an instrument to oppress and do violence to those already most directly harmed by the catastrophes capitalism has unleashed.
5. WHAT WE CAN DO!
Reject legality, especially when laws are made by colonial states (e.g. Canada, Quebec) unrecognized by the first inhabitants of the land.
Listen to and make space for Indigenous voices in the struggle against the colonial and capitalist destruction of ecosystems.
Recognize when our struggles are being co-opted by political parties or companies to amass sympathy and capital.
Avoid political parties, non-profits, or anyone pretending to fight domination while reproducing power hierarchies.
Learn about alternative (anarchist, communist, feminist, anticolonial) ways of organizing social life.
Attack the symbols of capitalist power: banks, mining companies and multinational corporations.
Make the fight against all forms of oppression an active part of your militancy and do your part to ensure the burden of dealing with uncomfortable realities linked to climate change don’t fall on the shoulders of those patriarchy deems responsible for the role of care.
Practice consensual decision-making and cultivate consensual relationships.
Get informed, end isolation by finding accomplices within your communities, and build networks of resistance with others who are willing to stand up to power.
Only take calculated risks and practice security culture.
Oh and obviously if we’re going to get arrested, let’s make it worth it.
This flyer was written and is distributed on unceded Indigenous land and a gathering place known to he Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation as Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal).
In December 2018, Montréal Antifasciste published a dossier on the neofascist organization Atalante, tracing the group’s history as well as the trajectory of some of the individuals at the heart of the project, specifically, members of the Québec Stomper Crew gang and the band Légitime Violence. A series of follow-up articles have focused on the activities of a number of people within Atalante’s sphere of influence.
It’s September 2019, and although Atalante’s activities have slowed down a bit in recent months, the core militants show no sign of calling it a day, so we need to remind them and their entourage that we have no intention of letting up.
In order to make the social cost of being a fascist or a Nazi in our neighbourhoods and communities intolerable, the most effective tactic remains exposing the fascists to their communities, to their colleagues, employers, families, and neighbours, from whom they generally hide the real nature of their activities or use euphemisms like “nationalist,” rather than saying they are fascists. Given that they have decided to be Nazis and to persist in heading down that road, we are completely committed to seeing that they pay the consequences. History has shown us that sooner or later fascist principles always lead to violence —sometimes even genocide— targeting people from different social sectors who are already suffering more than their share of misery and oppression in so-called democratic capitalist society, and we have no intention of standing by while this history repeats itself.
By making public where various fascists from Atalante work, it is most definitely our intention to cost these fascists their jobs, because the projects they are involved in in their personal lives endanger both their immediate colleagues and the general public, most particularly racialized people, Muslims, Jews, queers, and leftists.
We think that campaigns to isolate and ostracize them and to target companies that provide them with shelter and support are necessary, both as a matter of public safety and as an act of working-class solidarity.
This is a reminder that fascists will never be welcome in the places where we live or where we work.
Roxanne Baron, the only woman in the Québec Stomper Crew, is not just some unimportant member. She is also a key figure in Atalante, having participated in almost all of its actions since the organization’s inception.
Her exact function in Atalante isn’t clear, but we know that until recently she played an important role on Instagram, sharing numerous photos of herself and her comrades carrying out actions in Québec City and Montréal, as well as, for example, at the CasaPound “mother ship” in Italy. (In fact, her carelessness on Instagram cost some of her comrades their anonymity … oops.)
A fact that is particularly staggering on a variety of levels, Baron hasn’t been shy over the months and years about repeatedly bragging about her dubious reading habits while at her place of work: the Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus. She claims that without her colleagues or the hospital’s patients noticing, she read works from the neofascist organization CasaPound, the Belgian Nazi Léon Degrelle, the fascist historian Robert Brasillach, the ultranationalist intellectual Charles Maurras, and the French antisemite Jacques Ploncard. She even crows about surreptitiously reading Nazi texts at work:
“Journée tranquille… Quand on croit que tu lis de petits romans comme tout le monde au travail”
[A quiet day… When they think you’re reading some innocuous novel like everyone else (LOL emoticon).]
We also know from her Instagram account that she has tattoos with an array of fascist images: a fasces, the symbol at the origin of the word“fascism”; a Celtic cross, a universally recognized “White Power” emblem; the inscription “le diable rit avec nous” [the devil laughs with us], a reference to the lyrics of the Nazi hymn SS marschiert in Feindesland; another inscription reading “presente per tutti camerati caduti,” a traditional Italian fascist greeting; and a mjölnir, the hammer of Thor, an image that is not explicitly racist, but which is now systematically sported by white supremacist Odinists. To put the star on top of the Christmas tree, something that is not without interest for opponents of “religious symbols” in the workplace, around her neck Baron wears a sonnenrad, a black sun, an occult symbol popular with contemporary neo-Nazis.
At the very least, it’s alarming to think of this person, who in her private life openly participates in a clearly racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and homophobic political project, working in a health services institution, where she is in daily contact with the general public, including a large number of people from different social sectors designated for elimination by Nazi ideology.
Alias “Tony Stomper.”After growing up in Mont-Laurier with his younger brother Étienne (also an Atalante member), Antoine Mailhot-Bruneau began his CEGEP studies at Lionel-Groulx, participating in the student movement during the 2007 strike. After that, he moved to Québec City, where he joined the Québec Stompers, at the time a street gang gravitating toward far-right ultranationalism. Around that time, he went to Rimouski to study to become a sailor, moving on to the Université Laval, entering a program to become a history teacher, which he soon abandoned.
On a trip to Italy, he discovered Blocco Studentesco, a neofascist student organization that is for all intents and purposes the youth wing of CasaPound. Little by little, he became Atalante’s main theorist and seems to be the author of Saisir la foudre [Ride the Lightning] under the pseudonym Alexandre Peugeot, who is also the author of several articles in Le Harfang, the magazine of the Fédération des québécois de souche.
Antoine has shown a lot more discretion than his friend Raphaël Lévesque, always taking the necessary steps to keep his role in Atalante a secret, rarely appearing at the group’s public actions and blurring his face and using different pseudonyms in his rare furtive video appearances. Unfortunately for him, a 2017 interview he gave to Zentropa Serbia (a CasaPound satellite), where he used the pseudonym “Alexandre,” made it relatively easy for us to determine his central role in Atalante.
Despite all his precautions, we were also able to confirm that he is a paramedic on the South Shore of Québec City, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, working for the Lévis-based company Dessercom.
As in the case of Roxanne Baron, as part of his professional responsibilities, Antoine Mailhot-Bruneau, a fascist militant and a member of a violent gang, inevitably comes into contact with members of the public who belong to communities targeted and victimized by fascists.
Imagine, if you will, how it would feel to be a first-generation immigrant, a Muslim woman, or a Jew having a heart attack or some other serious health problem, and to have the first responder be a fascist theorist, an inveterate racist, Islamophobe, and antisemite. Imagine that your life depended on the care you received from an individual who unreservedly believes, for example, in the need for the “remigration” of all migrants who are not Catholic French Canadians “de souche.”
We believe that this is an unacceptable situation that violates the ethical principles and professional norms upon which the paramedic profession is itself based.
Yan Barras
Yan Barras, social worker (not a member of the professional Order of social workers)
On the night of December 31, 2006—January 1, 2007, a small group of Stompers and associates, including Raphaël Lévesque and Yan Barras, burst into the café-bar L’Agitée in Québec City, a cooperative they knew to be run and frequented by antiracist activists. In less time than it took you to read this account, the boneheads trashed the bar, and Yan Barras stabbed at least six people with an X-Acto knife, before fleeing.
In spite of the sordid nature of the incident, the Stompers drew a certain pride from this brutal attack, going as far as to reference it in the lyrics of the eponymous song “Légitime Violence”:
Ces petits gauchistes efféminés,
qui se permettent de nous critiquer,
ils n’oseront jamais nous affronter,
on va tous les poignarder! »
[These little leftist sissies,
who dare to criticize us,
wouldn’t have the nerve to face us,
we will stab them all!]
After pleading guilty to assault with a weapon, Yan Barras was sentenced to two years in prison. The judge even recommended that he receive therapy while in prison to address his proclivity for senseless brutality. When he got out of prison, Barras registered in the social work program at the CEGEP de Sept-Îles, and some might have thought that it looked like he intended to change course.
But far from changing his ways, Barras had “No Remorse” tattooed on his forehead under a death’s head devouring the three arrows that represent antifascism, and he promptly rejoined the crew of racists who would later create Atalante. Not only did Barras not distance himself from Raphaël Lévesque, the Mailhot-Bruneau brothers, and company, he has often participated in Atalante activities in recent years, as well as continuing to provoke and intimidate the Quebec City left, notably by marching with other members of the Stompers into the middle of a small abortion rights demonstration in August 2015, and more recently by joining his brothers in trolling the 2019 May Day demonstration, with one of them even giving the Hitler salute.
Today, Barras works as a “liaison coordinator” for the social reintegration company Habitations Méta Transfert Inc., in Québec City. Obviously, this places him in position of authority over a vulnerable clientele, a position he can use to attempt to recruit anyone fitting his fantasy of “a master race” or to deny services to those he judges “inferior.” You can’t blame us for wondering how many other Nazis this company might employ …
Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald. The quote is form Adolph Hitler.
Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald, security guard; student at the Centre intégré de mécanique, de métallurgie et d’électricité (CIMME)
But Beauvais-MacDonald wasn’t done with the surprises! It later became clear that under the pseudonym FriendlyFash he was a very active member of the“Montreal Stormer Book Club” chat room, a small neo-Nazi social club that was attempting to organize in Montréal at the time. Beauvais-MacDonald has never bothered trying to hide his penchant for Nazism on Facebook or his other social media accounts.
As a guest on the podcast This Hour has 88 Minutes, on January 4, 2018, Beauvais-MacDonald talked about the consequences of doxxing on his daily life. He talked about how he lost one of his two jobs (as a bouncer at a bar), but that his colleagues at his other job thought it was “hilarious”:
« The other job, I work with Chinese people and they find it hilarious, so whatever. »
Despite Beauvais-MacDonald having been widely exposed and denounced in 2017, it seems that until fairly recently the company Securitas employed him as a security guard at the CIBC branch in Montréal’s Chinatown. The obvious question is whether Securitas was simply unaware of their employee’s extracurricular activities all this time (in spite of the numerous mentions in the mainstream media and on antifascist websites) or simply chose to turn a blind eye.
It is also worth asking whether his job at Securitas (a publicly listed company, we might add in passing) as a security guard has given Beauvais-MacDonald access to material or privileged information that might be useful to his neo-Nazi network.[2] What computer databases or other resources has he had access to thanks to his job with Securitas?
We’re not sure at this point if Beauvais-MacDonald still works for Securitas, however, he is currently a student at the Centre intégré de mécanique, de métallurgie et d’électricité, in LaSalle.
It remains to be seen how the school’s administration and student community feel about spending their days around this notorious Nazi.
Antoine’s little brother is another important player in Atalante and a patched-in member of the Québec Stomper Crew. Having completed a BA in animation, in 2017, at Université Laval, Étienne is Atalante’s de facto graphic artist, producing designs, logos, and posters under the pseudonym “Sam Ox.” Shortly after we released the “UnmaskingAtalante” dossier, establishing the link between him and his avatar, Étienne fell silent and deactivated all of his accounts on major professional platforms.
In spite of the “brown” stain on his CV, he seems to have found employment with Sunny Side Up Creative in Québec City.
One of the most active Atalante members in the Montréal region, Vincent has participated in numerous group activities, including most of the nighttime postering runs. Originally from Montréal’s South Shore, he kicked around the Longueuil hardcore and punk scene for quite a while before coming into contact with the bonehead milieu and radicalizing, finally embracing full-on fascism. He found himself very isolated in his milieu (he’s the son of a trade unionist!), but he seems to have found a family in Atalante.
Cyr is a butcher at Fruiterie Milano, a neighbourhood grocery store in Montreal’s Little Italy neighbourhood, where his brother also works.
The bassist for Légitime Violence, Atalante’s flagship band, Mecteau originally came out of the hardcore scene. A “first-rate” second stringer, he spends his time at cosplay, as the second fiddle in a crappy neo-Nazi band, and as a tattoo artist at his business Jhan Art.
Mecteau is one of Atalante and the Stompers’ go-to tattoo artists, which perhaps explains why, upon his return from a recent visit to Bicolline (the most important LARPing site in Québec), he found his tattoo parlour “a bit the worse for wear.”
“Svein Krampus” on Facebook. Sven Côté is a longtime bonehead from the national socialist black metal (NSBM) scene. He’s been active in Atalante since the winter of 2016, after an online radicalization that began in 2013, culminating in his embrace of fascism. A protégé of Raphael Lévesque (aka Raf Stomper), with whom he has exchanged openly antisemitic posts on social media, he has remained a loyal member of the group and has recently stopped blurring his face in Atalante’s documentation of its activities. He grew up and lives in the Basse Ville neighbourhood of Québec City. It is generally believed that Côté was among those who attacked La Page Noire bookstore in Québec City on the night of December 8–9, 2018. We have reason to believe that this attack served as a rite of passage into the Québec Stomper Crew for Côté, as he received his colours that same evening.
He is a cook at Le Fin Gourmet, a restaurant in the Saint-Sauveur neighbourhood of Québec City.
More revelations will follow…
Shutting Down the Fascists: A Task That Falls to Our Communities
Fascist militants are not just random doofuses we have some niggling differences with; they are hateful individuals who seek a new social order that involves the oppression, persecution, and elimination of millions of people. Their ideology presents a direct threat and constitutes a form of violence targeting many of us: queers, racialized people, Muslims, Jews, leftists, and numerous others.
At the same time, capitalism itself constitutes a form of violence against many of the people targeted by the far right. As anti-capitalists, we don’t recognize the authority of bosses, the state, or professional orders, and we don’t intend to leave it to them to remove the fascists from our communities and workplaces. We recognize that very often workers have to unite and take the measures necessary to force their employers to ensure their safety.
Excluding fascists and other far-right militants is a task that above all falls to the working class and to members of the public who are endangered by their presence and activities. It is in that spirit that we share this information.
Friends, it’s time we got to work.
[1] This mobilization was meant to be a show of force bringing together white supremacists, “ethnic” nationalists, identitarians, neo-Nazis, and other neofasicsts that make up the American “alt-right” current. The August 11–12, 2017, events in Charlottesville made history as a complete fiasco for the alt-right, most notably because the white supremacist James Alex Fields chose this occasion to use his car as weapon in an attack that killed the antiracist activist Heather Heyer.
[2] Just a few years ago, it was revealed that Hensel European Security Services (HESS), a security company in Germany, was providing Amazon with far-right guards to police, intimidate and abuse foreign workers in the company’s warehouses. Closer to home, in the 1980s, in Canada, William Lau Richardson, the leader of the KKK’s “Klan Intelligence Agency” was employed by the Centurion security company, a position he used to carry out operations against the left. In the 1990s, it was alleged that neo-Nazi private detective Al Overfield similarly used his access to police computer databases to provide information on antifascists to his friends in the Heritage Front, and Bryan Taylor, head of the Ku Klux Klan in British Columbia, used his position at ADT Security Systems to disseminate racist propaganda.
As an organization that initially emerged out of experiences activists had trying to shut down far right demonstrations and events in Montreal, Montréal Antifasciste has focused on movements and organizations that promote exclusionary beliefs and policies more drastic than the “mainstream” right-wing agenda. This is obviously not a theoretically rigorous approach, just a pragmatic one, and we are aware that there are many circumstances where it might not be appropriate. Furthermore, for reasons having as much to do with capacity as anything else, we have not publicly targeted movements that currently engage in little or no public activities in our city – for instance, the anti-abortion movement or the broader Catholic Right – even though we try to keep them on our radar.
It must be stressed – our focus is a matter of expediency, we do not suggest that it should be adopted by the left overall. We recognize that State policies (like Law 21) and practices (such as police violence and border controls), as well as broader systems of oppression, have a far greater impact than the far right does on its own. Nonetheless, we feel that small focused groups can have a disproportionate effect on wider systems, and that even when they do not they still represent a threat that must be dealt with on its own terms –that’s the task we have taken as our own.
A thorough cartography of the Quebec far right would be the length of a small book; what follows is a rough outline. Our priority will be to explain the characteristics of this terrain and identify some of the more important groups, however we are aware that there is a lot we are leaving out due to simple space constraints. We encourage interested readers to check out our website (http://montreal-antifasciste.info) for a more detailed and extensive examination.
While some of us have been active studying and opposing the far right for decades, our work as MAF has been practical, and practice has shaped both what we have been able to learn and how we have come to understand the situation. Based on this experience, we have found the core beliefs of the contemporary far right in Quebec to be:
Islamophobia;
opposition to a simplistically outlined “global system” identified most closely with the provincial and federal Liberal Parties (and personified for many people by Justin Trudeau, who is personally vilified, mocked for being a dunce, and accused of everything from being Fidel Castro’s son to supporting pedophilia and Sharia law in Canada).
belief that a process is underway by which specific groups of people the far rightists identify with (“old stock Québécois”, “white people”, etc.) are going to be replaced by people of different cultures and/or “races” (the extent to which this replacement is explicitly planned, and by whom, varies within and between groups).
Beyond these points that unite the entire far right, there are a number of differences, the most important one being between a much larger and less politically coherent body of activists who share many attributes with the “mainstream right,” and a smaller tendency with more ideologically rigorous positions which explicitly draw on historical fascism and overt white supremacy. In our work we have termed the former milieu “national populists,” whereas we have referred to the latter as “fascists,” “neofascists,” or even “neo-nazis,” as the case may be.
From what we can tell, in both their core beliefs and the political bifurcation we have described, the Quebec far right is staying true to patterns that exist across Canada.
The main national-populist organizations in Quebec are La Meute (founded in 2015) and Storm Alliance (founded in 2016). Whereas the former initially focused on opposition to “radical Islam” and the latter on “illegal immigration,” they are currently indistinguishable in their opposition to both. The much smaller and marginal Front patriotique du Québec has also played an important part in the milieu in a variety of ways; it has repeatedly raised criticisms of La Meute for being “federalist,” and at the same time several of its members or sympathizers have been instrumental in setting up far right “security” groups whose goal is to intimidate their opponents and protect their organizations. Finally, one must mention the so-called Vague bleue mobilization which occurred in Montreal on May 4 of this year, with a second one being held in Trois-Rivières on July 27. Adopting an approach developed by the FPQ, these gatherings have been organized by national populists but have brought together people unaware of the politics involved, together with far-right security groups and even neofascists. While the “Vague bleue 2” was a horrible failure (from 300 participants in Montreal, the numbers were down to 75 in Trois Rivières), the formula of organizing such events will likely be tried again.
The neofascist tendency is much “tighter” than the national-populist milieu, and there are currently only two organizations of note: Atalante (based in Quebec City and active since 2016) and the Fédération des Québécois de souche (decentralized, albeit with a hub in Saguenay, and active since 2007). At the same time, there have been a number of semi-formal and secretive political initiatives by neofascists and neo-nazis over the years; perhaps the most important recent example being the Alt-Right Montreal/Montreal Stormers group whose existence was revealed by The Montreal Gazette in May 2018. All of the groups in this tendency explicitly identify with the traditions of fascism and open white nationalism.
The National-Populist Milieu
The appearance of La Meute (and to a lesser extent Storm Alliance) signaled an important change in the Quebec far right. These were the first groups since the 1990s that were visibly able to speak to a base beyond their actual membership; in other words, they were the first groups with any real potential for growth. Groups that had been active before them –the Order of Templars, PEGIDA Québec, the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition, the Mouvement Républicain du Québec, etc. – never amounted to more than a few individuals (sometimes just one lone individual) claiming to be an “organization.” The one group that had a certain following that existed prior to 2016 – Les Insoumis – never managed to extend their group beyond the Sherbrooke area, though some members did repeatedly travel to Montreal to participate in other groups’ events. The closest thing we can see to a portent of what was to come was the “Marche du Silence” held in Montreal on September 24, 2015, against the PLQ’s Bill 52 (which was attended by Les Insoumis and certain anti-immigration activists), although various mass demonstrations in favour of the PQ’s Charte des valeurs québécoises in 2013 did serve as earlier warning signs.
The national-populist milieu contains a diversity of views on various questions, this being sanctioned by a frequently voiced desire to privilege “unity” by accepting people with different opinions, so long as they agree with the (rarely explained) “cause”. As a result, this milieu is far less coherent, but also much larger and more potentially mutable, than the neofascist right. To counter the tendency to describe all far right groups as “fascist”, it is worth going over some of the specific attributes of the national-populist milieu:
Many national populists insist they are not racist, and opposition to racial discrimination is a part of the official policy of La Meute and Storm Alliance. While this rests on the spurious assertion that “Islam is not a race,” many sincerely believe this, and this is something that distinguishes them from others on the far right. This opens the door to a situation where a certain number of people of colour, former Muslims, and Indigenous people are welcomed at national-populist mobilizations (albeit in often cringe-inducing tokenizing ways). This also makes these groups more palatable to a section of white society which may be racist but which is uncomfortable claiming this identity openly.
Significant sections of the national-populist movement are taken with homonationalist and femonationalist themes, and as such identify with an ideal of a Quebec that would remain anathema for others on the far right. “Radical Islam” and “illegal immigrants” are opposed in terms of the rights of women and LGB people (though pointedly not in terms of trans people’s rights), even in terms of “feminism.” With few exceptions, members of this milieu will claim to be for women’s rights (this is official policy on the part of both La Meute and Storm Alliance), and opposing misogynist practices is one of the most popular anti-Muslim tropes. Furthermore, there are many women active in the movement, several of whom hold positions of authority and power. At the same time, the movement remains dominated by men; besides reports of sexual assault and harassment among members, a brief survey of social media accounts shows a wide range of memes, jokes, and comments that many would consider sexist and/or sexually objectifying, and the top leadership remains overwhelmingly male.
The milieu is not united behind a single position regarding Quebec independence. While it includes few if any hardcore federalists, the spectrum of opinion ranges from hardcore support for independence (FPQ and the recently formed Parti Patriote) to a position that these questions are secondary and that both Canada and Quebec need to be defended from “illegal immigrants”/“radical Islam” (La Meute, Storm Alliance). This has been the cause of numerous conflicts between individuals, and has played into conflicts between groups, for instance with accusations that La Meute is “federalist.”
The national-populist milieu overwhelmingly considers itself sympathetic to Indigenous people, who are viewed as victims of the same system victimizing Québécois and Canadians. There is also the position, shared even by some neofascists, that contemporary movements should build upon a historic alliance between French Canadians and Indigenous people against the English. This is based on a superficial and self-serving version of Quebec history that denies any role of French Canadians in the colonization and genocide of the First Nations, parallel with an appropriative view of “all Québécois” somehow being “Indigenous” due to purported “Indigenous ancestry,” leading to a conclusion that there are no wrongs that need to be redressed, simply an alliance against the “globalists” (or the Liberals, or the invaders, etc.) that needs to be forged. Nonetheless, Indigenous individuals have repeatedly been welcomed at national-populist mobilizations, often flying the Mohawk Warrior/Unity flag for instance, and there have been multiple (failed) attempts to forge connections with Indigenous communities. It should be noted that this appears to be as superficial as it is self-serving – when faced with actual Indigenous claims of sovereignty or possession of land, many national populists quickly slide back into predictably reactionary positions.
Antisemitism is not a core value of the national-populist movement, and Jews are rarely if ever mentioned in the official pronouncements of national-populist organizations. Unlike national populists in English Canada, however, there has been no visible cooperation between Quebec’s national populists and the Jewish far right. At the same time, the conspiratorial framework developed through centuries of Christian antisemitism is transposed onto the widespread belief in a “globalist” conspiracy, common throughout the movement, for instance with Hungarian-Jewish financier George Soros frequently portrayed as a sinister puppetmaster. It is noteworthy that many individuals within the milieu do harbour – and are not shy to express – antisemitic views, and more than one has “jokingly” referred to the Holocaust as an example of what should be done to Muslims and/or immigrants.
Many in the national-populist movement do not consider themselves “far right.” Some rare individuals even claim to consider themselves to be “left,” though this seems largely a disingenuous ploy to be able to pretend to “know what they are talking about” when they deride the actual left (which they claim has been taken over by Islamists, hipsters, and intersectional feminists). More commonly, they will say they are “neither left nor right” but simply “for the people” and “against corruption.” A common refrain is that the government or antifascists are “fascist” and “racist” against Québécois, Canadians, or even simply “white people”.
Members of the national-populist movement are not opposed to working with open racists or fascists. While the majority will claim “not to be racist”, they will also defend the presence of members of openly racist organizations at their mobilizations, will often share social media connections with members of such groups, and will argue in favour of “unity” against their opponents (antifascists or the government). As such, the national-populist milieu constitutes a large reservoir of potential recruits or at least allies for more explicitly far right forces. (It is perhaps worth mentioning that a stunning number of national populists, including especially people in leadership positions, “like” and follow the Facebook pages of Atalante and the FQS.)
While the national-populist movement positions itself against “the elite” and “the politicians,” it is overwhelmingly favourable to those within the State’s repressive apparatus, i.e. its soldiers and police. Several leading figures within the milieu are former members of the armed forces, and at demonstrations a point is often made of thanking the police, even sometimes engaging in pro-police chants. Groups like La Meute include former police officers, sometimes in leadership positions.
People who share these beliefs have existed for years on the margins of more “legitimate” political parties; arguably, the main development increasing their numbers has been a series of Islamophobic campaigns orchestrated from the top down by various politicians and media conglomerates since the first “debate on reasonable accommodation” in 2007. This has been an ongoing process, with a central role being played by the Parti Québécois under the leadership of Pauline Marois (2007-2014) and also by the Québecor media empire, headed by Pierre Karl Péladeau, one of the wealthiest men in Canada who himself served as PQ party leader in 2015-16. Quebecor Media Group – the largest media conglomerate in Quebec (and third largest in Canada) – provides a very big platform for right-wing propagandists such as Richard Martineau, Mathieu Bock-Côté, Lise Ravary and others, all the while delivering a steady stream of journalism stigmatizing minorities in Quebec, especially Muslims. Quebecor is essentially unaccountable, having withdrawn from the Quebec Press Council in 2010 and having subsequently sued the organization for continuing to render decisions regarding its media outlets. Added to this media behemoth are the so-called “radio poubelles”, concentrated in the Quebec City area – a type of talk radio that is tailored to a specific segment of the general population (male, working- or middle-class suburbanites between the ages of 18 and 45) and which caters to its nastier instincts, with a constant barrage of materialistic, individualistic, and sometimes violently reactionary talking points on a variety of topics, often demonizing and bullying various scapegoats, including feminists, leftists, environmentalists, students, immigrants, and Muslims. Not only have these radio stations promoted ideas shared by the far right, but they have repeatedly worked to legitimize national populist organizations, inviting their spokespeople on the air and defending their activities when these have been criticized.
Finally, the failures of the social democratic independence movement – both the declining popular interest in sovereignty, and its inability to successfully resist neoliberal austerity measures (which were in fact imposed by sovereigntist provincial governments from 1994-2003 and then from 2012-14) – created both a basis for and a vacuum to be filled by strains of nationalism that bear more similarity to the conservative nationalist movement of the 1920s than the independence movement of the baby boomer generation.
Specific towns and regions have also had their own personalities and issues which have encouraged the development of the national-populist milieu. For instance, in the Côte Nord, an individual like Bernard “Rambo” Gauthier was able to parlay his image as a tough “man of the people” into a pole of limited but real political influence, with which he popularized Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment, framed in classic terms such as «Moé sauver des étrangers au détriment des miens, ben y’en est crissement pas question! On est assez dans marde comme ça pour en rajouter!», etc. Most famously, the city council of the small town of Herouxville made a decisive intervention in early 2007, passing a racist “code of conduct for immigrants” that played on stereotypes about ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Muslims, implying that they needed to be told not to engage in misogynistic practices such as stoning women and genital mutilation. (The municipal councillor behind the Herouxville resolution, André Drouin, was later active in the Canadian far-right group RISE Canada and for a while associated with the openly fascist Fédération des Québécois de Souche, which, following his death in 2017, eulogized him as a “courageux combattant” in the pages of its magazine Le Harfang.)
Despite this sordid context, it was only in 2016, in the context of the political campaigns of both Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, and following the establishment and growth of La Meute, that this amorphous milieu started becoming conscious of itself and first began really attempting to act as a movement. A fateful turning point was the January 29, 2017, massacre at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre, where Alexandre Bissonnette entered the mosque, shooting and killing six people, and injuring numerous others. (While this was clearly an Islamophobic attack, Bissonnette himself was not a member of any group.) The Quebec City mosque massacre was the most important factor pushing the far right to a new level; activists felt under attack as police launched investigations of hate speech on the internet, and many of their fears became focussed on Motion M-103, a non-binding private member’s bill condemning Islamophobia that had been proposed the previous December. For many, it felt like a “make it or break it” situation.
2017 was a year of rapid growth for this movement, and organizations repeatedly took to the streets, further elevating the profile of both the groups and their political concerns. While this represented a big step forward for these groups, a look at the numbers involved shows that they remained incapable of mobilizing on anywhere near the same scale as larger social movements, including the radical left:
March 4, in a national day of action against Motion M-103, almost 200 far rightists rally in Montreal, while in Quebec City over 100 people join a demonstration organized by La Meute (that same day roughly 100 people marched in Saguenay, and in smaller numbers similar forces came together in the cities of Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke).
April 23, “Un Peuple Se Lève Contre le PLQ” demonstration organized by the Front Patriotique du Québec brings together over 100 far rightists in downtown Montreal.
May 28, approximately 50 people march in an anti-PLQ demonstration called by the Front Patriotique du Québec in downtown Montreal.
July 1, approximately 60 people, including members of La Meute, heed a call by Storm Alliance to gather at Roxham Road, at the border near the small town of Hemmingford, to “monitor” irregular crossings and intimidate refugees, whose numbers had increased dramatically following anti-immigrant measures by the new Trump administration (their protest was met with a boisterous counter-protest organized by the Montreal group Solidarity Across Borders, which stopped them from achieving their goal of gathering directly at the crossing point).
August 20, in Quebec City La Meute brings out a range of far rightists for a demonstration against “illegal immigration”; after being holed up in an underground parking lot for several hours thanks to antifascist demonstrators, 200-300 La Meute members managed to take to the streets for a silent demonstration.
September 30, Storm Alliance holds its largest border protest to date, with over 100 people gathering at the Lacolle border crossing where a refugee camp (by this point empty) had been set up over the summer. They were countered by more than 100 anti-racists from Montreal and nearby border communities.
November 25, in Quebec City a joint Storm Alliance/La Meute demonstration “to support the RCMP” and against “illegal immigration” attracts a broad range of far rightists, including an organized neofascist contingent; in all 300-400 people participated.
December 15, despite the fact that TVA has retracted the story, dozens of people demonstrate outside a Montreal mosque that the Islamophobic news network had falsely accused of having women road workers excluded from a worksite.
(It should be noted that all of the above mentioned mobilizations included crews of neofascists, as well as numerous individuals clearly sympathetic to overt white supremacy and neo-nazism.)
National-populist demonstrations continued throughout 2018. Once again the Front Patriotique du Québec managed to bring together a wide range of over 100 far rightists (on April 15) for a demonstration against the Liberals, and Storm Alliance and La Meute continued to cooperate, holding a joint demonstration at the border on May 19 against “illegal immigration,” and mobilizing people to attend a larger June 3, 2018, rally at the border organized by Toronto white supremacist Faith Goldy. It should be noted that in 2018 Quebec national-populist organizations also mobilized to travel to Ottawa for two demonstrations organized by groups in English Canada:
February 18, 2018, at a demonstration organized by the Chinese Canadian Alliance, a group that seemingly formed solely to respond to a false accusation that made headlines earlier in the year, that an Asian man had torn the hijab off of a Muslim girl in Toronto. (It should be noted that subsequent documents released by La Meute suggest that the group may have received $5,000, almost half its annual budget, from the CCA in exchange for this support.)
December 8, 2018, at a demonstration organized by the group ACT! for Canada, against the United Nations Compact on Migration; this demonstration was noteworthy for the presence of a wide range of far rightists, including open white supremacists and neofascists from ID Canada, and the Danish far right politician Rasmus Paludan.
Despite these examples, and unsuccessful attempts by La Meute and Storm Alliance to establish functioning chapters outside of the province, activities of the Quebec national-populist movement have been distinct and largely separate from (though not hostile to) similar political movements in English Canada. (Depending on how things go, Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada may alter this situation somewhat, as the PPC has welcomed national populist individuals into its ranks across the country, bringing them into a shared pan-Canadian framework.)
At the same time, following a period of rapid growth from 2016-18, the national-populist milieu has suffered from burnout and internal difficulties. Its flagship organization La Meute has repeatedly been wracked by crises, and numerous key activists have dropped out citing personal concerns and frustration with the inability of the movement to grow beyond its present limits. Within two years of founding the organization, both La Meute’s founders (Eric Venne and Patrick Beaudry) had left or been expelled in two separate incidents amidst claims of financial malfeasance – although whether a matter of actual fraud or simple incompetence was never established. Then in November 2017 the organization was faced with multiple revelations of sexual assault, including complaints regarding La Meute council member Éric Proulx who was eventually expelled.
In June 2019 La Meute experienced another setback, as most of the group’s leadership (reportedly over 35 out of 40) resigned en masse just prior to the Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations following a failed attempt to oust “spokesperson” Sylvain Brouillette, who had served as the group’s de facto chief since Beaudry’s expulsion in September 2017. Members complained that Brouillette refused to share responsibility or information, even though he was obviously incapable of fulfilling all of the tasks required of him. A specific point of contention was his failure to provide financial information in a timely manner, which had led to an indefinite delay in establishing La Meute as a non-profit organization. Brouillette managed to reassert himself within a week and many of his rivals posted videos and photos on Facebook of their destroying their own La Meute flags and memorabilia in protest. While the dust has yet to settle, at the moment it seems that many of the group’s key members may now have opted to join Storm Alliance.
Opposition from antifascists has been a factor in undermining these groups; for instance, La Meute’s last attempt at a “large” demonstration was on July 1, 2018, in Montreal, with less than 150 people attending, and hemmed in (on the hottest day of a nasty heat wave) by a variety of groups from the Montreal left. Following this fiasco a number of people publicly resigned from La Meute, and it switched to far lower profile activities in the Montreal area (leafleting and “mobile demonstrations” that amounted to a few people driving around with signs on their cars). Indeed, there are several examples of far-right organizers pointing to the antifascist opposition when they have stated that they are “taking a break” or stepping back permanently.
The high rate of burnout amongst national populists and the fractious political conflicts within their organizations (often involving accusations of financial malfeasance, sexual harassment, and dictatorial power tripping) also points to one of the characteristics of this movement: for many key players, this is their first experience with political activism. This also partially explains the apparent buffoonery that runs through these groups as well as some of the errors they have made (both tactical and organizational), which their opponents sometimes mistake for stupidity.
Finally, it is worth noting that the overwhelming majority of national-populist groups’ activities take place on social media. While the nature of social media and the broader Internet can lend undue importance to certain people and statements, it remains essential in order to understand the development of this activist milieu and the prevalence within it of completely unfounded and untrue beliefs. The social media echo chamber (especially Facebook) reinforces the worst prejudices and the more ludicrous conspiracy theories, laying the basis for a fairly “inexpensive” political (re)socialization, in a way that would be much more difficult to realize otherwise, for instance in person. Furthermore, social media facilitates the distribution and normalization of hateful rhetoric, enabling people to take content and share it within their network as if it were something they had come up with themselves, rather than being the official position of an activist organization.
Within this digital terrain, certain figures have carved out a niche for themselves as “independent journalists”, playing on the increasing skepticism towards anything that is “official” or “mainstream.” A number of online “newspapers” have been established which specialize in recycling sensationalist (and often simply untrue) stories and conspiracy theories – while their fortunes wax and wane, important examples would include The Post Millenial (run by Catholic far rightist Raymond Ayas), Les Manchettes (run by André Boies, who translated the Christchurch spree killer’s manifesto into French) and Le Peuple. These supplement a larger number of video-bloggers and Facebook users who regularly post “live videos” for their followers – perhaps the most important of which would be André Pitre and Ken Pereira, who produce regular videos detailing various conspiracies for Pitre’s youtube channel. (It is worth noting that both Ayas and Pereira are running as candidates for the People’s Party of Canada in the upcoming 2019 federal elections.)
The Neofascists
Alongside the national-populist milieu, but by no means completely separate from it, exists a much smaller number of people with a more rigorous worldview. Drawing explicitly on fascism, white nationalism, Roman Catholic traditionalism, and in some cases on neo-nazism, we refer to these networks as neofascist or fascist.
There are two main poles of the fascist movement in Quebec.
On the one hand, there are people who came out of a number of youth subcultures, and who have often engaged in street violence and other forms of criminal activity, as well as the kinds of cultural activities associated with “underground” or independent music (organizing shows and parties, going on tour, putting out zines). International connections and local organizing was often facilitated if not modeled on these activities, both cultural and criminal, with likeminded activists around the world. This pole dates back to the 1980s in Quebec; by the 1990s members were engaging in numerous acts of violence and intimidation against the left and against racialized and queer people, including several murders. While at a certain point the main scene in question would have been skinheads, more recently one would also have to mention black metal and neo-folk in terms of cultural spaces targeted by neofascists and white supremacists.
The second pole of the Quebec fascist movement can trace its lineage back to the 1920s, however it is a broken tradition with many stops and starts, and which since the 1980s has generally been modest to the point of secrecy. This pole consists of individuals who culturally situate themselves almost as the opposite of the rowdy skinhead pole, who are intellectually and often religiously motivated to support fascist and white nationalist political activism. This tendency was last publicly organized around the Cercle Jeune Nation (1980-90), some of its adherents have also been active in Catholic traditionalist circles, for instance the Société Saint-Pie X, while some have found a home in the right wing of the Quebec nationalist movement. Due to their more respectable (and more privileged) social position, individuals from this pole have a real material interest in being circumspect about their beliefs. That is not to say that they are inactive, however.
Over the past twenty years, there has been a rapprochement between these two poles. While both Atalante and the Fédération des Québécois de souche were started by white nationalist skinheads, for instance, neither one is by any means limited to that milieu today. This organized core also benefits from the sympathy of a larger number of individuals who are sympathetic to fascist and neo-nazi ideas, even if they may choose not to be politically active at this time.
In parallel to this, a more clearly neo-nazi pole seems to have formed over the past few years around the Montreal area, piggybacking on groups based primarily on the Internet like The Right Stuff and the Daily Stormer; due to the secret nature of this group (organized largely in hidden chat rooms and forums online), it could provide a comfortable home to both individuals who aspired to create a political movement IRL, and a number of lurkers, prior to being severely disrupted by antifascists in 2018.
The formation of a national-populist scene in Quebec has provided the neofascists with an opportunity for outreach. While some neo-nazis, for instance those around the Alt-Right Montreal scene, may deride the national populists as “boomers” and express wanting to have nothing to do with them, the existence of a large milieu nonetheless creates both the political space and practical occasions (such as demonstrations) where they can meet and make their own connections. The year 2017 in particular was remarkable for the way in which neofascists repeatedly managed to make a claim to legitimacy within the broader far right. If on March 4, members of Atalante demonstrated separately from La Meute in Quebec City, and implicitly criticized the latter while winking at the left with their banner (which read, “Immigration –The Reserve Army of Capital”), in Montreal members of Alt-Right Montreal were in the thick of it, joining with La Meute and Storm Alliance, and engaging in physical clashes with antifascist counterdemonstrators. Eight months later in Quebec City, Atalante and the Soldiers of Odin staged their own dramatic entrance into the November 25 national-populist demonstration after having taken the ramparts opposite the smaller antifascist demonstration. It is worth mentioning that as they entered the broader demonstration, the neofascists were met with applause from La Meute and Storm Alliance members, many of whom “liked” their Facebook page and congratulated them on social media in the days following.
Some characteristics of the neofascist tendency include:
Opposition to democracy and belief in “natural law”;
An acceptance of violence as a necessary tool for political change, and a glorification of violence in itself as a virile, warrior-like attribute;
A belief in race and nation as key categories of human existence, while the way in which these relate to each other (equal but different, or in a hierarchy, or in a state of war) and the explanation for them (genetic vs. cultural) can vary;
Antisemitic; at best they hold that Jews are a negative influence on the nation, at worst they adopt the full-blown conspiracy theory of Jews constituting an enemy race that needs to be exterminated;
Unanimous in their homophobia and transphobia;
Islamophobic, however with the qualification (often explicitly made) that Muslims are being used by Jews (or “globalists”) to destroy the nation/race;
Overwhelmingly male, with an openness to political misogyny; feminism is sometimes described as a Jewish trick;
Most neofascists in Quebec are in favour of independence and are opposed to Canada which is seen as an occupying force, though this is not a position held by all.
Compared to the national populists, the neofascists have much more developed and important connections in Europe and the United States, and can in fact be said to belong to an international political and intellectual movement. Members of Atalante, for instance, have strong connections to the Rock Against Communism scene, and have also drawn directly on their connections with the Italian neofascist movement CasaPound, borrowing both elements of discourse (rhetoric that connects anti-immigrant sentiment with anti-capitalism, etc.) and mobilizing tactics (charity initiatives exclusively for “old stock” citizens, etc.). The FQS for its part frequently includes interviews with intellectuals from outside of Quebec in its magazine Le Harfang. One thing that sets the Quebec scene apart from neofascists elsewhere in North America is the predictably greater place that European movements have held in its worldview. For instance, whereas the Alt Right in the United States represented the first introduction of certain texts from the European New Right into the American far right, these ideas have been familiar to many Quebec neofascists since the 1970s and 80s.
Looking Forward
The increase in far right activity in Quebec over the past few years can be traced back to a number of factors external to the movement, some of which are international in scope some of which are specific to our situation here: the “War on Terror,” the social media-driven internet, the 2008 financial crisis, the multiple failures of the left wing of the Quebec independence movement, and the Trump presidency, to name just the most obvious.
We don’t expect the process driving this growth to slow down, in fact we expect there to be future “jumps” in a bad direction, as the global financial and ecological crises hit impending tipping points. That said, for the immediate future we predict that the bifurcation of the far right described in this article will continue, with a much larger movement with a wider range of views continuing to expand, and that this growth will also benefit smaller more rigorous organizations with more radical political aspirations. At the same time, these movements are part of a dynamic that is itself pulling the entire political debate in a certain direction, normalizing certain ideas, and legitimizing “less radical” measures; the election of neoliberal populists across Canada, including here in Quebec with the CAQ, speaks to this reality.
Quebec is not an anomaly: today the far right, consisting of national populists but with a strong neofascist current, have a real impact on the political balance of power throughout not only Europe and North America, but has actually been elected to state power in three of the BRICS as well. Contending with the far right and learning how to (re)build new radical liberation movements that can operate and win on this terrain is the task facing us today. Given capitalism’s global crisis, failure to do so would have grave consequences from which we might never be able to recover.
Comments Off on Dozens of so-called Quebec “patriots” join forces with Canadian neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists to demonstrate against immigrants in Lacolle
On August 24, 2019, a small anti-immigrant demonstration was held at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing. The event was coordinated by the Groupe de sécurité patriotique (GSP, literally translated as “Patriotic Security Group”) and supported by an assortment of far-right fanatics, including a well-known neo-Nazi who traveled from Ontario with other Canadian ultranationalists to team up with our local “patriots.”
These demonstrators, who obviously adhere to an alternative version of reality rooted in various conspiracy theories (including the so-called “great replacement” of the Québécois/Canadian/Western/White populations by means of a “mass immigration” plan that is supposedly orchestrated by the “globalist elite” at the UN; this is the exact same racist theory that inspired the Christchurch and El Paso mass murderers), had called for a gathering at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle in order to denounce the arrival of immigrants and “illegal” refugees into Canada[i].
A failed mobilization
The August 24 rally was first called by Lucie Poulin, a key organizer with the Parti patriote (Patriot Party), which is currently trying to gather enough signatures to run in the 2019 federal election. The Patriot Party is a far-right, nationalist group in Québec which was present at the recent Vague bleue (Blue Wave) mobilizations, but whose relationship with the Vague bleue organizers has since then taken a turn for the worse following a public freak out from Poulin. Not surprisingly, the Patriot Party’s main issues are opposition to “mass immigration” and “anti-Québécois racism.”
The far-right mobilization on August 24 remained mediocre, despite the announcement made by Robert Proulx, leader of the Groupe de sécurité patriotique (GSP), that his group endorsed the initiative and would be present to ensure its security.
The day after the event, Robert Proulx – discomfited and on the verge of depression – published a video in which he expressed a negative appraisal and overall disappointment with the mobilization. Not once did he address the presence of a well-known neo-Nazi by his side all day…
Groupe de Séurité Patriotique’s chieftain, Robert Proulx, best of pals with Kevin Goudreau, the neo-Nazi leader of the Canadian Nationalist Front.
Dubious new acquaintances…
Among the approximately 40 people who gathered at the border was a small contingent of Canadian “Yellow Vests” from the Toronto and Hamilton areas, as well as Peterborough’s neo-Nazi activist Kevin Goudreau… who was even invited to take the microphone a few times!
“I’m proud of my heritage; we’ve been here for 400 fucking years. And we don’t need, these fucking… god-dam fucking ragheads (sic) coming here and telling us how to live our life. Our heritage, our homeland. (…) We’re not immigrants. We did not immigrate here. We built this country, from garbage, from nothing.”
Just before, Johane Voyer – presented as the GSP’s head of media relations – made a long speech as delirious as it was disjointed:
« (…) We are Storm Alliance, Les Gardiens du Québec, La Meute… We are Atalante, name it… EVEN, we are the antifas! (…) »
(…) Our political elites want to make Canada and Québec an overpopulated country of immigrants. (…)
Trudeau, among others, between 2019 and 2020, if he is re-elected, he wants to bring in a million. (…) Canada has the highest immigration rate in the world. We are forced back. Mass immigration, refugees, crossing on behalf of a third country, supposedly legal or illegal asylum seekers (sic). For at least 15 years, this country has accepted twice as many immigrants as the United States, and four times more than France. That means between two and two and a half times per capita (sic). If that is not the assimilation of our people, then what is it?”
“There is not a single francophone left in Manitoba anymore.”
The vociferous Michel Malik Ethier, who has previously been mentioned on this site on various occasions, pointed to the UN as the main enemy of the Québécois people:
“It’s the UN that is pushing Trudeau to do that. Trudeau uses a weapon called ‘multiculturalism’ to attain his globalist ends. The remedy, the antidote to that, is what I see before me: it is patriotism. That’s why they want to destroy nationalism altogether. Whether it is Quebec nationalism or Canadian nationalism, our nationalism is a poison for Trudeau. (…) Trudeau, leaving the door open to any migrant, puts us in danger.”
Following the example of Voyer and other speakers, Ethier then inexplicably decided to address the dozens of protesters in English. It would normally be surprising to see so many Quebec patriots demonstrating under a gigantic maple leaf and speaking in English to reach out to Canadian ultranationalists –but for these so-called patriots, the defense of “the people” and of the national territory against the imaginary threat of “mass immigration” now seems to take priority over the aspiration to national independence for Quebec!
Robert Proulx, aka “Bob the Warrior,” the leader of GSP, took the microphone next to defend the group’s practice of dressing up as fake soldiers in military surplus gear to “defend” these ultranationalist protests. True to his habit of lying compulsively, he began by saying that GSP has “ensured security at protests” for five years, even though the group has only existed for a year (at most), and even though Proulx himself only began appearing at La Meute’s protests in 2017. Once full of shit, always full of shit…
“What really hurts is to read comments on Facebook saying that we look like ridiculous dumbasses dressed in military gear.”
Donald Proulx, of the Patriot Party, followed with a series of dubious statistics on “the assimilation of Francophones”:
“[The Francophone nation across Canada] In 1766, we were at 99%; we can say that things were going very well at that time. (…) Today, we are talking about being down to 20%. With massive and illegal immigration, it will continue to drop much more quickly. (…) Nationalist parties are taking off in Europe right now. We need that kind of politics here, and it should have started at least 15 years ago. The Patriot Party is going to be there, not just at the federal level, we are going to be there at the provincial level, and we are going to target the municipal, we are going to be everywhere.”
A discrete opposition
A discrete antifascist mobilization remained in proximity to, but separate from, the demonstration all day long, observing the bigots from a distance. It was decided on the spot not to engage in a direct counter-protest – given the circumstances, it was better to simply leave them with the rope they needed to hang themselves!
Lucie Poulin and Robert Proulx both boasted about their close collaboration with the police in their respective video reports on the event, stating that the police closely escorted them throughout the day. Police officers were even seen joking and socializing with the bigots.
Complicity in Lacolle
Most of the demonstrators took several hours to reach the border crossing at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, but for some, the trip was much shorter.
André Lafrance, a municipal councillor for Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, was present at the rally. Far from dissociating himself from the racists, he joined the small crowd and even published a photo album of the day accompanied by raving commentary.
It also seems that the racists’ meeting point, IGA Dauphinais, was not chosen by coincidence; the owner of the IGA and the attached shopping center went above and beyond to accommodate the rally, and the protesters were warmly welcomed –both in the parking lot and, after their protest, in the mall restaurant. We are observing a clear pattern, here, and will pay greater attention in the future to this preoccupying complicity in Lacolle.
The infighting continues…
After the fiasco that was the Vague bleue (Blue Wave) in Trois-Rivières, the small national-populist milieu currently rallied around the GSP has just proven that its members are no better than their rivals the Gardiens du Québec (Guardians of Quebec), considering that they went so far as to give a nice platform to a well-known neo-Nazi!
For the record, before the small rally on the 24th, Lucie Poulin had already stirred up drama in the milieu by attacking both John Hex (the main organizer of the Vague bleue) and Storm Alliance for not having immediately endorsed her initiative. Her criticism was then echoed by Robert Proulx and Sylvain Lacroix of GSP, who were still frustrated at having been told by the organizers of the Vague bleue not to come out to the event’s second edition wearing paramilitary outfits (hence Proulx’s comment above). In response, Éric Trudel, the leader of Storm Alliance, stated that “the Stormers” would no longer return to the border, stressing that the individuals behind the demonstration on August 24thare those who are always stirring up shit within the movement.
Speaking on behalf of La Meute, an organization in crisis and full of hypocrites, Wolfric Oullet (dictator-in-chief Sylvain Brouillette’s right-hand man) took a moment to criticize former Meute members and “dissidents” who joined or endorsed the demonstration: “You gang of fools are not worthy to bear our name and wear our colors after having burned them and with what you are now doing with them. Shame on you all, you gang of imbeciles.”
What we are currently witnessing in Quebec is a rise to the surface of all the most pathetic elements of the far-right, in a context where the two main organizations active in recent years – La Meute and Storm Alliance – are withdrawing. All kinds of individuals, a little less skillful and more frank in their racism, are taking advantage of this withdrawal to put themselves forward.
A situation to keep an eye on.
[i] The Lacolle border crossing has become a priority gathering area for the far-right in its opposition to immigration. A large number of migrants cross the border at Roxham Road, close to the Lacolle crossing, to flee an increasingly repressive situation in the United States. Since the Trump regime has refused to renew various agreements allowing people to remain in that country legally, people come to Canada in the hope of finding refuge here. However, because of the hypocritical and deadly “Safe Third Country Agreement,” migrants are denied refugee status if they show up at a regular border crossing. This is why they are forced to cross at an irregular passage. Roxham Road has become one of the most important (and most famous) of these crossing points.
Rather than recognize the situation at the border for what it is – the tip of the iceberg of a global humanitarian crisis fueled by imperialist wars, ecological destruction, and racism – far-right organizations cling to the issue of what they call “illegal immigration” to attract media attention and stir up racist sentiments and behavior. It is important to note that according to the Quebec Bar Association, there is no such thing as “illegal immigration”; it is not a legal category. The use of the term “illegal immigrants” is just a word trick meant to suggest that refugees are doing something wrong or are criminals.
On the night of August 12th, 2019, three members of Atalante Quebec were attacked.
Atalante is a small group of fascists whose members have taken part in numerous attacks in recent years (starting with the knife attack at the Coop L’Agité in Quebec City). The group takes inspiration from CasaPound in Italy and Bastion social in France in an attempt to revive fascist ideology. Its members are antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic and colonialist. They shall not pass.
Roxanne Baron and Jonathan Payeur had their Jeep destroyed (windows smashed and skunk juice sprayed inside).
Jean Mecteau had his home and tattoo shop vandalized (NAZI SCUM and 161 (Antifascist Action) graffiti and black paint on his door and windows).
Why them?
Any of the members or sympathizers of Atalante could have been targeted. This time, it struck these three pieces of trash.
Roxanne Baron and Jonathan Payeur are members of the Quebec Stompers, the street gang associated with Atalante. Jo is also a former anti-racist skinhead who crossed to the wrong side. Today he considers himself Atalante’s sergeant-at-arms, he was the one who accompanied Baptiste Gilistro and Louis Fernandez, two young recruits, during the attack on the LvlOp bar in December 2018.
Jean Mecteau is the bassist of the band Légitime Violence, the leading group of the province’s fascists. He is also the owner of the tattoo shop Jhan Art, and he frequently does tattoos with Nazi or fascist references for his friends.
This action is in solidarity with all the victims of the far right, in Quebec City, Hamilton, Montreal, Lyon and everywhere else.
The Vague bleue 2: about 75 xenophobic clowns walk in Trois-Rivières. Photo credit: Francois Giguère, from Facebook.
Unfortunately for them, the second edition was an epic failure. While 300 people showed up to their Montreal event, the Vague bleue 2 in Trois-Rivières barely attracted 75 people. Many groups were notably absent, including La Meute, the folkloric losers from the Front patriotique du Québec, and the pseudo-militiamen of the Groupe de Sécurité Patriotique.
The security team surrounding this second edition was made up of a handful of people from Steven Dumont’s entourage in Storm Alliance and the pathetic “Les Gardiens du Québec” crew. It is definitely worth noting that Les Gardiens du Québec now counts white supremacist Michel “Mickey Mike” Meunier amongst its members, and although he was only admitted to the group a few weeks ago, just before the protest he helped get his bonehead friend Joe “White Poser” Arcand into the group as well. With these two new members, the true colours of the so-called Guardians of Québec are starting to show.
The Vague bleue 2 ends up in a parking lot… Photo credit: Casse sociale
After having their protest literally diverted by the antifascist/antiracist mobilization, the VB2 found itself (again) in the middle of a parking lot, isolated and unnoticed. During the open mic segment of the day, Diane Blain (the person notorious for screaming nonsense at Justin Trudeau in 2018) gave an extremely racist speech that summarizes perfectly the essence of what most VB2 participants (and the wider national-populist movement) think:
“We have so many enemies here, in Québec: the federal government, federast (sic) journalists, the Muslims, the Jews, the Anglos, the Sikhs…”
Her speech was filmed and subsequently shared hundreds of times in less than 24 hours, before Youtube deleted the video as hate speech. This stuff is so unbelievable it can’t be made up.
A massive police presence was deployed in the heart of Trois-Rivières, essentially to repress the antiracist counter-protest and to let the 75 clowns from the Vague bleue protest in the city with their message of exclusion. In addition to the riot police spread out all around the city center, we saw a drone flying above Des Forges Boulevard, as well as SQ and local police boats on the river (photo credit: André Querry).
SQ blocks the way to the anti-racist demo. Photo credit: Annie Ouellet
At around 1:30PM, some SQ riot police squads arrived with their vehicles and surrounded the TRès Inclusif counter-protest to keep it from leaving its departure point, resulting in the classic game of cat and mouse in the streets, with the antiracist/antifascist protest managing to elude the riot police and get to the spot on Des Forges Boulevard where the Vague bleue march was supposed to end. The riot cops gradually formed a perimeter to contain the 150 or so counter-protesters (left at this point) in this spot, which led to a few minor incidents, including the SQ using pepper spray at least twice.
At this point, the VB’s plans had already been thwarted, and the SQ was forced to reroute their march into a parking lot a bit to the east.
We know that the police outright lied to antiracist organizers on multiple occasions:
They said that only the municipal police would be deployed, not the SQ; in fact, the SQ were there in large numbers and were clearly calling the shots.
They were told that the antiracist protest couldn’t take place at Place du Flambeau, because another event was taking place there; this wasn’t true and the square was empty.
They were told that the pedestrian section of Des Forges Boulevard wouldn’t be blocked; not only was it blocked in multiple places, access was also blocked a few blocks deep in every direction. Multiple people reported having their bags searched before being allowed to enter the area’s perimeter.
Of equal note regarding the collaboration between the authorities and the VB2 was the provision of a city bus to bring the protesters back to their starting point. Here they are from inside the bus, trying very hard to sing a shitty song from the sixties:
A successful mobilization for antiracists and antifascists
Anti-racist demo occupies the space where the Vague bleue was supposed to end its march, in front of the Frida coffee shop. [Cover photo credit: Annie Ouellet]
On our side, between 200 and 250 people from multiple antiracist and antifascist groups and collectives from Trois-Rivières, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Sherbrooke, and elsewhere came out in force in response to TRès inclusif’s callout, successfully putting forward a message of inclusivity and thwarting the Vague bleue 2’s plans in Trois-Rivières.
After a few minutes of confusion and difficulty agreeing on a plan (primarily complicated by the creeping police buildup, which voided the initial plans for the protest), a spontaneous rush by the antifascist forces helped the protest elude the police, get to Des Forges Boulevard, and seize the supposed end point for the Vague Bleue 2 protest, the space in front of Café Frida (the coffee shop that had been harassed and threatened by the organizers of the VB2 over the preceding weeks).
After a few tense minutes face to face with the SQ, a breakout group of 20 antifascists was able to get to the upper level of the promenade, where they could look down on VB2’s depressing parking lot party and mock the participants.
A poster put up in Trois-Rivières by the TRès inclusif collective. Photo credit: François Giguère
One final note: it’s important to mention the huge work of preparation, information, and mobilization that was done between the two Vague bleue events, notably by TRès Inculsif and Montréal Antifasciste, but also by other antiracist and antifascist groups, whether in person or online and on social media, to counter the xenophobic and Islamophobic discourse being spread by the VB participants. A special shout-out to the comrades who pushed through a final demobilization effort by creating fake accounts of the VB2 organizers 48 hours before the event in order to spread confusion and doubt about whether or not the event was cancelled. The always brilliant John Hex call this tactic a “cyber-attack” by “the oligarchy.” Lol. Nice work!
The usual media bungling
The mainstream media totally ignored or weren’t interested in the Vague bleue phenomenon, partly because the nationalist-populist crowd are obsessed with conspiracy theories about the media and refused to speak to them this time. That said, the two articles that came out about the VB2 were particularly terrible. The Radio-Canada article displayed a blatant disregard for research, while the one in the Nouvelliste was a VB2 puff piece, incredibly including an extremely racist quote from Stéphane Gagné (Trois-Rivières’ narcissistic racist who calls himself “General Lee of the Mauricie”), and a second quote from an Amnesty International representative who felt it important to mention that “antifacists were looking to make trouble”, while “the Vague bleue wasn’t looking for confrontation”. Question to Amnesty International: Are we to understand that a calm racist and xenophobic protest is better than a disruptive antiracist and antifascist protest? Is Vickie Schneider’s quote (which racists will use to their advantage) an official Amnesty International position? (Update: Amnesty International issued a statement on July 30 condemning “the hateful comments made at the Vague bleue rally in Trois-Rivières” and stating that Vickie Schnieders was “speaking in her personal capacity and that her comments do not reflect Amnesty International’s official position”. Thank you for this clarification, it is appreciated.)
Our work is only beginning
As we’ve written before, the present situation in Quebec is far from good for those of us who care about the health and quality of our society. The CAQ’s regressive orientation regarding immigration and the way it forced through the Loi sur la laïcité de l’État are signs of a government that shares the political aims of racist and xenophobic groups like those that organised the Vague bleue. Furthermore, it’s not insignificant that while the SQ was essentially doing the work of Trois-Rivières’ xenophobes, François Legault (the premier of Quebec) was promoting Mathieu Bock-Côté’s book on Twitter, agreeing with the reactionary sociologist’s outdated brand of nationalism.
While the Vague bleue organizers are already talking about a third edition in Quebec City, it seems likely that the anti-racist movement we are trying to build across the province will have to mobilize again in the coming weeks, months, and unfortunately, perhaps even for years to come.
A small exercise…
The absolutely wild trip that is the Vague bleue crowd’s online banter has already gotten people used to their tenuous grasp of the French language, so we’re not going to focus on that.
Let’s see if the people who think they represent “the people” are any better at math: 75 clowns in a population of 8.3 million people represents what percentage of “the people”?
Since the article “Unmasking Atalante” came out in December, we’ve produced two follow-up articles concerning, respectively, the “influencer” Heïdy Prévost’s and the folk band Folk You, two cultural (or metapolitical) phenomena at the periphery of Atalante. It is difficult to precisely measure the impact our work might have on the morale and activities of this neofascist group, but we have noted fewer public outings in recent months, and those that did occur appeared to involve the same small hardcore group of militants, with the exception of a recent photo-op in Montréal, where clearly every possible sympathizer was mobilized for the occasion.
While some of those involved had no inhibitions about openly displaying their adherence to a fascist-inspired ideology, a number of the members and sympathizers we have already exposed chose to stay in hiding under their rock. It should come as no surprise, then, when we continue to shine a light on this pile of Nazi shit.
Deprived of any respectability and finding its political ambitions blocked, in recent months, Atalante’s core group seems to have fallen back into the violent subculture from which it originally emerged. Unable to effectively establish the organization locally, Atalante members are traveling overseas more often (particularly to France and Italy) and further developing their ties to international fascism, as can be seen by the French NSBM band Baise Ma Hache coming to Québec in June to play a concert with Légitime Violence. (A concert that, it should be noted, was disrupted by antifascists, who forced the fascists to chaotically regroup and hold their concert later that same evening at Bar Le Duck. No love lost here for the bar’s management, who welcomed the Nazis with open arms. Don’t hesitate to let them know how you feel about that.)
Even the launching of Atalante’s first book, Saisir la foudre [Ride the Lightening], last March, occurred without any fireworks, which is not normal behaviour for this group, which barely exists outside of social media and generally trumpets even its most minor exploits with carefully staged grandiloquent photo displays. Could it be that this first opus fell far short of its author’s intellectual ambitions. You’ll forgive us for thinking that that is probably the case.
In reality, it would seem that Atalante as a political organization has become a sideshow, while the street gang at its origin, the Québec Stomper Crew, is breathing new life — particularly since a sad little Nazi from France decided to join!
It’s no secret that the Stompers have cultivated an intimate relationship with violence. There are reasons to believe that gaining admission to the“crew” is contingent upon a rite of passage or initiation that involves committing an act of aggression or other crime in the group’s name.
We could cite the example of Yannick Vézina (alias Yann Sailor), who seems to have become a full-patch member of the Québec City Stompers shortly after participating in an attack on an antifascist militant.
In a more recent example, it seems that Sven Côté (alias Svein Krampus) got his official colours on the evening of the attack on the Page Noire book store, in December 2018.
Group photo of the Québec Stomper Crew, in December 2018. In the middle, Sven Côté, freshly “patched”.
In recent months, we have easily identified two other Stompers “prospects,” one of whom has even received his gang colours. Both of them come from France and are among the rare new Atalante members: Louis Fernandez and Baptiste Gilistro.
Hit a CEGEP student and win your colours!
Louis Fernandez came to our attention after his December 2018 arrest for a physical attack on a young client at the Lvlop bar in Québec City. This violent act seems to have been motivated by hate (he asked his victim several times if he was “antifa” before pummeling him). Although police found an Atalante sticker in his wallet, the twenty-five-year-old Fernandez denied any knowledge of the group. We can now assert that it is beyond doubt that Louis Fernandez knows the members of Atalante intimately, as he became an official member of the Québec Stomper Crew following this attack.
Louis Fernandez receives his Québec Stompers colours in this Instagram preview, June 2019.
Louis Fernandez shows off a “white power” ring in this Instagram preview. With Sven Côté and Roxanne Baron, June 2019.
Louis Fernandez training with Atalante militants, July 2019.
Unsurprisingly, a summary examination of his tattoos proves that Fernandez is a genuine neo-Nazi “de souche.” Here he is moving his pisspot leader Raf Stomper’s washing machine:
Tattooed on his left arm, Louis Fernandez has an effigy Léon Degrelle, a Belgian Nazi collaborator much admired by European neo-Nazis, and the insignia of the Légion française des combattants, an organization created by Marshal Pétain during the Vichy regime that cooperated closely with the Waffen-SS. On his chest he sports a tattoo of a pair of Doc Martens with white laces, a symbol used by “old school” boneheads to show their support for “white power.”
“Ça ne colle pas, je suis un fils d’immigré et immigré moi-même” [It doesn’t add up. I’m the son of immigrants and an immigrant myself], Fernandez said at his bail hearing. However, here he is easily recognizable taking part in an Atalante postering run. At least it’s not one of the numerous anti-immigrant posters the group has produced and posted over the years…
Louis Fernandez participates in an Atalante postering action in, winter 2019.
On Monday, July 29, Louis Fernandez must make a court appearance at the Palais de justice de Québec to answer charges related to the Lvlop attack. It would appear that Fernandez was released with a certain number of conditions, including that he not consume alcohol. We truly hope that no one sees the photos and videos of “Lou” with his little comrades, beer in hand and clearly inebriated. A video posted only a few days ago shows him chilling in France, sipping pastis.
Louis Fernandez enjoying a meal (and beer) with the Atalante and Stompers hard core, March 2019.
Louis Fernandez, beer in hand, with Roxanne Baron ad Jo Payeur in June 2019, in Raphaël Lévesque’s new backyard, June 2019.
Louis Fernandez (in the playhouse), beer in hand, on the day of Raphaël’s Lévesque’s move. Kneeling, Baptise Gilistro.
We know that on the evening of the attack at Lvlop, Louis Fernandez was not alone. According to witnesses, he was with at least two other people, including Jonathan Payeur (alias Jo Stomper), an Atalante underling and one of Raphaël Lévesque’s minions. We also know that he was in the company of a couple, one of them a young student from France who has previously been spotted at Atalante actions: Baptiste Gilistro.
From Toulon to Québec: another French immigrantexpatriate fascist!
Baptiste Gilistro is a twenty-three-year-old student from Toulon, France. He comes from a bourgeois family and is the son of a top-level member of the French army, Colonel Thierry Gilistro (who now works for Dassault Aviation. A shout-out to dad while we’re at it!). During his graphic design studies at the Université Laval, Baptiste met Étienne Mailhot-Bruneau (alias Sam Ox), Atalante’s graphic artist and a member of the Québec Stompers. A quick look tells us that they have collaborated on a number of school projects and shared a prize when they completed their bachelor’s degree. It would appear that Baptiste is still studying at the Université Laval. (It’s worth noting that as part of his studies he produced a video clip for Québec Redneck Bluegrass Project, a fairly left-wing band.)
Baptiste Gilistro, with family.
We know that Baptiste Gilistro is no stanger to Atalante’s hard core, because he has been socializing with them for over a year now. He has also taken part in a number of street actions and hikes out in the bush with Atalante members (… as well as being complicit in an assault against lefty students!) It seems he only got closer to the Québec Stomper Crew over time, since he’s been spotted at most of their private events, including Raphaël Léveques’ move to a new home.
Baptiste Gilistro during an Atalante action in June 2018, June 2018.
Baptiste Gilistro during an Atalante action in June 2018, June 2018.
Baptiste Gilistro with some of the Atalante and Stompers core group, in the winter of 2019.
Baptiste Gilistro participates in an Atalante postering action in January 2019.
Baptiste Gilistro with some of the Atalante’s core group in March and April 2019.
The inevitable debacle continues…
Nothing is going according to plan for Atalante: its leader Raphaël Lévesque probably dreamed of a show trial following the Vice Québec affair, but the attack at the Lvlop and Louis Fernandez’s involvement may be about to steal the show. The kind of media noise that its members’ escapades attract to the organization is far more likely to undermine its legitimacy process and distract it from its political objectives than to generate the positive attention it needs to grow.
You can count on us to insist on rooting them out. We have not said our last word.
To sum up, it can be said that: 1) Louis Fernandez is a full member of Atalante and the Quebec Stompers following the Lvlop attack; 2) this assault was not a fortuitous act, but a premeditated attack motivated by political reasons, and; 3) Atalante can only recruit and retain in its ranks a minority of characters gravitating towards neo-fascist circles.
Two weeks ago, the LGBTQ2 community in Hamilton, Ontario, was targeted for a unprecedented attack by a coalition of individuals from fundamentalist Christian groups and far-right groupuscules like the Wolves of Odin, the “Yellow Vests,” and the Canadian Nationalist Party.
Furthermore, the tense relationship between the radical queer and trans community and the police in Hamilton was exacerbated by the manifest indifference police showed to the far-right trolls, instead moving against the queer and trans folks who took measures to defend themselves… while giving the far-right attackers a free hand!
Since June 22, Cedar Hopperton, a trans anarchist militant deeply involved in those communities, has been on hunger strike while being detained for “breach of conditions.” The police accuse them of having violated their conditions by participating in a “demonstration” (a gathering that was part of the LGBTQ2 Pride celebrations in Hamilton, last June 15). The fact is that Cedar was not at this event, and everything suggests that the Hamilton police are dogging Cedar because of numerous public anti-police statements, particularly in opposition to a police presence at events organized by the LGBTQ2 community.
On the afternoon of June 15, the violence began when the abovementioned far-right militants gathered at the edges of the Pride parade, in Gage Park, to intimidate and harass participants and their allies, reciting Bible passages and shouting anti-LGBTQ2 slogans. The radical queer and trans community had anticipated this (there was a similar incident in 2018) and had built a screen out of fabric that stood several meters high to block from view any acts of intolerance directed at the parade. However, some of those intent on disrupting Pride, annoyed about having their harassment disrupted in this way attempted to skirt this barrier, eventually coming to blows with parade participants. Obviously, our comrades couldn’t let this happen without defending themselves. During the resulting melee some of them were seriously injured, primarily by the attacks of two individuals among the far-right trolls, Chris Vanderweide and YlliRadovicka, alias John Mark Moretti.
In subsequent days, rather than seeking to apprehend the authors of this very well documented violence, Hamilton police chose to target our comrades who defended themselves! As well as Cedar, four other people were arrested and released on promises to appear.
It’s worth noting that as the police allowed them to run rampant the same far-right bags of shit descended on a Toronto Pride event on the weekend of June 22–23 to deliver the same sort of violence upon members LGBTQ2 community and its allies.
These events took place in a context where, since a militant demo was held on March 3, 2018, the Hamilton anarchist community has been targeted repeatedly by both the police and the far-right groups active in southern Ontario. The anarchist space The Tower has been vandalized a number of times, raids have been carried out, and far-right trolls brag online about providing police with anarchists’ personal information.
Clearly, these far-right attacks are unacceptable, and obviously our comrades will defend themselves with the means at their disposal. That the police chose to act against the victims of the violence who were doing nothing more than defending themselves, rather than the authors of the violence, only serves to prove that the police feel no real solidarity with the LGBTQ2 community, and any statements that suggest they do are nothing more than public relations on the part of an institution that has proven itself to be profoundly hostile to the aspirations of minority groups. This is more evidence that social movements cannot and never should have any confidence in the police services.
Montréal Antifasciste and its sympathizers and allies wish to express their unshakeable solidarity with the Hamilton LGBTQ2 community and demand the immediate release of Cedar Hopperton and that all charges be dropped against all those arrested for actions to defend the LGBTQ2 community on June 15.
¡No pasarán!
Montréal Antifasciste, June 28, 2019
Update: Chris Vandeweide was finally arrested on June 26th… as well as two more members of the queer community who defended Pride, bringing to five the number of queer comrades arrested for defending themselves.
When the so-called Vague bleue [Blue Wave] began it seemed like a breath of fresh air for the identitarian nationalist movement, however it now appears that the organizers failed to draw the lessons of the last several years and are intent on repeating the same mistakes.
After the first edition of the Vague bleue (VB1) in Montréal, on May 4, 2019, a number of far-right voices (e.g., Alexis Cossette-Trudel, from Citoyens au Pouvoir, and Donald Proulx, of the Parti Patriote) were heard criticizing the presence of militias with paramilitary affectations at a gathering meant to be family friendly and open to all. The presence of these organizations was the sole reason Montréal antifascists mobilized in such large numbers to oppose the event. This particular point of discord opened fissures in the alleged unity of this new identitarian coalition.
With only a month until the “Vague bleue (part 2)” (VB2), called for Trois-Rivières, on July 27, which is shaping up to be even sillier than the first edition, Montréal Antifasciste is taking the opportunity to put names to the faces of these different “security” teams (who find themselves encased by hundreds of cops every time they mobilize) and of the “paramilitary” groups that fancy themselves Québec’s future army, but which have the discipline of a litter of kittens and arm themselves with material sold online for paintball enthusiasts.
Notably, all these self-important, wanabe “security” goons make up about a quarter of the Vague bleue as a whole…
Groupe Sécurité Patriote (GSP)
The GSP began as the security team of the tiny Front patriotique du Québec clique, but under Robert Proulx’s stewardship increasingly established it’s autonomy. Made up of about fifteen people with a handful of sympathizers, the GSP specializes in providing “security” at far-right demos and events, going as far as working with the Soldiers of Odin, an anti-immigrant group that includes neo-Nazis among its members. Following a squabble with the Canadian chapter of the III% paramilitary militia, part of the Québec III% chapter joined the GSP. Of all of the groups of this kind that mobilized for VB1, the GSP is the largest and most obstreperous. Its members are extremely fond of taking group photos, particularly posing with a “Action antifasciste” flag that the police seized and gave to them during a demonstration in Ottawa in 2018. One regular member of the GSP security team, found loyally at his post at VB1, is Stéphane Dufresne, the Rambo from Saint-Charles-Borromée who suggested carrying out false flag terrorist attacks “pour réveiller les crisse d’endormis” [to wake up the slumbering idiots].
Its membership is stable, but GSP has tense relations with a number of groups and individuals. Following the tiff mentioned above, it is likely that GSP won’t be part of the VB2.
If you have information on the members of this group, please write to alerta-mtl @ riseup.net
RNS is an odd little group, made up of a handful of losers from various groupuscules, including Martin Fontaine (alias Rednek Fontaine and Rednek Breault), former member of that flash in the pan La Horde, a splinter from La Meute that never really got off the ground. RNS’s original project was to found an (obviously white) survivalist community in the Laurentians. We spotted RNS members at VB1 in full paramilitary regalia, looking like renegade GI Joes from the burbs. Martin Fontaine was also at the GSP picnic on June 8, easily recognized in his tactical vest emblazoned with the surname “Rednek.” In reality, it seems that RNS is more about role playing than about any genuine political project, but nonetheless we will continue to keep an eye on these pseudomilitary survivalists with open ties to the far right and its ideas.
For the reasons mentioned above, it is likely that RNS will not take part in the VB2. If you have information on the members of this group, please write to alerta-mtl @ riseup.net
Martin Fontaine
Éric Dionne
Keven Molloy Gohier
Ragnarok Nordique Society
Les Gardiens du Québec (LGDQ, and its so-called “On-the-Ground Organizational Support”)
This tiny group of militant Islamophobes formed around the family of Martine Tourigny and Stéfane Gauthier (from Bécancour), with Guillaume Bélanger, Nathalie Vézina, and a few others, is seen as the key organizer of VB1, because the movement’s initiator Jonathan Héroux, alias John Hex (from Trois- Rivières), is to all intents and purposes the sole member of his groupuscule, “Le Québec Libre en Action.” These so-called guardians of Québec took advantage of the Vague bleue to promote themselves and recruit some new members, including the infamous Luc Desjardins, key among the rabid conspiracy theorists of the utterly bizarre “Gilets jaunes Québec,” and a very close friend of both the notorious Islamophobe Pierre Dion and the loud and proud white supremacist Michel Meunier.
Stéfane Gauthier
Guillaume Bélanger
Carl Dumont
Nathalie Vézina
Luc Desjardins
Jean-Marc Lacombe
Medrick Tourigny
Richard Sauvé
Name unknown
Les Gardiens du Québec (just that…)
Défense Fortifiée Storm Alliance
Storm Alliance, John Hex’s launching pad and an organization he remains very close to, provided key Vague bleue organizers (among them Nadia Fradette, alias Nadia Dumont) and some muscle (in the form of its DFSA security team), while nonetheless keeping a certain distance. Nonetheless, we couldn’t help but notice that Storm Alliance members were out in great numbers at VB1. DFSA, led by Steven Dumont, Storm Alliance’s second in command, is a fairly standard security team that openly exhibits a ready willingness to get into it with its opponents.
If you have information on the members of this group, please write to alerta-mtl @ riseup.net
Steven Dumont
Éric Trudel, head of Storm Alliance
Dave Tregget, founder and former head of Storm Alliance
Mario Roy
William “Dou”
Nancy Sirois
Stéphane Laflamme
Michel Meunier
Gérald Bédard
Patrick Bilodeau
Alex Maltais
Mikky Poitras
Yannick Veilleux
André Lavigueur
Vincent Hamel
Natacha Pelchat
Bruno Lemay
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Jean-Philippe Labbé
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
La Meute
Even though La Meute was discreet in its participation in VB1, we easily spotted a number of them in the “phantom” security team (no colours, dressed like your average Joe and Jane) gathered around Stéphane Roch, one of La Meute’s key leaders until the recent implosion. François Cousineau, the leader of Clan 06 (Montréal) made an appearance as well. Always fretting about its image, this has become the established La Meute strategy: send a few people so they can say “we’ve been here from the beginning” should the Vague bleue actually gain some traction, but not sporting their colours lest the whole thing become a boondoggle —a strategy that hasn’t stopped the group from eviscerating itself internally for the past few weeks, to our great satisfaction.
If you have information on the members of this group, please write to alerta-mtl @ riseup.net
Stéphane Roch, member of “the Guard”
François Cousineau, “Gardien” of Clan 06, Montréal
Mario Millaire
Tonio Sergerie
William Johnson
Rhoda Bourque
Bertrand Jocelin
Alain Giroux
Name unknown
Alias June Leloup
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
Name unknown
La Meute’s “security” crew at the Vague Bleue.
Miscellaenous characters …
Jonathan Héroux, aka John Hex, the Vague bleue’s main organizer.
Stéphane Gagné, aka the General Lee of Mauricie, a rabid islamophobic goofball, who’s also onenly racist and sexist.
Guy and Denis Boulanger, of the Front patriotique du Québec.
Donald Proulx, of the Parti patriote.
Maxime Morin and Guillaume Beauchamp, the duo behind far right video project DMS.
A random douche with a t-shirt of neo-fascist organization Atalante.
David Leblanc, a notorious white supremacist, member of the Soldiers of Odin Québec, wearing a “The North Race” sweatshirt.
The Vague bleue, a Futile Attempt to Revitalize an Islamophobic Far Right
A year ago, we would have been unsettled by the emergence of a phenomenon like the Vague bleue, but these days the whole thing seems to be falling apart all on its own. After having met with firm and unwavering resistance in Montréal, losing access to their sound truck and being confined in small area (a strategy that seems to have paid off for antifascists!), public pressure forced the organizers to postpone Vague Bleue 2 in Trois-Rivières.
Even if the Vague bleue arrived a little too late, it’s pretty clear that the ideas of the national-populist groups that it represents have made inroads to the very heart of power with the election of the CAQ and the passing of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic laws. In this regard, it is interesting to note that at the moment that Bill 21, which constrains people from wearing religious symbols, passed at the Assemblée Nationale, the most visible far-right organizations (La Meute, Storm Alliance, etc.), with their extremely convoluted vision of the secularism underlying this law, are in disarray and/or decline, while some other groups have recently disappeared altogether.
While there are things to celebrate about this debacle, there is a clear risk of these national-populist groups will restructure themselves in new ways and push for increasingly discriminatory measure against religious minorities and immigrants.All the more so, given that they will find a government ready to listen, if not entirely sympathetic. And that is why we need an antiracist and antifascist struggle now more than ever.
The work has only begun. Join us in this struggle!
Comments Off on Solidarity with Pride Defenders, Free Cedar!
Jun272019
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
On June 15th, 2019 in Hamilton, “Ontario”, Pride was attacked by a group of far-right homophobes, christian fundamentalists, neo-nazis, and queer bashers. As they did in 2018, they arrived with massive homophobic signs and banners, and immediately began to scream insults and slurs. They aggressively harassed individuals, made jokes about rape, and threatened physical violence. Things quickly escalated as the bigots violently confronted people who were holding a fabric barrier in an attempt to block them from disrupting Pride. Initiated by the far-right activists a brawl broke out – queers who refused to allow their presence to go unchallenged were attacked, but fought back. Several friends were injured and required medical attention. The police did nothing during this hour-long conflict, and only stepped in at the end when there was nothing left to do. The haters knew they couldn’t sustain their presence any longer, and welcomed the police escort out of the park. After being kicked out of Pride, this same group chased and assaulted queer youth in the neighbourhood, and then went on to attack people at Toronto Pride the following week.
Since these events, the Hamilton Police have felt quite threatened – communities that feel empowered to use force to defend themselves undermine their unquestionable authority. Over the course of the last week, the police have consequently been targeting and harassing known queer anarchists in the city as punishment for folks standing up for themselves. Our dear friend Cedar (who wasn’t even present at the event!) was arrested on Saturday, and was on hunger strike for five days. They will stay in jail until a lengthy probation hearing, a vengeful and punitive measure carried out by the police because Cedar publicly criticized the police’s actions. Later this week, two other queer friends have been arrested and charged with probation breaches based on suspicion of being present at Pride. Not a single homophobe was charged all week, despite the widespread circulation of their names, faces and videos of their violent actions, until public pressure finally forced the police to charge Christopher Vanderweide with assault with a weapon. We oppose the colonial prison system, but the repression the police directed to those they suspect as Pride defenders first is once again truly revealing of their age-old position and purpose: protecting racists, misogynists, and homophobes.
Queer might involve our sexuality or our gender, but to us it means so much more. It’s a territory of tension that we must defend. We stand in solidarity with Cedar and those accused in connection with this event, as well as any queers held in prison for bashing back. As queers and trans people, we know that our existence has been fought for bravely by those who have come before us, not only against homophobes and neo-nazis but also against the police.We remember Stonewall as a four-day anti-police riot and an explosion of gay trans anger birthing the way for liberation movements to come. We know that queer and trans homeless youth and sex workers face police repression constantly on the streets and that queer people, especially those who are racialized, are disproportionately attacked, criminalized, incarcerated and even murdered. Our existence will continue to be threatened unless we fiercely defend ourselves, our friends, as well and the spaces we create. None are free until all are free.
Drop all charges against pride defenders, free Cedar now!
