III% Québec Member Caught Proposing Fake Terrorist Attack

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Apr 082019

From Montréal Antifasciste

It would have been easy to miss a story that barely made the news last year – the story of Stéphane Dufresne (III% Québec, Front patriotique du Québec) and his leaked chat discussion about the need for a “fake terrorist attack,” along with his multiple allusions to having mysterious “concrete plans.” Although the story broke online early in 2018, the only response from the mainstream media was an article in the Montreal Gazette six months later. Montreal Antifasciste was able to establish a direct link between Stéphane Dufresne and a person that that was suspected by the RCMP of attempting to import weapons to Canada for terrorism-related plans. The context of this story is worrying, to say the least, and so we feel Dufresne merits a closer look.

The chat room leak

It all started in March 2018, when it was revealed on Le Troupeau’s Twitter that a discussion between a somewhat strange mix of folks from the far-right had been leaked from a private chat room called “Patriotes du Québec” on the MeWe platform (MeWe being a sort of imitation-Facebook). A user named “Phénix le Patriote” (who later changed his handle to “Stéphane le Patriote”) let drop a bombshell, saying: “We need a fake terrorist attack to wake up the fucking sleepyheads,” to which user “Heinrich Himmler” (!) replied: “Yeah… but be super careful.” It is always difficult to discern empty talk or posturing from actual possible action, but Phénix’s reply seems to point to real plans for an attack: “Yes obviously!!!!! Don’t worry… Multiple actions are coming up”.

Phénix le Patriote shares his thoughts on terrorism.

In the same chat room, Phénix boasts of his shooting skills and that he is training in KravMaga, an amalgam of different martial arts techniques.

Le Patriote’s shooting range target practice.

Le Patriote trains in KravMaga.

Who was in the chat room?

So who are the people in this private chat? Phénix le Patriote, who changed his handle during the chat to Stéphane Le Patriote, leaves a trail of clues exposed by Le Troupeau’s leak. The most obvious one being that he posts a picture of himself in the group chat, and then later also posts a picture of himself in the same clothes, under his personal Facebook account (Stéphane Dufresne):

Red tuque, green jacket with Patriotes patch, from the private chat.

Red tuque, green jacket with Patriotes patch, from Facebook.

Taking a look at Stéphane Dufresne’s Facebook account, we can see that his profile also features the name “Patriote”, just like his MeWe account:

His profile name is “StéphaneDufresne (Dit Le Patriote)”

And that he takes KravMaga classes in Joliette:

Dufresne is “feeling awesome at Dojo Yosanryu” at a KravMaga course.

Joliette also matches up with the target practice photos from above, which, if we zoom in on the logo, we can see are from the Club de Tir de Lanaudière, located in Joliette, QC:

The logo from his shooting practice matches Club de Tir de Lanaudière’s logo.

The jacket was also key to identifying him from protests that he has attended (see below), since he is never without his Patriotes patch on one arm (and his Québec flag patch on the other), like here at the “Tout le monde se lève contre le PLQ” protest in Montréal last April 23, 2017.

Dufresne, on the right, with the same jacket as in the MeWe chat.

So that settles it for Dufresne, but what about the others in the chat room? The person using the alias “Heimlich Himmler” (named after the high-ranking Nazi official, one of the main architects of the Holocaust), who advises Dufresne to “be super careful,” was also easy to identify, since Dufresne refers to him by name: “Alan kovak”:

Dufresne refers to user Heinrich Himmler as Alan Kovak.

Alan Kovak (real name: Martin Minna) is known for hanging out with Atalante members, as seen here in his Facebook post with Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald and others after a night out putting up anti-leftist posters around Montréal in January 2017:

Martin Minna’s Facebook post.

Or showing off what might be his tattoos…

Les (présumés) tatouages nazis de Martin Minna.

He also used his real face pic in the MeWe chat room:

Himmler’s pic matches Kovak’s Facebook pic, belonging to Martin Minna.

… and also is probably referring to how he fucked up by posting the Atalante crew’s image above, which was used by antifascists to identify him and others as authors of Atalante’s 2018 anti-leftist postering run, when he says “I got caught when I did a little job with Atalante… Next time it’ll be ultra secret”:

Himmler talks about working with Atalante.

Screenshots also show that Lucien Lalonde and Carl Blanchette were participating in the chat room; these two are both members or associates of the Front patriotique du Québec. Lalonde has a penchant for macho talk, for instance in this screenshot from August 2017 where he suggests using an AK-47 as a “solution” to deal with migrants (many of them refugees originally from Haiti) who were crossing the border at the time:

Lucien Lalonde is a known associate of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Lucien Lalonde fantasizing about using an AK-47 on migrants.

Carlito (Carl) Blanchette is a known associate of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Portrait of Stéphane Dufresne

Taking a closer look at Stéphane Dufresne, as there is a lot that can be learned from his online activity.

Dufresne’s “About” page on Facebook.

We can see above that although he works for la Société de reconstitution du Bas-Canada, re-enacting the Patriotes Rebellions of 1837-8, he also runs a construction business, “Constructions Stepco”, out of his home address in Saint-Charles-Borromée, on the outskirts of Joliette, QC.:

Constructions Stepco is listed as belonging to Stéphane Dufresne at his home address.

Life is good in Saint-Charles-Borromée, although he doesn’t seem super pleased about the new house that was built alongside his backyard, talking about how he’s “on the verge of setting it on fire”:

Dufresne talking about his neighbour’s newly built house…

His Facebook likes (below) reveal that he is a strong supporter of “hardcore” Québec nationalism, from the Front patriotique du Québec (the group he is most active with) all the way to the white supremacist Fédération des Québécois de souche, as well as not one but four self-styled militia groups: Milice du Québec, Milice Québecoise des Droits et Libertés du Québec, Milice Patriotique Québécoise, and Milice Patriotique du Québec (and this is not including the III% Québec group he is part of). (Click on the image to enlarge). None of which stops him from also being a strong supporter of the Parti Québécois, like most other members of the FPQ.

A couple dozen of Dufresne’s “likes” on Facebook.

Dufresne is not only an active member of the Front patriotique du Québec, he is an administrator (and active contributor) to their Facebook group. One can only wonder if the FPQ’s poorly attended events, and the rapidly ageing profile of the dozen or so people who do show up, are possibly a factor in him repeatedly referring to the need to wake up the population.

Dufresne is an administrator of the Front patriotique du Québec’s Facebook page.

Dufresne has also become very active with III% Québec; he shows up consistently to do security with them at events, wandering around tepid, poorly attended protests in camouflage clothing, taking part in their group photos… at one point he even looks like he’s trying to throw up the III% hand sign in the group photo below:

Dufresne, first on the left, with III% Québec.

Who are the III% The III% is an armed militia group which was started in the USA in 2008. The Canadian III%, although they describe themselves as “patriots… standing up for our rights,” are mostly concerned with two issues: what they see as the “invasion of Islam” into Canada (much like most other far-right groups), and firearms. Most group chapters require members to have a Possession and Acquisition Licence (a gun permit), and the group operates in a hierarchy imitating that of the military. The III% (also referred to as Threepers) most often show up to provide security for far-right Islamophobic speakers or events, such as for Faith Goldy or La Meute. In Québec, many members of the group signaled their involvement in the 2017 (failed) plan to hold a pro-gun rally at the park commemorating the Polytechnique anti-feminist massacre, on the anniversary of the killings of 14 women there (the failed rally’s organizer, Guy Morin, was also a member of the III% Québec Facebook group).

The irony must not be lost on Dufresne that he is now an active member of the III%, a pan-Canadian patriot group, which is patriotic towards… Canada. One can only imagine his grimace (pictured below), standing in front of the Parliament of Canada with his proud Threeper bros and a Canadian flag in front, when his whole raison d’être seems to be a violent uprising to win Québec’s independence from Canada.

Dufresne standing in front of the Parliament of Canada behind a Canadian flag. Awkward.

Dufresne is also a member of La Meute’s secret Facebook group, even though La Meute spokesman Sylvain Brouillette made a point of saying that he’s “not the type of person we’re looking for as a member,” in the aforementioned Montreal Gazette article.

Dufresne is still a member of the secret La Meute Facebook group, as of January 1, 2019.

Protests… and more protests

Dufresne is probably one of the most, if not THE most, prolific individuals at far-right protests in Québec. Although he started out as a bit of a floater, showing up with La Meute (“Contre la motion M-103”, March 4, 2017), alongside the Soldiers of Odin (trying to intimidate people at the “Learn to Resist” weekend at Concordia, March 25, 2017), or with random Islamophobes (outside the Ahlillbait mosque in Montréal, December 15, 2017), in 2018 he seemed to have settled down to doing security with the III% (“Unis pour la protection des frontiers” at the Lacolle border, “Dehors les libéraux” in Montréal, or against the UN migration compact in Ottawa).

Dufresne spotted at ten protests in the past two years.

Dufresne’s online chatter

It becomes apparent, while looking through Dufresne’s online posts, that he is severely disappointed in the state of the Québec independence movement. The following exchange, after the protest against Bill M-103, is a representative example: “I get the impression Québec is finished… They found a way to crush us.” “We’re fucked.” Near the bottom of the chat he says “We need to get out our ‘teaser’ to wake up a shitload of them” (“teaser” possibly means Taser gun).

Dufresne saying “We need a ‘teaser’ to wake up a shitload of them”.

He also displays the xenophobia that is prevalent in far-right circles, as in the following exchange where he declares that “my religion forbids me from being served by someone who doesn’t respect my fundamental values and who wants to impose their own in MY COUNTRY!!!!,” followed by “what I say is, if you’re not happy GET THE FUCK OUT. Seeing what they did in the Middle East… We’re not out of the woods yet with our fucking governments shovelling them in…”

Dufresne saying, “If you don’t like it… GET THE FUCK OUT”.

Dufresne is also clearly dedicated to the idea that there needs to be a militia in Québec. The below conversation contains a couple of his recurring themes: disappointment in the current state of things, plans he has, and the need for a militia. He starts with “Geez, we are really at the point where we have to justify our existence in our own country? Things have gotten bad.” Once again, he says, “We should buy some ‘teaser’ because people are sleepy as fuck.” Later in the discussion, he says, “It’s time for a Québecois brigade (militia).” Later in the thread, Martin Bédard posts a video of the Milice Patriotique Québécoise, a now defunct armed militia that existed until recently, and was headed by far-right militant Serge Provost. Dufresne replies “I already saw that, I tried to contact Serge Provost last fall.”

Dufresne’s conversations about militias.

He also posted that he is “already ready” to the Milice du Québec Facebook group, following up with “structures are already in place. PM me for details”.

Dufresne invites people on a militia page to get in touch because there are “structures in place”.

He repeatedly refers to having plans, as in the following exchange where Alf Turcotte says, “Before the elections we’ll fight even more,” to which Dufresne replies, “I hope so… I have multiple actions ready to go!!!! These next elections will have a huge impact on our existence… And people are still asleep at the wheel! I’m raging”

Dufresne has “multiple actions” ready to go.

Or, as was revealed by Le Troupeau, his exchange with Dave Tregget (ex-leader of Soldiers of Odin Québec and founder of Storm Alliance), where he says, “Dave, we have some projects that are ready to go… Let’s see what gives J”, to which Tregget replies “We need to talk about it Stéphane,” and Dufresne replies “J real soon” (Image 28 projets-cles.jpg)

Another mention of Dufresne having “projects ready to go”.

From the above chats we see Dufresne is someone disillusioned with the decline of the independence movement, who wants to shock people awake, who is hoping to start or join a Québécois militia, and who makes allusions to having multiple “plans.”

Connections to a person arrested under terrorism-related charges

In 2017, the RCMP was alerted by US authorities that a Montrealer named Alexandre Louis Fallara was attempting to bring in arms from the USA. Further investigation uncovered that Fallara was not just a nationalist but also some sort of “National Bolshevik”, or “Nazbol”, who was posting a wide range of comments online stating he was ready to kill others or sacrifice himself for Québec.

What is Nazbol? While historically, National Bolshevism refers to a tendency within the international communist movement, in the context of contemporary antifascism, National Bolshevism (often referred to as “Nazbol”) is a strain of neo-fascism that emerged following the fall of the Soviet Union, shepherded into existence in part by elements within the former Soviet state security services. Nazbols take on the symbols of, and identify with, selective parts of the history of the communist and anti-imperialist movements, often with an emphasis on the Stalin era and Anti-Zionism in their crudest forms. The social and internationalist content of these movements is downplayed or distorted, while the conservative and xenophobic aspects of their history are emphasized and are often reframed within a racist narrative. National Bolshevism is a highly eclectic ideology; today its main expressions include extreme nationalism, opposition to “mass immigration” (especially of Muslims into Europe), anti-Americanism, and being against “western liberalism” or decadence, which translates as being against Jewish and LGBTQ people. While not identical, it overlaps with Aleksandr Dugin’s “Fourth Position” ideology, and both have been encouraged by elements of the Russian State under Vladimir Putin.

As was reported in a La Presse article last year, the RCMP picked up Fallara under Article 810.2 (3) of the Criminal Code, which is used as a way for authorities to impose conditions on someone that they fear will commit a serious offense, even though the person may not have done anything criminal as of yet. His conditions included being prohibited from possessing firearms, explosives, or what they described as “terrorist material”. (While we are completely opposed to what we know of Fallara’s politics, the repressive implications of this state tool and the conditions imposed should be obvious to readers).

Screenshot of the La Presse article reads “Severe conditions placed on Montrealer suspected of terrorism.”

Buried near the end of the article, it was mentioned that Fallara was also banned from speaking to his friend, Stéphane Dufresne. This led us to wonder: was this the same Stéphane Dufresne as the person this article is about?

Fortunately, Fallara’s Facebook and VK.com accounts are still online and uncensored (he was banned from using social media, but his accounts have remained intact since the date of the trial). On his VK.com profile, he uses the alias Vladimir-Velikayavich Zaytsev-Zorrov, where we can see him in the same outfit as in the photo La Presse used to illustrate their article.

A picture of “Zaitsev” with the same getup as in the La Presse article.

His VK.com profile still features a large number of call-to-arms type posts, such as the following, where he states that he “doesn’t care if he goes to prison or gets killed or executed. I will be proud if the Québécois people finally rise up”. He also mysteriously mentions “I have another wish. My second in command will pick up the baton if something happens to me”. Later in the post he also says “If what I’m preparing comes to fruition and I manage something (I’m not going to elaborate here on FB), know that our revolution will start with a huge BOOM.”

One of Fallara’s posts that probably got the RCMP’s attention.

He shortened his name to “Vladimir Zaitsev” on Facebook, which is still online as he left it before he was banned from using the internet. It is filled with his own toxic blend of Québec nationalism, Islamophobia, and homophobia.

A few of the hundreds of hateful photos Fallara posted on Facebook.

And, as it would happen, it turns out that he was indeed friends with our Stéphane Dufresne: We can see Fallara commenting on a private photo Dufresne posted of the front of his house.

Vladimir Zaitsev (Alexandre Fallara) posting a supportive emoji on Dufresne’s private photo.

In fact, they seem to be quite good friends, tagging each other in multiple posts, such as the following, which Dufresne was tagged in, where they refer to each other as “tovarisch,” which translates to comrade, or friend.

Clear friendship between Dufresne and Fallara.

Or another, where Fallara indicates that he is “with Dufresne and 3 other people”, he refers to Dufresne as “one of our most patriotic steadfast comrades.”

Fallara and Dufresne back-and-forth supportive comments.

As might be expected, they also publicly discuss violent uprisings together, like the following interaction where Fallara asks in Russian “When are we going to war,” to which Dufresne replies: “Currently.”

Fallara asks “When are we going to war?”

Dufresne also is tagged in a creepy video of Fallara stabbing the air with a knife, that he says will “come in handy for close combat”. Dufresne “liked” the video.

Fallara showing off his knife, which Dufresne “liked”.

In another post by Fallara, where he is extolling the virtues of armed uprising (and again tagging Dufresne), we can see Dufresne replying not long after with the comment “Citizen’s militia❤”. Fallara “liked” this reply.

Stéphane Dufresne et Alex Fallara semblent tous les deux avoir une affection particulière pour les milices et les soulèvements armés.

Fallara was picked up by the RCMP and charged under terrorism-related offenses, and one of the conditions of the trial was that he can’t be in touch with his friend Stéphane Dufresne. This brings up some obvious questions, like: Why was Stéphane Dufresne named as someone he wasn’t allowed to associate with? Was Dufresne involved in the same type of activities that Fallara was suspected of planning?

Conclusion

When the Le Troupeau chatroom leak surfaced, it revealed that Stéphane Dufresne was talking about the need for a terrorist attack to wake people up, followed by the assertion that he had “multiple actions coming up.” This in itself was worrying, but a closer look at his online activity shows a man displaying many more warning signs: he is someone who repeatedly states that he wants to wake people up, who practices shooting and street-fighting techniques, who is searching for the perfect Québécois militia (but in the meanwhile has joined a Canada-wide one), and who makes multiple ominous allusions to having “plans.” Dufresne’s name coming up in a non-association clause of a terrorism-related trial makes all of the above even more concerning. The fact that his friend, Alexandre Fallara, was attempting to import arms from the USA and was placed under surveillance by the RCMP, further cements Dufresne as someone who must be monitored closely.

We realize that this story is murky: our own politics run directly counter to the State’s “anti-terrorist” and repressive agenda, which is why we feel the need to carry out our own investigations. We do not rely on State sources, but we cannot exclude what we learn from their investigations and manoeuvres. In a context in which “revolutionary” far-right acts of violence are becoming more and more common, we must remain vigilant, while trying to figure out the answers to the difficult question of what is to be done and how we can most efficiently intervene.

In the broader context, this story is another example of the mixing of scenes and crosspollination on the far-right: in Québec we now consistently have the III% militia providing security at rallies of far-right nationalist groups, and in this case we see neo-Nazis (Martin Minna) planning in private with self-styled “Patriotes” (Dufresne and Lalonde). With the independence movement currently in decline, some proponents have turned to more desperate measures to promote their movement – whether by instrumentalizing islamophobia, or for a much smaller “hard core,” by preparing for violence. What is clear is that the far-right is continuing to fragment and re-form in new ways, and needs to be challenged at every turn.

Report-back on the March 16 Solidarity Vigil/Counter-demo

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Apr 082019

From Montréal Antifasciste

On March 16, the day after the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, Montréal Antifasciste organized a rally in solidarity with the victims, which was simultaneously an antiracist counter-demonstration, given the presence on the site of notorious Islamophobes, one of whom publicly “thanked” the terrorist responsible for the attack.

Here’s a report back:

The day after the white supremacist and fascist terrorist attack in New Zealand found us in a state of shock. Besides the absolutely despicable nature of the attack—the killer filmed and live streamed the murders of fifty people at two different mosques—two things jumped out at us. First, the terrorist’s manifesto indicated the influence of an “ecofascist” discourse, which calls to mind ideas advanced by Atalante Québec and other neo-fascists. Second, he paid homage to Québec terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette by inscribing Bissonnette’s name on one of his cartridge clips.

We were also shocked by what was being published by the Québec fascist scene, which at best claimed the attack was a false flagaction and at worst celebrated it. Adding insult to injury, we soon found out that a number of Islamophobes were planning one of the weekly demonstrations of the (phoney) “Yellow Vests” outside of the Montréal offices of TVA television on Saturday, March 16.

Wishing both to honour the memory of the people who had been murdered and to prevent racists who were celebrating the event from gathering outside of the TVA building we decided to hold a solidarity rally at their usual meeting point. Time was short, and we didn’t know that approximately ten other solidarity events would follow ours, with hundreds of people in attendance. We had hoped that our gathering would make the Islamophobes think twice about showing up outside of TVA out of a basic and obvious respect for those who were in mourning.

We had underestimated their lack of basic decency…

By 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, about a hundred people from different scenes had responded to the Montréal Antifasciste callout to gather outside the doors of TVA behind a banner reading “Contre le racisme et la haine” [Against Racism and Hatred]. The people present were taking turns leading chants, when, at 11:30 a.m., people sporting yellow vests arrived on the sidewalk across the street from us. We were (disagreeably) shocked to discover that the leading the packwas none other than Pierre Dion, the Islamophobic militant recently banned from social media following a series of threats and a pattern of verbal aggression. Eventually, the “Yellow Vests” numbered a few less than twenty. We know that there were people among them who had no idea they were surrounded by Islamophobes, and we don’t hold them in any way responsible. We do, however, believe that this article should be a wake-up call for them.

Here’s a list of the far-right militants who were present:

Pierre Dion, homophobe, and conspiracy theorist who aspires to be the leader of a motley crew of nationalist whack jobs who make La Meute look like diplomats par excellence.

Michel Meunier, aka Mickey Mike, Mickey Mayer or Mickey Myers, Islamophobe and apologist for terrorism (for example, he has called for another Islamophobic attack at a Québec mosque and expressed his “gratitude” for the terrorist attack in Christchurch).

Michel Ethier, aka “Le Piratriote” [roughly, the Pirate Patriot], a vulgar Islamophobe, a fan of ALL CAPS insults, and a member of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Mario Dallaire, an Islamophobe regularly spotted at Storm Alliance rallies and on the “security”team at far-right demonstrations.

Robin « Le prophète » Simon, member of the Front patriotique du Québec and its securityteam, the GSP, now associated with the III % militia.

Claude Roy, an Islamophobic tinkerer known for his Styrofoam creations of questionable taste (and repeated complaints that nobody wants his shit).

André Boies, Islamophoboic propagandist and conspiracy theorist, owner of the Les Manchettes disinformation website, and the translator into French of the manifesto released by the terrorist responsible for the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Boies says he was there by mere happenstance, but we are highly skeptical.)

Without really having to work at it, we identified seven known Islamophobic and racist militants in a group of at most twenty people, which raises some serious questions about the Québec “Yellow Vests” pseudo-movement!

Obviously, as antifascists and antiracists, we couldn’t either just sit around twiddling our thumbs or limit ourselves to a silent vigil. From 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the time set for the “Yellow Vests” rally, we drowned out their chants and their diatribes with our own slogans and prevented them from crossing the street twice, in spite of a muscular police presence.

We were astonished to discover what this “Yellow Vest” movement actually is and who it is made up of. Honestly, up to this point, we hadn’t paid all that much attention to them, but we must say, we did learn some interesting things. . .

Four years of experience tells us that the Islamophobic far-right groupuscules in Québec (first and foremost, PEGIDA Québec, as well as La Meute, Storm Alliance, the Front patriotique du Québec,and all their sad little spinoffs) have a consistent need to demonstrate to justify their existence and disguise their lack of significance, a sort of mad plunging ahead that grows increasingly laughable. They are calling their upcoming ritual demonstration, called for May 4, the“Vague bleue” [Blue Wave]. . .Once again, outside of the TVA offices. It’s obviously an obsession! All of the Islamophobic groups—real and virtual—with the exception of La Meute, are apparently calling for people to join this“Vague bleue.”

Another thing we’ve noticed in this four years is that every time we prevent the far right from demonstrating it grows weaker…

Critical Balance Sheet

We are aware that our gathering on Saturday, March 16, had more of the flavour of a counter-demonstration than of a memorial vigil. We would have liked to hold a memorial, but the presence of Islamophobes across the street made that impossible. Thankfully, in the following week, numerous gatherings reflected the true nature of Montréal: a dignified and diverse city.

In spite of everything, we came out of the experience feeling stronger. We mobilized rapidly (in less than twenty-four hours) and in good numbers (more than one hundred people turned out),including some our closest allies, as well as members of many of Montréal’s diverse communities.

Also notable and encouraging was the obvious popular support we received, even though the chosen site—outside of TVA on Maisonneuve—is in a low-traffic and unappealing area: for example, the group of joggers who passed by middle finger erect in Pierre Dion’s direction, the cyclists and taxis that gave us regular shout-outs, the neighbours who brought us gallons of coffee and hot chocolate, those who came to thank us, infuriated by the weeks of Islamophobic and racist comments on their doorsteps, and the occasional passerby who stopped for a few minutes to talk and share their thoughts with us or to shout a few choice words at Pierre Dion and his gang. We are grateful for everyone’s support. Solidarity is also a matter of small gestures.

– Montréal Antifasciste

///

P.S. Things fall apart for the “Yellow Vests”

When we were outside of TVA on March 16, it was impossible not to notice the silly antics of Anderson Dufresne, who spent the day flailing about in all directions on his “hoverboard,” dancing, singing, not infrequently falling down… and providing a useful foil in the face of accusations of racism (Dufresne is black). The phoney “Yellow Vests,” with Pierre Dion at their head, repeated at least fifty times in three hours: “We can’t be racist; we have our black friend with us!” However, in the few weeks since that gathering, things have gotten tense between Anderson Dufresne and that racist piece of shit Michel Meunier, whom we mentioned above. Things have heated up, with Meunier calling multiple times for Dufresne to be purged from the “Yellow Vests.” Meunier finally let loose with a stream of racism of the vilest kind, egged on by a few other “Yellow Vests,” shining the light of day on the internal contradictions that plague this pseudo-movement. Read Xavier Camus’ report for more details.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete: AI Development in Montreal

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Apr 052019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Our lives are increasingly characterized by algorithms that mediate our relationships to each other and to the world around us. By analyzing our behaviors, our preferences, our networks, and many other aspects of our lives, those who exert power over us manage to stay one step ahead. What’s at stake here is our capacity to have secrets, to resist, to agitate, to attack what destroys everything we love and protects everything we hate. It’s a fight against the new panopticon.

Montreal has become a hub for Artificial Intelligence (AI) development. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to several companies that now offer tons of specialized yuppie jobs in the domain. At the end of 2018, a document of principles surrounding AI development in Montreal was drafted. These principles were written up by some of the biggest players in AI in an effort to address public concerns about the potential of these new technologies. The document, now known as the Montreal Declaration, lists 10 unattainable and ridiculous principles such as: “The development and use of artificial intelligence systems must permit the growth and well-being of all sentient beings”. Such pitiful public relation stunts by the engineers of social control are no longer surprising. AI will soon be integrated into nearly all spheres of society, from finance and the extractive economy to healthcare and policing. From now on, in a multitude of domains, any entity that wishes to be competitive will need to integrate AI into its operations. States will apply these technologies to expand their capacity for social control, surveillance, and military intervention. We think that it can be useful to shed some light on different projects in the city to demonstrate the intentions of some key players. In order to start a conversation and develop ideas for intervention, we decided to map out Montreal’s AI industry and its allies.

The AI milieu in Montreal is extremely interconnected. Dozens of companies work together to simultaneously develop AI systems for a variety of economic, social, and political goals. The Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms (MILA), operating out of the University of Montreal (UDM), is one of the leading institutions in terms of research and coordination of projects. According to Valerie Pisano, the president of MILA, “today, there is a buzz around Montreal and artificial intelligence, we are one of the world leaders in terms of creation, production, and inspiration of talents”. MILA’s mission, according to their website, is to federate researchers in the area of Deep Learning and Machine Learning (see FAQ for definitions). They want to share their infrastructure, knowledge and skills with a pool of companies that could benefit from opportunities opened up by their research.

“The machine learning laboratory at the University of Montreal is led by seven professors, Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Aaron Courville, Prof. Pascal Vincent, Prof. Roland Memisevic, Prof. Christopher Pal, Prof. Laurent Charlin, and Prof. Simon Lacoste-Julien, all of whom are leading world experts in machine learning, especially in the rapidly growing field of deep learning.” MILA also has offices in the O Mile Ex building located in the Parc Extension neighborhood, at 6666 Saint-Urbain Street. O Mile Ex is a part of MILA’s effort to provide a platform for collaboration, share infrastructure, and provide access to their research to a pool of companies. The space hosts numerous companies specialized in research and development for deep-learning, defense, security, and transportation work. Institutions such as Thales, QuantumBlack, the Institute For Data Valorization, and Element AI all have offices at O Mile Ex. Designed by the Lemay architecture firm (known for designing police headquarters, a migrant prison, etc), this tech hub is a hostile force for the residents of Parc-Ex. Not only are these projects likely to negatively affect the lives of the people living there, but they also contribute to gentrifying this largely immigrant neighborhood to accommodate the developers and students working there.

Yoshua Benjio, professor and director at MILA, is one of the pioneers of AI research worldwide, and his expertise has been sought after by various institutions throughout the years. Although Benjio and his team claim to be firmly opposed to the weaponization of AI systems, MILA seems to be working closely with Thales. Thales Canada develops and provides information systems for defense and security, aerospace, and transportation markets in Canada and internationally. It offers command, control, communications and computer-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products, force protection products, and radar and night vision systems. Thales has opened its own private lab at the O Mile Ex building.

MILA has also accepted 4.5 million dollars over three years from Google, which brings us to our next players in Montreal’s AI industry: Hugo Larochelle, Shibl Mourad, and Aaron Brindle. Hugo is Google’s AI research director in Montreal and works at the Google Brain Lab, Shibl is the tech engineering director at Google’s Montreal offices, and Aaron is responsible for communications at Google Canada. Google is planning to double its capacity to operate in Montreal by 2020, when they will move from their current offices at 1253 McGill College to a space twice the size at 425 Viger Street West.

Google has been providing AI technology for drone strike targeting to the Defense Department of the United States. Google tried to obscure this relationship by routing this collaboration through a northern Virginia tech company called ECS Federal. They use deep learning tools to help drone analysts interpret the vast array of image data from the military’s fleet of drones in countries like Syria and Iraq.

Whether it’s the US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work talking about working with ECS/Google on algorithmic warfare designed to “accelerate [the Department of Defense’s (DoD)] integration of big data and machine learning” and “turn the enormous volume of data available to DoD into actionable intelligence and insights at speed,” or Google devices normalizing the use of forensics like voiceprint, GPS location, search histories and preferences, and so much more, these kinds of developments and future Google projects should be recognized as what they are: tools of social control meant to reconfigure the way that capital flows and the world is governed. It is unclear which projects are being developed in Montreal specifically, but technological advances made in one field can easily be re-purposed and adapted to many other fields.

This arsenal of domination is being pushed forward by companies and people working here in Montreal. Such developments are being used internationally to police communities, silence dissent, and limit people’s capacity to attack the existing order.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is so ubiquitous that it has become part of our language as a verb. But behind its cool, friendly, 21st-century tech image lies a business model based on surveillance capitalism. Examples include:

“Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers—even when location services are disabled—and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals’ locations and their movements that go far beyond [user’s] expectation of privacy.”

“In Toronto Google is part of the ‘smart city’ project. Its sister- company ‘Side Walk Labs’ is specialized on the matter. This cool name stands for a city where equipment can detect, analyze and collect data in real time, being present at every street corner, installed in the ground and attached to the walls . Everyone will be monitored, for the sake of ‘efficiency’ or saving costs.”

“Machines are increasingly making decisions that influence every aspect of our life. People are being turned into mere series of numbers: Who gets access to credit, how much does insurance cost, who has the right to board a plane, who gets killed by a drone. This is only possible through the harvesting of data by companies like Google.”

(from FuckoffGoogle.de, website from the fight against Google in Germany)

All of the usual suspects are also very active in Montreal. For instance, Facebook’s artificial intelligence research program or FAIR directed by Joelle Pineau is actively working on Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and Microsoft owned lab Maluuba specializes in deep learning and is trying to double its size by 2020 to have 80 engineers. Microsoft President Brad Smith “is excited to engage with faculties, students and the broader tech community in Montreal, which is becoming a global hub for AI research and innovation.” Several lesser-known but similarly fucking huge companies are also working in Montreal. CGI is a company headquartered in Montreal with hundreds of offices worldwide. Founded in 1976 by Serge Godin and André Imbeau as an IT consulting firm, they soon began branching out into new markets and acquiring other companies. They have customers in a wide array of industries, with many in financial services, public safety (police forces), and defense. CGI also develops products and services for markets such as telecommunications, health, manufacturing, oil and gas, posts and logistics, retail and consumer services, transportation, and utilities. On their website, CGI says it works on developing deep learning, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, smart cities, and automated data analysis tools.

Another firm, Deloitte, has offices in Montreal, and has clients from San Diego to Buenos Aires to India. They are inspired by disturbing case studies in predictive policing and crowd-sourced repression. Here are a few examples from their website:

“The 2011 riots in London were an incredibly chaotic time. There were more than 20,000 emergency calls to police, a 400 percent increase from a normal day; and almost 2,200 calls to the London Fire Brigade, which is 15 times the normal amount. To help catch those involved, the London Metropolitan Police crowd sourced the identities of 2,880 suspects using a smart-phone application. The police asked citizens to download the Face Watch ID app and help identify the persons through images taken from CCTV footage. If an image was known to them, citizens entered the name or address of the person, which was sent to the police immediately and confidentially. This enabled the police to effectively apprehend suspects and led to charges being filed against 1,000 perpetrators.”

“In a city of over four million, and with a crime rate that rose in all categories in 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department knew that it needed to take action. To help tackle crime, Los Angeles piloted a new tool incorporating some of the top Smart Security thinking: PredPol. The mission of PredPol is simple: place officers at the right time and location to give them the best chance of preventing crime. The tool, which has been piloted in the Los Angeles and Santa Cruz police departments, uses three data points – past type, place, and time of crime – to predict criminal behavior. These data points are fed into a unique algorithm, which incorporates criminal behavior patterns. Law enforcement then receive customized crime predictions, automatically generated for each shift in their jurisdiction. These predictions are highly specific and lay out the places, mapped to 500 by 500 feet squares, and times where crimes are most likely to occur. While still only a pilot, PredPol has already brought down property crimes by 13 percent in one of the divisions.”

“Risk Assessment and Sentencing Tool or RAST is a sophisticated data analytics engine that helps classify offenders as low-, medium-, and high-risk and makes targeted sentencing recommendations based on a host of case-specific factors. The RAST canvasses large data repositories across multiple states and jurisdictions, accounting for both static and dynamic factors. Static factors are unchangeable circumstances related to crimes and offenders, such as offense type, current age, criminal history, and age at first arrest. Dynamic factors, sometimes called criminogenic factors, can be mediated by interventions and include attitude, associates, substance use, and antisocial personality patterns. The RAST is more advanced and more useful to judges, juries, and parole boards in three specific ways. First, since the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice administers it at the federal level, it relies on an exceptionally large, nationwide data set. Second, the data is continually reassessed for its predictive validity: It is reviewed annually to determine how often RAST correctly classifies offenders, accounts for static and dynamic factors, and makes effective sentencing decisions as measured by the rate of recidivism. Finally, RAST differs from traditional risk assessment tools because it takes into account more than answers to questionnaires. Static and dynamic factors are used in combination with specific, real-time data such as an offender’s behavior and location.”

The Canadian Bar Association is also talking about implementing AI in the justice system here. Karim Benyekhlef, the expert on the matter, is responsible for the cyberjustice lab at UDM.

Fujitsu has also been making waves in the city. Montreal is planning to sign a 2-million-dollar contract with the Japanese company to make the city “smarter”. Fujitsu is supposed to develop systems that will help direct traffic in order to improve emergency response time. The company would link all of the city’s traffic cameras into a single network to analyze the flow of traffic in order to increase efficiency and monitor traffic.

So why are all of these institutions choosing Montreal? Partly because of ongoing research and a skilled workforce that was established over a decade ago, but also because of incentives created by the state. In September 2016, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund allocated $84 million to McGill University for their Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives (HBHL) initiative and $93.5 million to Université de Montréal for Optimization of Deep Learning and Knowledge Sharing (IVADO). In March 2017, $40 million was allocated to Montreal from the Government of Canada’s $125M Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, administered by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). In spring 2017, $100 million was allocated by the Quebec government for the creation of a province-wide cluster and institute for Artificial Intelligence. In March 2018, the Quebec government announced a grant of $5 million toward the establishment of an international organization on artificial intelligence and $10 million to NEXT.AI and CDL, initiatives of HEC Montreal, over the next five years. SCALE.AI, now partnered with NEXT.AI, is part of a new consortium that will form an international platform of logistical chains that integrate AI. In December 2018, the government of Canada gave 280 million dollars to this new giant managed by Hélène Desmarais, wife of Paul Desmarais – President of Power Corp. She is also executive president at IVADO.

Moving Forward

This research on the network of AI players in Montreal is by no means complete. The list keeps getting longer and the scope of the industry is not about to stop expanding. Others can take this as a starting point and dig deeper.

Although the scope of these projects seems to be all-encompassing, odds are that a lot of the development and applications of these technologies are still in their infancy and quite vulnerable. However, the possibility that these projects will reach their completion in the near future is very likely. We like to think that through our actions, we can inspire others to attack these developments on which systems of domination and social control will increasingly depend. Through conversations and research, we can find the weaknesses of these architects of complacency, and strike.

– some individuals against authority

April 2019, Montreal // Tio’ti:ake

FAQ

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence in the field of computer science that often uses statistical techniques to give computers the ability to “learn” with data, without being explicitly programmed. While ML is often described as a sub-discipline of AI, it’s better to think of it as the current state-of-the-art – it’s the field of AI which today is showing the most promise at providing tools that industry and society can use.

What is Deep Learning?

Deep learning is a particular subset of machine learning. While this branch of programming can become very complex, it started with a very simple question: “If we want a computer system to act intelligently, why don’t we model it after the human brain?” That one thought spawned many efforts in past decades to create algorithms that mimicked the way the human brain worked—and that could solve problems the way that humans did. Those efforts have yielded increasingly competent analysis tools that are used in many different fields.

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things (IoT) comes down to the concept of connecting any device with an on/off switch to the Internet (and/ or to each other). This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig. The point is that data moves in a web of interconnected items to make everything ‘smart’.

Example:

You come home at night. Your smart home recognizes you, and automatically adjusts lighting, temperature, ambient sound. Your domestic items chatter among themselves. “What’s up?”, your computer asks your mobile phone, camera, and all your smart mobile devices, which provide it with daily data. Your smart fridge notes that you eat the last yogurt, and orders more immediately on the Internet.[…] A glance to one of your screens reassures you of your old mother who lives alone: the sensors securing her smart home do not report anything unusual about her blood pressure and medication consumption. She does not need help. In short, without you, your life unfolds just as it should. It’s such a convenience.

(IBM & the Society of Constraint)

Unist’ot’en Camp Gearing Up for Spring Construction Camp

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Apr 042019

From the Unist’ot’en Camp

UPDATES FROM THE FRONTLINES

HEAL THE PEOPLE – DEFEND THE LAND

6TH ANNUAL SPRING CONSTRUCTION CAMP

Volunteers Needed for Cabin Building Projects in May!

Spring camp runs from May 6 to 31

With spring coming early to the north, plans are underway for new projects across WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORY, including cabin construction for WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE. Following the invasion of our territories by RCMP and industry, we are continuing to reoccupy our lands – helping our people reconnect with, reclaim, and protect our homelands

We need people with CARPENTRY, COOKING, AND CAMPING SKILLS, or a good attitude and a willingness to learn. “Many hands make quick work!”

The UNIST’OT’EN CAMP is not a blockade, a protest, or a demonstration – it is a permanent, non-violent occupation of UNIST’OT’EN TERRITORY, established to protect our homelands from illegal industrial encroachments and to preserve a space for our community to heal from the violence of colonization. This year, UNIST’OT’EN volunteers will be working with other WET’SUWET’EN clans to support WET’SUWET’EN sovereignty.

We prefer volunteers who are able to spend two weeks or more supporting us, but welcome any contribution of time and effort.

Please be prepared to work under the leadership and protocols of the Indigenous stewards of the YINTAH. Supporters are asked to register here in advance: http://unistoten.camp/come-to-camp/camp-registration/

Our spring camp will run from MAY 6 TO MAY 31. Supporters are needed prior to and following the work camp as well, so if your schedule conflicts with our work camp dates, please apply regardless.

If you are not able to make it in person, consider sending a financial contribution to help cover our operational costs.

DONATE TO UNIST’OT’EN CAMP

To maintain safety and security we prefer volunteers to either have previous experience at the Unist’ot’en Camp or be able to provide references from one or more persons who have been to the Camp or are known within the movement.

If you meet that criteria and are physically fit for the hard work of supporting the camp and checkpoints, prepared to commit at least one week or more and are prepared to work under the leadership and protocols of the Indigenous stewards of the Yintah then register HERE.

… AND ONE MORE SPECIAL REQUEST TO SUPPORTERS IN THE LOWER MAINLAND AREA OF BC:

Please reply to this email if you can possibly billet volunteers passing through the Vancouver area and needing a place to stay – usually for just one night – in order to connect with their ride to Camp.

The Bunkhouse was built in the summer of 2014 followed by the Healing Centre constructed in stages over the next 3 years.

THE PROTECTION OF INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY AND MOTHER EARTH MUST BE FOUGHT BOTH ON THE LAND AND IN THE COLONIAL COURTS. WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO SUCCEED IN BOTH. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE GENEROUSLY, WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD.

DONATE TO UNIST’OT’EN LEGAL FUND

DONATE TO GIDIMT’EN ACCESS POINT

STAY UP-TO-DATE WITH LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AS THEY HAPPEN

It began with the UNIST’OT’EN CAMP in 2010. Then as the RCMP prepared to assault the Healing Centre checkpoint at the Wedzin Kwah bridge the GIDUMT’EN CLAN stepped up with their own Access Point at KM 44 of the Morice River Forest Service Road. Now other WET’SUWET’EN clans have joined the effort to protect the entire territory of the Nation. Things are moving quickly on both sides of this pivotal confrontation between present-day colonialism and still vibrant Indigenous sovereignty so we urge you to bookmark these links to stay informed and be prepared to respond on a “real-time basis”:

Unist’ot’en Camp
Wet’suwet’en Access point on Gidimt’en territory
Sovereign Likhts’amisyu and Namoks
Tsayu Land Defenders
Unist’ot’en Website
Gidimt’en Website

ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT UPDATES FOR SUPPORTERS

If you are planning a fundraising event or campaign make sure to read
the newly released fundraising protocols.:

Unist’ot’en

Gidimt’en

SIGN THE PLEDGE

Join hundreds of organizations and 13,843 individuals in signing the pledge to support UNIST’OT’EN and the WET’SUWET’EN:
https://goo.gl/forms/GE5bfm5ITDTyNPy12

#UNISTOTEN #WETSUWETENSTRONG #WEDZINKWA #NOPIPELINES #NOTRESPASS

Collaborators of the CAQ

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Apr 042019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

** To be shared widely in teaching milieus and beyond **

The Coalition Avenir Québec is moving forward with its ban on the wearing of religious symbols by many public sector workers.

No matter the party in power, we’re against the government telling people how to dress, as well as feeding fear and hatred of Muslims, and Muslim women in particular, under the pretext of “secularism”.

Any government policy takes effect only through those who apply it and collaborate. For this reason we are making a call to identify those who participate in the enforcement of this law in public institutions. For example, someone who calls the police on an employee in their workplace for wearing a religious symbol, who harrasses them, who denounces them to their superior, who fires them, or who refuses to hire them for this reason.

We invite you to send the information you have about the person who is applying the law (name, organization, job title, photo, etc.) with a description of their actions and their consequences to doxxlescollabos@riseup.net. We’ll do our own research so that we can then publish as much information as possible about the person enacting state-sanctioned racism.

We’re aware that the law will also apply to cops of various types. Cops are the guard dogs of this rotten system based on colonialism and racism, so we have to say that we really don’t care about a cop’s job security, regardless of their religion. As a consequence, let us clarify as a matter of form that any information received about a police service or prison guard will only be used to support research into the links between these agencies and far-right groups in Quebec.

We won’t calm down. If you collaborate with the government by policing religious symbols in a workplace, we’re watching you!

Call to Disrupt the Nature Champions Summit

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Apr 012019

From Printemps tout le temps [Facebook page]

April 24th and 25th, Montreal will host a “Nature Champions Summit” bringing together “major philanthropists, business leaders, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, Indigenous leaders and environment ministers from around the world”.

While the planet burns, the poorest populations suffer the violent consequences of ecological disasters, and animal species rapidly disappear, politicians hope to gather peacefully for one more congress. We don’t need yet another summit organized by the Canadian state, known for its extractivist economy, and which just bought a pipeline for 4.5 billion dollars, telling us that a “new partnership” between a handful of ministers and major capitalists will save us from the climate crisis. These “Nature Champions” are responsible for the catastrophe in progress. There is no way we can let them continue to administer disaster with their hollow promises.

April 24 and 25, 2019, let’s disrupt their summit! Let’s multiply actions and demonstrations to show that the “Nature Championship” will be won by those who defend the water, the land, and all that lives on it, not by those that exploit them.

Sodexo Attacked

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Apr 012019

Suzanne Bergeron, présidente de Sodexo Canada

Suzanne Bergeron, president of Sodexo Canada

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

In the early morning of March 29th, the president of Sodexo Canada was visited at her home in Brossard. All the tires of the two cars in her driveway were slashed, their windshields were smashed in, and FUCK SODEXO and (A) were written on their hoods.

Sodexo profits from imprisonment around the world. They offer among other things management services for private prisons and migrant detention centers, and cafeteria services for prisons.

In Canada more specifically, they profit from the extractive economy by offering security and cafeteria services for extraction sites.

This action is in solidarity with anarchist prisoners everywhere.

Prison profiteers must not sleep peacefully. The companies considering taking contracts for the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval should think twice.

Migrant Prison: Attacks on Lemay Condo Developments

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Mar 262019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On the night of March 19th, the sales office of Humaniti had its windows smashed and two Lowney towers were redecorated using paint-filled fire extinguishers. What do these condo developments have in common? They were both designed by the Lemay architecture firm, which is helping to build a new migrant prison in Laval, Quebec.

Why not disturb the peace and quiet of the citizens occupying these luxury condos, whose wealth and comfort are founded upon the dispossession, exploitation, and imprisonment of those who have been here since before the colonization of this continent, those newcomers seeking a better life, survival, or pushed here by empire, and everyone who resists the prevailing order?

Lemay, we hope you enjoy informing your future potential clients that their projects will be sabotaged if they hire you. Should you choose not to inform them, we will enjoy giving them a costly surprise.

To all those struggling against borders in so-called Quebec and Canada: let us relentlessly attack the companies and agencies involved in any way in the construction of this migrant prison, so that it can’t be built!

Fire to the prisons! Sabotage borders, their enforcers, and collaborators!

Anticapitalist MayDay 2019 – Cabot Square – 6:30PM

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Mar 262019

From the Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes

On Wednesday May 1st, at 6:30pm, in Square Cabot, the anticapitalist caravan is back at it again to say fuck your borders and fuck your prisons!

For people fleeing miserable living conditions, what are borders if not fences around prisons? After all, what’s the difference between forcing people to live inside arbitrary perimeters against their will and imprisoning them?

Being forced to work for a Canadian company in Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, or elsewhere isn’t much better than being detained. These companies produce all of the useless junk that forms the basis of our modern comfort. The fact that the factories are so far away from Canada makes the exploitation less visible for westerners, though it is clear that slavery has not vanished; it’s only been given a different label. Exploited people pick our fruits, sew our clothes, catch our fish, and die for the rich to get richer, day after day, after day, after day…

When those exploited try to rebel, imperialist states are always happy to sell corrupt governments, armed groups, local prison guards all the weapons and tools to repress anyone who wishes to change the system. Police officers in Central America, guns in Africa, funds in Asia… everything needed to keep local populations under control. Everything needed to support the shaky pyramid of capitalism.

Under these circumstances, how can we not see migrant caravans as people fleeing prisons of poverty and misery? Escaping endless exploitation? This escape is however unacceptable for an imperialist state. States finance complex networks to kidnap freedom seekers and take them back to their original cells where they can waste away working; a network made up of border agents, prisons for migrant families, and immigration police. An entire chain running from Canada to international neo-colonies. A chain made up of imprisoned children, families torn apart, abused women, dead men, and assassinated hopes.

Capitalism is the accumulation of wealth up North at the expense of the global South. It’s the construction of a padded fortress destined for a privileged handful, at the expense of all human decency. Capitalism is the eternal exploitation of three quarters of humanity. This Mayday, let’s attack the sinister agents of capital, the bloodied hands of slave masters: the border infrastructure, the companies gaining wealth building prisons, the inhuman deportation machine. This Mayday, we say fuck borders, prisons, and all who continue to build fences between peoples.

This Mayday, let’s march for freedom! Let’s march for the death of a system that spits on humanity! Let’s march against Capital!

Main Starting Point

Meetup at 6:30 in Cabot square (Atwater metro station).
To follow the state of the protests on Twitter
Legal Support (in French)

Other Demonstrations and Starting Points

IWW demonstration (détails to come soon)

On the same day as the Christchurch massacre, an Islamophobic Québécois propagandist translates and publishes the terrorist’s manifesto

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Mar 262019

From Montréal-Antifasciste

On Friday, March 15, 2019, less than 24 hours after the Islamophobic massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, a Québec internet site published a French translation of the killer’s manifesto.

Why would someone be in such a rush to translate this document and amplify the killer’s message? This wasn’t a just some error that we can chalk up to a serious journalistic blunder: it was the intentional signal boosting of an Islamophobic manifesto. The translator’s online Islamophobia is extensive and well-documented.

Let’s not forget that what we’re talking about is a seventy-four-page document published by the killer as a part of a propaganda and public relations operation meant to explain why he did what he did, and that in it he pronounces his allegiance to fascism and calls on white supremacists the world over to imitate his actions.

So who was it that published the manifesto in French?

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to read the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to download the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

It appeared on the Les Manchettes website, a website that has existed since 2017 and that specializes in sharing and spinning fake news, conspiracy theories, and nationalist, conservative, and Islamophobic texts. Everything points to Les Manchettes being the work of one person, who maintains the site and signs most, if not all of the articles André Boies, who goes by the alias Bo Bois on Facebook.

The Lesmanchettes.com website is registered to André Boies.

André Boies posts the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to his Twitter account.

There is no doubt that Boies is the French translator of the manifesto and that he posted it. For one thing, he was quick to brag about it on Facebook:

André Boies admits to having translated the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to French.

If that weren’t enough evidence that he was the translator, Boies either did not know how or forgot to remove the metadata from the pdf of the document posted online, which identifies the owner of the software used in its production:

Metadata extracted from the pdf file of the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto show “André Boies” as author.

In a discussion with some fellow Islamophobes, Boies says he made a copy of the video of the attack “au ka qu’on (le) censure” (sic) [in case it is censored]:

Who Is André Boies?

André Boies is a graphic designer who lives in Montréal. He is very active in Québec’s nationalist fascistic milieu on Facebook and Twitter and publishes at least one article a week on the Les Manchettes website. He owns a web design company called “Graphixab,” which is just one in a long list of ephemeral companies connected to him. He hopes to be of service to the Québec nationalist milieu, offering his skills to design stickers for far-right militants.

Boies, like most of the legion of goofs who make up the Québec far right, is obsessed with Islam, as he indicates in a number of ways, including in his online comments (Coudonc, tout le monde la [sic] dit que l’islam c’est de la grosse marde!) [Come on, everyone says that Islam is a pileof shit!]. He also uses his various company façades, including his “Sticker Deal” Twitter account, to advance conspiracy theories, e.g., that the action was a “false-flag attack”(Sondage: Pensez-vous que l’attentat survenu en Nouvelle-Zélande soit un possible false flag?) [Poll: Do you think that the New Zealand attack might have been a false flag?].

On line for only a few years now, his website includes dozens of bluntly and unrestrainedly Islamophobic articles of the kind that resonate with the vast majority of right-wing and far-right nationalist circles in Québec, and which are becoming increasingly normalized in Western society. Boies also uses his website to advance absolutely absurd and slanderous conspiracy theories, such as the idea that halal certification in Canada is used to finance terrorism! One only has to make a summary Google search to realize how obsessed he is with Islam and Muslims.

An example of the Islamophobic headlines found on André Boies’ website.

Here is a sample of his Islamophobic and xenophobic posts (including a graph supporting the “great replacement” theory, which is at the core of the Christchurch killer’s manifesto):

Boies’ tumultuous criminal history shows that he is no stranger to slander! He even had a pissing contest with the SQ in 2012 about which of them was the worst of slanderer. This obviously wound him up, because it remains an obsession of his even today…

André Boies is concerned with slander.

A Québecois de souche who even the Parti Québécois finds embarrassing

Boies is clearly part of the hard core “patriot” movement of the variety that finds La Meute insufficiently radical and too federalist. In the summer and autumn of 2018, when internal splits within the far-right were multiplying and an election was forthcoming, Boies decided to campaign aggressively for the PQ.

André Boies, Parti Québécois activist.

André Boies campaigns for the PQ…

He was even pathetic enough to cover his car with PQ themed stickers when he went to intimidate Québec Solidaire volunteers in Rosemont! (VICE documented his humiliation when, in August 2018, the Parti Québécois demanded that he remove their logo and party colors from his car.)

André Boies’ car covered with the Parti Québécois’ colours.

André Boies recounts his encounter with police after he allegedly harassed people around a private Québec Solidaire event in Rosemont.

Why would he publish the killer’s manifesto?

Boies may claim to have translated and published the manifesto for purely journalistic reasons, but any professional or specialist in information technology will tell you that a signal boosting gesture of this sort is ethically challenged in the extreme and doubtless motivated by other concerns.

André Boies spins the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto with the Lesmanchettes.com Twitter account.

From our point of view, publishing this manifesto in French is more than a simple error in judgement. Given Boies’s Islamophobic history, we can be forgiven for thinking that his incentive was a desire to spread as broadly as possible the killer’s message and his motivations for a terrorist act that cost the lives of fifty members of Muslim communities in New Zeland.

It is also no coincidence that on the day after the action André Boies was seen sniffing around the (phoney) Islamophobic Yellow Vests outside of TVA, across the street from a gathering honoring the victims of the massacre. He obviously wasn’t there to join either gathering, because he only stayed at a distance for a few minutes taking photos of the antiracist and antifascist militants. He published an article the same day bemoaning the waste of public resources that this solidarity gathering led to.

A call for vigilance and for action against Islamophobia

At this point, Islamophobia has been so trivialized in Québec that on the day fifty people were massacred a far-right nationalist militant could rapidly translate —albeit poorly— and diffuse a terrorist manifesto on social media platforms without a single comment in the mainstream media or, for that matter, without anyone denouncing it. (At the same time, in Ontario, the authorities “launched an investigation” of a notorious neo-Nazi who posted the manifesto on his website and of another who published a list of proposed targets for lone wolf attacks.)

It’s about time that we collectively address the depth of the problem with Islamophobia in Québec and Canadian society and that antiracist forces combine their efforts to counter by any means necessary the increasing normalization of hate and intolerance, particularly against Muslim communities.

One of the simplest things we can do that is to identify and denounce those like André Boies who actively promote Islamophobia.

P.-S. Boies also came sniffing around the Manifestation contre le racisme et la Xénophobie, in Montréal, Sunday March 24. He was baffled when antifascists called him by name and asked him to leave stat. He even wrote an article about the encounter for his site…

« Je n’ai vraiment aucun commentaire négatif contre ces antifas, ils ont été quand même sympathiques, ils m’ont quand même demandé très poliment de quitter les lieux. »
[I don’t have anything negative to say about the antifas, they were friendly, they politely asked me to leave.]

Thanks, André. Now you’ll know that we’ve highlighted your name in our little book of scumbags to keep an eye out for.

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