Anti-racists in Montreal have built a coalition of over 150 groups in the struggle against fascism, and on Sunday they staged their first demonstration—a massive, festive “fuck you” to nazis. The night before the demo, some people redecorated a statue of John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister and an architect of indigenous genocide. For more info go to Montreal Antifasciste’s website.
On November 12th, 2017 a demonstration of about 5,000 people snaked through Montreal under the banner “large demonstration against hate and racism”. This was a good show of force, and tactically an important step on the part of the organizers in a context where far-right groups have been able to match or out-mobilize anti-racists at times in recent months. The demonstration was clearly organized under a left coalition type of model, and as a result, suffered from some rather questionable populist language in their mobilizing call-out. Some of us were a bit concerned about a possible drift towards the de-contextualizing and delegitimizing of the concept of “hatred” which could likely come around to bite anarchists and other radicals in the ass in the future. ...
Over the last few days, you’ve surely become aware of the controversial bill proposed in Québec. Bill 62 seeks to protect the state’s much vaunted “religious neutrality” and is the latest move in a long standing political debate about secularism and religious accommodations—a debate that particularly impacts Muslim women. On October 18, 2017, the nightmare became reality: Bill 62 on religious neutrality was adopted by the National Assembly by 66 to 51 margin.1 This report provides a critical overview of the law and its implications, as well as its historical roots and its place in a larger social context, specifically focussing on the Islamophobic discourse advanced by the mainstream political parties in Québec, as well as placing it within the framework of the increasing normalization of the rhetoric and mobilizing of far-right Islamophobic and anti-immigrant groups across North America since early 2017. We also think it essential that the issue be approached from a feminist viewpoint—as an example among many others of the restrictions and controls women are subjected to by the state, particularly racialized and Muslim women. ...
Hey Robert Proulx, We broke the windows of your storefront. We guess you don’t have to clean any more paint or posters off of them now. We’ve hated you and your involvement in “La Meute” for a while, and thanks for the communique from when your store was attacked on the 30th of September, we finally got your address. On October 16th, we rolled up to your store at 6117 rue Belanger and broke your windows. We were happy to see that someone else had spray-painted “RACISTE” in red on the sidewalk directly in the front of your store. Apparently, lots of people hate you, Proulx. ...
Mark your calendars: Montreal mobilization to Quebec City on November 25 Oppose racism and Islamophobia! Support migrants and people of colour! (please share this callout widely with Montreal-area networks) Two far-right, anti-immigrant groups — the Storm Alliance and La Meute — are co-organizing a rally in Quebec City on Saturday, November 25 at 2pm at the National Assembly. Since the Ste-Foy mosque massacre in January, these Islamophobic groups have escalated their public presence and activities.Their upcoming rally in Quebec City represents a crucial and necessary moment for anti-racists to come together to oppose racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and growing fascism. ...
In the early morning of September 30, with the help of a fire extinguisher filled with paint, we repainted brown the exterior façade of JS RP Tech Informatique, owned by Robert Proulx, located at 6117 Bélanger. Robert Proulx is an active member of La Meute, involved with security. Contrary to what they chant in the media, La Meute is an Islamophobic and racist group, using a media strategy to spread far-right, anti-immigrant, conservative ideologies, and which promotes white supremacy. Almost all public personalities of the right-wing in Quebec are members. Its idols being politicians like Marine le Pen and, Donald Trump. La Meute, with populist discourses that democratically demand the “freedom of expression”, revives the currents of the far-right in a frightening way. Several members are inspired by figures advocating for racist murder and the return of slavery, such as the KKK or Adolf Hitler. ...
Is a racist who knows they’re a racist more, or less, racist than a racist who doesn’t know that they’re a racist? It’s a pertinent question, since it seems that a trait almost universally widespread among racists is to energetically deny their racism, a posture epitomized by the classic phrase “I’m not a racist, but …” The participants in the anti-fascist demo at Lacolle on September 30 were a bit taken aback by the cheerful response of the Storm Alliance demonstrators to the slogan [♫ Tout le monde… déteste les racistes! ♫] (tr: “everyone hates racists!”). The several dozen older folks, white as the snow, who had come from the four corners of Québec to protest “illegal immigration” and “Trudeau government policies,” began to chant the same slogan back at the anti-racist protesters with remarkable enthusiasm. ...
“…fascism is imperialist repression turned inward” -Cope (2015) as quoted in Kesīqnaeh Following Saturday’s “Open The Borders” demo at the Lacolle Border , the message “DECOLONIZE” appeared along a canal wall in an affluent southwest Montreal neighborhood. This piece provides an opportunity to explicitly outline some links between the ongoing struggle of decolonization across Turtle Island and anti-fascist action. In Fascism & Anti-Fascism: A Decolonial Perspective , Kesīqnaeh makes some insightful links to these struggles while questioning the significance of fascism to Indigenous peoples already combatting colonial violence. For the sake of brevity, a few direct quotations are provided below: ...
On September 30th, anti-fascists converged to the Lacolle “US/Canada” border crossing to support migrants and to oppose far-right group Storm Alliance. The group claims they are not racist but many in their ranks are known white nationalists and neo-nazis. For more info visit https://montreal-antifasciste.info/en/
This antifascist poster has been turning up in the streets of Hamilton the past few days. It offers some analysis of the group Storm Alliance that will be holding rallies in various cities and at the border on September 30th. A local group of far-right losers decided to call themselves Storm Alliance and to try to hold a rally in town that day as well, but they quickly took down their event page and it’s unclear if the local event will even happen. Still, it’s concerning that they are trying to hide their racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric behind language about poverty and mental health, a sensitive subject in this city like in many others. It includes a link to a page where you can leave tips about far-right activity in your neighbourhood. Full text of the poster below. ...
Recently, a video has been posted on Facebook and YouTube entitled La vérité sur les Antifas, Jaggi Singh et la Corruption de l’Université Concordia #StopQPIRG. It was initially shared on the Facebook page of “DMSQ”, before it was taken down, but it remains up on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8JDmapM6uc Such a video would not normally be worth mentioning, except that it has been linked to on “clickbait” style websites like “La Clique du Plateau” and “Thug Life Quebec”, and as such has gained a larger audience than most similar anti-left media interventions. ...
What is the Storm Alliance? The Storm Alliance is an anti-immigrant organization that has been active in Quebec since 2016, when it broke off from the Soldiers of Odin, a more openly racist group. Storm Alliance is led by former Soldiers of Odin leader Dave Tregget, who has explained that his goal is to unite the far right while softening its image. [1] How many members does Storm Alliance have and what do they do? The Storm Alliance claims to have 3,000members across Canada, but this figure really only represents those who have joined its facebook groups. In actual fact, the group has difficulty getting more than a few dozen of its own members out for any of its events. Their biggest event to date was July 1 at Roxham Road, in Hemmingford, where they gathered to intimidate people crossing the border. Their numbers that day were boosted by the anti-Muslim far right group La Meute, who had agreed to cooperate with them on that occasion, and still they were only 60-70. ...