Antifascist

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] . ...

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. ...

The second edition of the “Vague bleue” (Blue Wave), a marginal social movement drawing in the xenophobic and Islamophobic dregs from the national-populist milieu , took place on the 27th of July in Trois-Rivières. Since the first edition that took place in Montreal on the May 4th , Montréal Antifasciste has documented the individuals and groups that took part in the xenophobic protest, including its “security” contingent, who is little more than a collection of cranks fantasizing about beating up antifas . ...

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. ...

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. ...

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! ...

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. ...

Statement by The Tower It’s been a very intense and revealing week since Hamilton Pride. We helped our friends heal, debriefed our strategies, and circulated as much information about the people who attacked us as we could. The videos and statements have gone viral, the outrage is visceral. Homophobic white nationalists attacked Pride, they were confronted by a huge group of queers, the police did nothing and then took credit for stopping the attack, the mayor backed the police despite hundreds of witnesses, and the homophobes walk free. While the helmet-wielding maniac who smashed our faces continued his crusade in Toronto, posing for celebrity pictures with a new helmet and brutally attacking at least one more person (you can watch the video here: http://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2019/06/violence-after-pegida-march-northern.html) ), the police were busy banging on the doors of known queer anarchists in Hamilton, lurking in backyards, and shaking down our entire community. ...

Recently Montréal Antifasciste published a l ong exposé on the neo fascist organization Atalante Québec . The article discusses the group’s international ties, as well as identifying key members in Québec City and Montréal. The section devoted to the Rock Against Communism (RAC) band Légitime Violence made it clear that for recruiting purposes this sort of organizing inevitably strives to make inroads into certain milieus, especially the countercultural music scene, metal music in particular, tattooing, politics, the universities, and the computer gaming world. As such, the work of identifying these people has only begun. ...

Montréal, May 6th, 2019–The Montreal police (SPVM) was out in force today to protect several hundred Quebec nationalist bigots who had been mobilized by a handful of identitarian groups. As we reported last week , the “Vague bleue” (“Blue Wave”) was in fact organized by activists associated with Storm Alliance, the Front patriotique du Québec, and various far right keyboard warriors. In the end it was the crème de la crème of Quebec’s frustrated nationalists, wannabe militia members, and flea market patriots – not more than 400 people – who found themselves enveloped by two lines of riot cops in front of the TVA network’s building in Montreal, supposedly to support Bill 21 ...

What Is the “Vague bleue”? The “Vague bleue” is a gathering that will be held on Saturday, May 4, at 2:00 p.m., at the TVA building in Montréal. It was initially announced as an extension of the weekly rallies of the so-called Québec “Yellow Vests” ( we’ve written about this in the past ), which has held rallies at the same location every Saturday since December 2018. Initially, the main objective of the “Vague bleue” was a call for a popular civic referendum to establish a Québec “citizen’s constitution”, a reworking of one of the Yellow Vest’s demands in France. Initially, the rallies were contextualized as an expression of civic patriotism by identitarian groupuscules generally known for their online and social media activities. The one thing they all share is an obsessive and hard-line attachment to an independentist project that is openly xenophobic and proactively Islamophobic, with barely disguised racism. ...

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. ...