Antifascist

La Meute and Storm Alliance are two organizations which claim not to be racist, but which find their raison d’être in expressing (and spreading) fear of immigrants and Muslims, i.e. of “the other”, within Quebec. Both organizations are undemocratic, hierarchical, and operate within the far right range of politics that we could term national populist. Both aim their message primarily at conservative white francophone Québecois, of a similar set of social demographics (what one might think of as “good ol’ boys” and the women around them). ...

We would like to extend our unconditional solidarity to individuals in Quebec City who were recently arrested, in relation to allegations surrounding the antifascist mobilization on August 20th. We do not know any details beyond what we have seen in the media, but it is clear to us that these arrests are intended by the police and Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume to intimidate antifascists and stifle our resistance to the far right. To those arrested, and all others who may be targeted, we say: stand strong and let us know what we can do to help. ...

Antifascist activism has a long history in Montreal, going back to the 1980s. Prior to 2017, though, things had been relatively quiet for a number of years, most activity not occurring in the public eye. ...

Last week, a new racist group tried to publicly organize for the first time. Their name is Wolves of Odin[1. Editor’s note: From the Wolves of Odin facebook page - “FOUNDED IN THE WINTER OF 2016, WE ARE AN ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO THE DEFENSE OF OUR CITIZENS AND WAY OF LIFE. ORIGINALLY ESTABLISHED AS A LOCAL GROUP OF CONCERNED CITIZENS HERE IN MONTREAL, OUR MEMBERSHIP HAS GROWN INTERNATIONALLY, WITH REQUESTS FOR SATELLITE GROUPS OUTSIDE CANADA. THE W.O.O. WAS ORIGINALLY FOUNDED IN RESPONSE TO THE GROWING IMMIGRATION CRISIS THAT IS BURNING OUT OF CONTROL IN MANY PARTS OF EUROPE. WE HERE AT W.O.O. UNDERSTAND THAT IN THE BEGINNING, IT WAS SEEN AS A NECESSITY TO AID OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS THAT HAVE FLED THEIR WAR TORN COUNTRIES. MANY WERE WELCOMED AND PROVIDED FOR, YET MANY HAVE FORCED THEIR WAY IN UNDER THE GUISE OF REFUGEE STATUS, AND MANY MORE HAVE OVERWELMED THE UNDERSTAFFED BORDER CROSSINGS IN MANY COUNTRIES. CRIME RATES HAVE SKYROCKETED UNDER WAVES OF FOREIGN IMMIGRATION, AND THE FACE OF EUROPE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED FOREVER. IN MANY PLACES OF EUROPE, IT HAS BECOME EXTREMELY UNSAFE FOR THE LOCAL, ORIGINAL INHABITANTS. REPORTS OF THEFTS, ASSAULTS, VANDALISM, RAPE, AND CHILD ABUSE, HAVE BEEN ACREDITED TO IMMIGRATION, IN WHAT WERE ONCE PEACEFUL COMMUNITIES, ATTEMPTING TO DO THEIR PART TO ALEVIATE HUMAN SUFFERING. WE REMAIN STEADFAST IN OUR BELIEF THAT THERE ARE MANY LEGITIMATE REFUGEES FLEEING THE ATROCITIES THAT THEY HAVE FACED IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES, YET WITH THESE LEGITIMATE REFUGEES, COME MANY THAT WISH TO IMPOSE THEIR LAWS AND IDEOLOGY UPON US AS CANADIANS, AND OTHER CITIZENS OF GREAT COUNTRIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD. WE HAVE OUR OWN LAWS AND SOCIETIES. WE ARE PROUD OF OUR OWN RICH AND NOBLE HISTORIES. OUR ANCESTORS FOUGHT FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE, AND MANY GAVE THEIR LIVES SO THAT WE MAY LIVE FREE, SO THAT OUR FAMILIES AND FUTURE GENERATIONS MAY LIVE FREE. BY REFUSING TO YIELD, WE ARE ANSWERING THE CALL TO HELP KEEP THE LIGHT OF THE WEST BURNING BRIGHTLY. WE ARE THE WOLVES OF ODIN, AND WE WILL HOLD THE LINE”], not to be confused with Soldiers of Odin. They organized a small BBQ in a park in the west of the city. After eating and drinking, they decided to go watch the highly-anticipated boxing match. ...

Québec City, September 5, 2017 — Earlier today a group of anti-racist/anti-fascist organizers dropped a series of banners. This action is a part of an ongoing and decentralized struggle against Québec right-wing extremists and white nationalists promoting xenophobic, anti-immigrant and racist views. The banners, displayed prominently along major arteries during the morning commute, read “Si tu n’es pas anti-fasciste, t’es quoi alors?” ( Translation: “If you’re not anti-fascist, what are you then?”) ...

Hi everyone - I’m back in Montreal after two days and one night in the Quebec City police jail. Thank you to everyone for their solidarity and support, particularly folks who attended court (both inside and outside) and for the various people – Arij, Emilie, Enrico, Rich – who provided legal support in different ways. Thanks for everyone in Quebec City who mobilized to attend court (including an old anti-Summit of the Americas 2001 comrade who testified on my behalf) and to folks in Montreal who were organizing behind-the-scenes (including the folks at Montreal Antifasciste who wrote this useful communique . ...

This past weekend, a group of Montreal anti-racist organizers and graf writers collaborated in an effort to remind people living in Montreal and throughout Québec that no one is illegal: there is no such thing as illegal migration. The piece went up underneath the rue Sherbrooke overpass between the Stade Olympic and Parc Maisonneuve. Montréal is on unceded Kanien’kehà:ka territory that has also long served as a gathering place for many First Nations. The Canadian nation-state was founded and continues to rely on the ongoing dispossession and displacement of Indigenous peoples from their territories, cultures, and languages. Borders are an illegitimate, state-imposed apparatus that serve to divide and displace people and communities and then make such divisions appear natural. ...

Montreal, 29 August 2017 — This morning, August 29, Montreal activist Jaggi Singh was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and taking another person’s identity, for having jokingly given his name to police as former Nordiques’ player Michel Goulet on August 20. He is being transferred to Quebec City, where he is to appear Wednesday morning at 9 am in Municipal Court. This arrest came in the context of a far right hate campaign targeting Jaggi, including a petition promoted by the notorious racist group La Meute, demanding his arrest; a campaign that has been taken up by right-leaning political figures and members of the media over the past week. ...

While participating in the counter demonstration to the failed mobilization of la meute in Quebec City, several comrades positively identified a bus used by Montreal based la meute members to travel to Quebec City. The comrades worked together to watch each other’s backs, let the air out of several tires, and removed the license plate from the bus, with the goal being to create further hardships in the lives of these privileged racists. ...

Far-Right Islamophobic, Anti-Immigration Group La Meute Greeted by Militant Anti-fascists and Forced to Hole Up in Underground Parking Garage for 5 Hours From Montreal-Antifasciste Montréal /Québec City, August 25, 2017 — Anti-racists and anti-fascists from across Québec successfully disrupted a demonstration planned by the xenophobic, anti-immigrant and rabidly Islamophobic group La Meute, in Québec City, on August 20th. For more than 5 hours, the racists were holed up in an underground parking garage , as hundreds of anti-racists laid siege to the building where they had gathered, a massive government facility located directly behind the National Assembly of Québec. After clashes with police and several physical altercations between antifas and alleged La Meute sympathizers ( including one siegheiling bonehead ), police cleared the way for La Meute members to come out of their hole and march silently around the parliament buildings for a couple of minutes, still shaking and reeling from their prolonged confinement, significantly reduced in numbers and under heavy police escort. ...

I was not at the counter-demonstration last Sunday in Québec City, but the media wave that followed it has made want to double-lock the doors and let copies of Le Devoir accumulate on the front steps until a winter storm takes them. By force. In effect, on all platforms, politicians were quick to do their favourite thing, namely to denounce “violence”, a term deployed so often that we don’t know much about what it really even means. What violence? That of the police? Of those who throw things in the streets? Of those who think that some people deserve more than others to live in wealthy countries? ...

Download for print here During the anti-fascist mobilization against the racist far-right in Quebec city on Sunday, a Global News camera was destroyed by black bloc participants [1. Unfamiliar with the black bloc tactic? See ’ What is a black bloc? ’]. Afterwards, an anti-racist in the crowd was overheard asking his friend “I understand attacking the fascists, and even the police who protect them, but journalists?” ...