Canadian Fascism Eh? Part 1

who is here? Oh? Yeah, this is it could happen here, this is it could happen here. I'm I'm Garrison, I am our resident Canadian. Yeah, that's Anderson. That's Anderson the dog in here. We had we had to hire a Canadian for a diversity quota. You do not anyway, We have Chris here, Robert Evans as usual. Um, Sophie, So we're gonna talk about We're gonna talk a little bit about about Canada today. So in the in like the scripted what if scenarios first positive in the original it

could happen here. Um. It detailed what it might be like to live in the United States during a modern civil conflict. And like one of the stories that we kind of tell ourselves as a culture is about you know, crossing up into the safe haven of Canada whenever stuff breaks out in the States. Um, whether that be like an escape from just the hell that's us politics, um, or you know, going up into the cold northern terrain

better equipped to deal with climate change. Canada is kind of just viewed as a bastien of like of liberal democracy in North America. Um. You know, I've I've made jokes in the past about using my Canadian passport to escape up into the forest of Alberta when things get too dicey here in the States. But this like weird utopian view of Canada is not just wrong about Canada's current political state, but also assumes that a Canada is like immune to the political shifts that the States have

gone through the past few years. Which is it's it's very obviously not um so like Canada internationally is and specifically in the States, it's it's used as like, you know, Canada, it's it's used it's like America's little brother, but it's you know, it's much more you know, democratic, it's much more liberal. It's like it's like this kind of ideal scenario for like what the state's could be. And like Canadians have a weird view of the States as well.

Like Canadians, they're both like the like they're kind of obsessed, Like a lot of Canadians think no more about US politics and then they know about Canadian politics, um, but almost in like a way that we watch sports. It's it's like it's like this thing that we like watch as entertainment, like like some kind of like sick reality show.

That's how I think a lot of Canadians really view US politics, um, because it's just so wacky compared to the kind of more like civil parliamentary system that we have in Canada. US politics just looks very very bizarre, and there's always this notion it's like, no matter how bad things can get in Canada, at least we're not the States, at least at least we're not at least

we're not the US. And that is kind of a lot of a lot of how a lot of stuff can get really get can just like surviving Canada longer, because it's just they view it like at least, at least we're not as bad as the other people. So that's how you know, it gives them kind of some kind of sense of security. But in terms of like in terms of Canada as a country, you know, we we we've said that Canada as a country is basically just you know, a few mining companies in a trench coat,

and the trench coat is healthcare. Um. And that's that's really all they are is as as as a country. UM. But today we're gonna be talking about kind of Canada's slide towards farther right wing politics, UM. Both you know, historically and then more recently, because a lot of what we've seen in the States has happened kind of in its own weird Canadian way around the same time. UM. But before we before we really get started, I think could be remiss not to mention how the Canadian government

has historically treated Indigenous and First Nations people um. Living on that land. Of course, it's like not only just hundreds of years ago, but a lot more recently as well. Just in the past year, there have been thousands and thousands of like hidden graves found across the provinces at the sites of these residential schools, UM and the process of looking for these on Mark Graves has like just

just started. UM. The Canadian Historical Association published a letter this past Canada Day Canada Day is like Independence Day but for Canada, UM, saying that it was abundantly clear that Canada is guilty of is guilty of genocide. UM. I know there's there's a few episodes Behind the Bastards UM and I think even worse here that that talk about residential schools UM and and the genocide of Indigenous Canada.

So you can you can check those out. And I wrote this episode to be more focused on Canada's political shifts the past five years. But since we're talking to be talking about Canadian fascism, I thought it would be irresponsible to not mention this upfront as like a thing responsible and very responsible. So I'm gonna try to take us through aspects of Canadians of Canada's politics chronologically. UM. You guys can button and kind of ask questions and

clarifications about stuff. UM. But the first thing that we're gonna start with is actually going to be on the First Nations the side of things, and that that's kind of how that that's what mostly Indigenous people are called in Canada's First Nations. Um. Even you know, the Indigenous people up in Canada most amused that term. So that's the term I'll be using for some some of this stuff,

just because that's the one that's used up there. Um. So the the residential schools program is where I'm gonna briefly mention a few things about it, just because of how it kind of relates to some of the stuff that we're gonna be talking with for the rest of the episode. UM yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna read someone. I'm gonna read some words by by Duncan Campbell Scott. Who was the department who was who was the Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This was like a rank in

the Canadian government. Um. He served as the Deputy Superintendent from nineteen thirteen to nineteen thirty two. UM. And he's arguably like the main architect of the residential schools program. Um. He was. He was also good friends with the first Prime Minister of Canada, John John John McDonald. So here's here's here's how this guy the the architect of this program.

This is this is how he kind of talked talked about this in letters to both his like his underlings, and just like openly quote it is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habituating so close in the residential schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this does not justify a change in the policy of this department, which is geared towards a final solution for

our Indian problem. It is quite within the market to say that fifty percent of children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education in which they had received. So that's that's just what he calls it. He he says, the final solution to the Indian problem. It's very very very clear. What what like,

that's just the language he uses. And this was like before Hitler though, like this was this was paying attention to these Yeah, yeah, like this this is just like this is the mindset of all of these same people. This is all of all of the same thing. Um. Another another another quote from this dude is I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think of it as a matter of fact that the country ought to continually protect a class of people who

are able to stand alone. That's my whole point. Our objective is to continue until there's not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the into the body politic, and there's no Indian question and no Indian department. That is the whole objective of this bill. The bill referring to the residential schools program. So that's

that's how he talks about these things. Um. There there's other letters that he's sent that's like telling his um, his like agents because he had like agents stationed at at Canadian at Canadian reserves to like not let Indians do dancing because both that's you know, that's doing their cultural practice, but also it'll astract them from learning how

to do Western farming. Um, Like they weren't allowed to go to fairs or exhibitions or anything that you like that anything that has like that is reminiscent of like any kind of cultural tradition that is not white in European. Um. So he he is, he is a pretty pretty pretty bad dude. He probably deserves his own his own thing that this this specific guy. But you can can you can kind of see like these like fascist ideas and rhetoric are not foreign to Canada. Um. And you know,

it's been there since its infancy. And now Canadian politics is very different in a lot of ways compared to American politics. Uh. Canada tries to kind of follow the European model, whereas America is very much like the rebel state that tries to play on its play by its own rules. Um. Kind of the first main difference is that Canada isn't a two party system. Um. It's it's more like a two party plus system, because yeah, there still is the main Liberals in the main Conservatives, but

there are there are other parties that actually can get elected. Um. And it's it's not it's not like a strictly two party system the same way the States is. So that makes things more interesting. Um. And another thing that's really interesting about like a cultural politics that's that's different from the States. You know. Besides, you know, Canada obviously has

like a parliament and a prime minister. That's different, but that Canada view and Canadians view nationalism and patriotism very differently, uh, compared to to like United States. Um. Citizens patriotism and in some ways nationalism have always been kind of more of a liberal progressive thing, um, you know, in the opposition to the States, where it is not really seen as a liberal progressive thing. Um. It's like, even under conservative leadership, Canada kind of prides itself as as sort

of like liberal utopia. And that's where a lot of the patriotism and celebration of Canada comes from among its you know, mostly liberal and more socially progressive citizens. They like celebrate Canada as like this great progressive nation, and that's where a lot of the patriotism comes from, is like,

oh look, look how progressive we are. Um. Then the nationalists in part can be a bit more tricky, uh, because you first need to understand like the English and French divide which within the country, which I barely understand that to be honest, I was I was, I was. I was born in the Prairies. That was you know, much more of like the Protestant English English settlement. You know, I'm not from Quebec, but we'll be talking about Quebec a lot here because it is very important to how

nationalism works in Canada. So the divide between the French and the English make elections really interesting because the English majority politicians usually need to court some of the French Canadian population and and people in Quebec in order to get enough parliamentary seats to have a majority government, because Canada works on having a majority within the parliament. Um, you can have a minority in in in the parliament

like the Liberals currently have. So even if you know, someone doesn't win a plurality of votes, that can still be in control of the government in any in a minority or usually a majority capacity. We'll get into this kind of stuff later. Um. But even though they need to get see from Quebec to have you know, a decent control of parliament, Quebec kind of likes to act like its own special country. Um. They even have their own like federal political party, uh the block Kebuqua and

so like that. That that's a that's a federal party that operates in forwarding the interests of Quebec. Sometimes it functions as like a separatist party, but not really anymore. Um So, although the Blockbuqua is a lot is a lot more secular and progressive than basically any any other major party outside of the n d P UM but despite them being much more like socially progressive, that are also like one of the biggest nationalist parties UM in Canada.

And you know, the far right parties in Canada have had always had their you know brand of ethno nationalism, but that was that's that's been much less pronounced than the kind of like keep non French Canadians out of Quebec and keep Americans out of Canada type of nationalism that's common with like liberals UM and specifically you know, progressives inside Quebec, which you can't blame them for wanting to keep Americans no, yeah, like you can good sense,

if I could keep Americans out of America, I would do it. Yeah. But so that kind of sentiment, you can see how that connect, like you know, be used to foster some not good things though that that that that specific type of thinking of of like keeping nationals,

like you know, keeping four nationals out of your state. Yeah, it's good to not have Americans there, but you know that's going to get extended towards other people's unfortunate yeah, and and like so even though you know, the nationalism can be a lot more progressive, that's not to say as no nationalism does not come up within these sets UM which is going to bring us to UH when when a briefly talk about something from the thirties called the called the National Unity Party of the National Unity

Party of Canada. Um, the National Unique Party, National Unity Party. That is a weird thing to say. Um was was originally called the Canadian National Socialist Unity Party. Oh wait, now that remind national socialism That seems like a term with a little bit of baggage. Yeah, remember correctly, yep, it sort of does. Um so that this was a party formed in nineteen thirty four by a little Nazi shirt head named Adrian Urkhan. Um. Now that is if you cannot tell that it's me trying to say a

French name. So he is from Quebec. This is a lot of Canadian Nazi stuff originates inside Quebec because it already has such nationalist tendencies. Um So, our cons introduction into nationalism started around the turn of the century amid fears in Quebec that Chinese immigration would threaten the white French Canadian working class. Um. This is still a big thing in Canada. Uh. Racism and nationalism against the Chinese

is still a big thing. We will talk about this at the very end of this of this, of of these episodes, because it's still a thing the Conservative Party talks about a lot um. So, yeah, his his internnationalism was because of fears of Chinese immigration in the early nineteen hundreds. Um, the the anti his so his anti immigrants upbringing, plus the fact that he attended the Catholic school um that there there there was no there was no public schools in Quebec until the nineteen sixties. All

of the schools were either Catholic or Protestant. Now, this is also part of the cultural divide inside Canada where usually the English speakers are Protestant and they're usually further west and the and the Catholics are usually you know,

French Canadians. There's a lot of that inside Quebec. Um, so he went to a Catholic school, of which were at the time very anti Jewish because what was happening is the Jewish people in Quebec wanted to make their own Jewish schools and the Catholics, like in charge, didn't want that because then that'd be less people were inside Catholic schools and they weren't you know, learning Catholicism. So there's a lot, a lot of stuff going on here

that is kind of extreme contributing. So he was you know, already anti immigrant because of the Chinese and then he got got exposed to anti Semitism inside its Catholic schools UM and that you know, pushed him onto this specific path.

So in nineteen thirty R. Khan made a deal with the head of the Conservative Party RB Bennett that in exchange for fifteen thousand dollars, which is like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in today's money, Our our con would craft a smear campaign UM trying to assist the Conservatives in basically smearing the Liberals to gain more Conservative support inside the province of Quebec, which at the time

was majority liberal leaning. So Our Khan got to work and started prepping you like pseudo fascist propaganda for the Conservatives UM. And by the nineteen thirty federal election it absolutely worked UM Bennett and the Conservatives one they gained twenty four parliamentary seats in Quebec, which is a massive success. Like before they did not win any seats in Quebec, so gaining twenty four seats in for over the course

of just one election, massive win. UM so after getting the after getting the Conservatives elected, the Conservative Party dropped our Khan because he was you know, a little hashtag problem matic um uh huh. So after he got dropped by the Conservatives short shortly later, our Khan made contact with the growing Nationalist Socialist Party in Germany. Um. And over the next few years he just he started to

gain more fascist contacts around the world. He would exchange letters people from people like people, people from the German Nazis would come over and meet with what and come over to Canada and see what he was doing. He would travel around meeting other other Nazis around the world. Um. So it's kind of just like just gaining a lot, a lot more contacts. So then in nineteen thirty four he formed his own fascist party, which is the Canadian

National Socialist Unity Party. And within that year, so in in the you know, midnighteen thirties, it merged with other Canadian nationalist parties that were more based in the west, so you know, in the prairies like Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC. So he emerged a few other kind of nationalist groups and started gaining traction, getting thousands and thousands of members.

This actually became an actual thing. You can find footage of of his rallies and they're just terrifying, just like you know, just it's the same thing whenever you see like the Nazis, you know, rallying in Britain. You know, it's it feels different than watching a Nazi rally in Germany because you can feel a lot more, you know, if it's it's it's the same feeling. But come but come home your own countrymen kind of do the same thing that you associate with the old footage of dead

people is exactly. Yeah. So he was getting thousand numbers across Canada, um you know, mostly in the provinces of of Quebec and Alberta. So the two main provinces we're to talk about are going to be Quebeca and and Alberta because that's where a lot of a lot of

the far right stuff gets started out. Um So in ninety eight, so that's like four years after he started this, Uh, the Canadian National Socialist Unity Party merged again, this time with various nationalist group groups and so called swastika clubs um in that we're already inside like Ontario and Quebec. So on the eastern side of Canada. So now he he united both the Quebec stuff Eastern Canada and Western Canada. And then he called that the nack Sational Unity Party.

Um and Our Khan appointed himself the Canadian fural Gosh. Yes so, and I'm going to quote from a Time Time magazine piece from July of ninety eight, Our Cohn scheduled Canada's first national fascist convention for Kingston, Ontario. The mayor and city council did not want a fascist convention held in their city and called the police to prevent it. Defiantly, Leader Arkhan slipped forty five of his leaders into a room near police headquarters. It's this old tibe language held

forth unmolested for five and a half hours. Upon emerging, Leader Arkhan wired thanks to the mayor for his courtesy extended and announced the formation of the new National Unity Party. A flaming torch will be the new party's emblem Canada for Canadians, it's slogan and the upraised arm of its salute for king Country and Christianity. Moving on to Ontario, Leader Arkhan supported by eighty five of his blue shirts.

He claims there were eighty thousand members at the time held a meeting in Mancy Hall that that was attended by about eight hundred sympathizers. More impressive, however, there were three anti fascist counter demonstrations held simultaneously. Two outdoor anti fascist meetings drew four hundred persons until broken up by police fearing a clash, but at maple Leaf Gardens the Canadian League of Peace and Democracy attracted ten thousand so

as was the first big fascist rally in Canada. There was like, you know, ten thousands of these more liberal people rallying elsewhere and four hundred like anti fascists ready to you know, beat up these Nazis. Um what then the police beat them up. Because history doesn't change times of flat circle, we're still doing the same thing. Now.

Do you know who won't rally eight hundred Canadian Nazis called the Blue Shirts to sell you products us promise that, yeah, depending depending what Hello Fresh has recently been sending there. Why do you always pick Hello Fresh? There are so many worse brands that we can't ignore the fact that they've been increasingly building their militant capacity for the last seven years. Anyway, here's some ads we have too much to read and we are back talking about the Canadian

Blue shirts. UM, hello fresh, hello shut please continue Blue aprons arons. Thanks Chris, Thanks Chris for saving the bit. All right, thank you. Um. So next year after his first rally, nine, World War two obviously started to ramp up and the Canadian government arrested our Cohn for plotting to overthrow the state UM and his National Unity Party was banned from federal elections. Our Khan was released from

prison after the war, but he continued his political aspirations. UM. He ran for a federal election twice in Quebec, once in nineteen forty nine and once in nineteen fifty three. Both times he uh he ran under his National Unity Party banner, despite it being banned from elections. I don't know how he did that, um, both times. Laws are fake. Yeah. Both times he placed second with over five and a half five and a half thousand votes, which was about

like thirty percent of of of the vote. Um. Actually, but the second time he ran as he ran just under a nationalist banner UM, and he got second as well, but he got like the vote, so he did a slight slightly better just running as a nationalist in Quebec. Not like the National Unity thing, because that was you know, more overtly Nazi. But he kept holding National Unity Party public rallies until the mid sixties. His last rally, I

think attracted like one thousand supporters, too many. I was hoping you were going to say, like three, and there was probably sad footage, but that's sad in a different way. Yeah. So he finally died in nineteen sixty seven, and with him also died the National Unity Party. I So I bring this one up because it's one funked up and interesting um and too. It's like it's indicative of the

weirdness that can come out of Quebec's nationalist political bent. Uh. We can see that now with a modern fact, you know, neo fascist Canadian political party that's based out of Quebec, which we will talk about shortly, um. But even like the nationalist tendencies within Quebec's more mainstream progressive population, Like I'm going to read some of the policy positions of

the block Keebuqua party. That's that's that that's the that's like the Quebec sovereignty you know, party that is still actually very very popular in in elections, specifically in Quebec. And just ahead of this, if you're a French speaker and you're frustrated by Garrison's pronunciations or my pronunciations of Quebecua, that your language isn't real and it's fine, and you're

from the French. Yeah, and you're responsible for this Nazi so unlike unlike English speakers who have been responsible for Spanish. That's my take, okay, anyway, saying Spanish here here here is the progressive liberal block kibu qua policy positions UM Quebec sovereignty you know, up into independence. But usually it's

just you know, them pushing the interests of Quebec. Um. Environmentalism, abortion rights, you know, pro abortion rights UM, l G l G l g B, t Q rights UM, the legalization of of assisted suicide, UM, opposition to Canadian participation in the Iraq war. UM abolition, abolition of the abolition of the monarchy. All right, Uh? Forcing forcing immigrants to speak French in Quebec lost, blocking immigration to Quebec. You've

also lost me. The Quebec Secularism law, which bans public workers in positions of authority from wearing just symbols primarily targeted at Muslims and seeks exemption Quebec's exemption from the requirements of the Multiculturalism Act. Yeah. I mean, I don't know the Multicultural Act, but it's great. It's it's it's good.

So yeah, so you can kind of see how like they have you know, all these like, you know, pretty good, pretty good progressive sings, and then and then they get really anti immigrant, right, so this is like, this is kind of hard to explain to Americans, how like you can be very like pro gay, pro you know, abolition of the monarchy, but then also be like, no, but we don't want those brown people in Quebec. Yeah. So yeah, anyway, we're we're gonna move on from Quebec specifically, but don't worry,

we will be back because you're still a problem. But there there are there are other things too, are other

things to discuss. So after our cons fascist Canadian movement, there was a stint of like Canadian skinheads in the seventies, you know, around the same time as the UK and the US UM In the seventies, there was an unsuccessful Nazi party called the Nationalist Party of Canada that spawned a skinhead gang called Heritage Front Um Heritage Front disbanded around the mid two thousands because the Canadian Feds infiltrated it and kind of you know, cut that down, so

critical support to the Canadian fans. But now we're gonna move on to unite the right. Uh not not not the United Right that you're thinking of, the Canadian Unite the Right movement from the ninety nineties and early two thousands. But that one probably wasn't problematic right there. It has no lasting problems. So because of Canada, because of Canada's multi multiparty system, there's more opportunity for ideologically similar parties to split the vote, you know, of people leaning in

a certain direction. Um. Throughout most of the later half of the twentieth century, they were multiple conservative right wing parties that were operating at the same time, which did split the right of center vote. This is in part what allowed Canada to rise as like a liberal haven, because for a while the Conservatives just couldn't get elected because they were in the vote too many ways, leaving

the main Liberal party to win the vast majority of elections. UM. Obviously, this frustrated right wing politicians and vote and voters than in the nineteen nineties, there were there were there were two main right wing parties. There was the older Progressive Conservative Party. They're like a classically fiscal conservative party with slightly less socially conservative beliefs, so you know, I would

rather take them compared to the alternatives here. Um. The other major party was a right of center party called the Reform Party, which was much more of like a right wing populist and extremely socially conservative party, more similar

to like the Trump era Republican Party. You know, they're they're they're they're much they're much more right wing populist, they're way more socially conservative, kind of what we traditionally think of as like, you know, like a racist Republican that this this this is their party called called the Reform Party. So after after loss after loss throughout the nineties and during the turn of the century, concertative efforts were being made between these two parties to unite into one.

In nineteen, there was a Unite the Right conference held in Toronto, Ontario, trying to bring together politicians and delegates from these two main conservative parties. But they also brought in some much more extreme Christian fascist parties, which there was like four of at the time. There was a lot of a lot of Christian fascist parties around this time. Um, So the conference garnered a negative news coverage in part to due to the inclusion of these far right Christian

extremist parties. And then after the conference, polls were conducted that suggested that many of the Progressive Conservative supporters would rather vote liberal than vote for the new kind of merged, more extreme right wing party. So like a lot of these a lot of these fiscal conservatives are like, no, I'm not going to vote for all of this weird racism.

I just don't want there to be higher taxes. So like I'm gonna I'm gonna rather vote for the liberals than vote for these fucking weirdos, which I mean, yeah, that's that, that's the conservative I would rather have. Ye. Um So, the conference didn't sit well with the with the Progressive Conservative Party, um it's politicians or or the political leaders. So the merger plans were cut off. They're like, no, we're not going to do this. You guys are too

weird and racist. We're not doing this. Um. Then in two thous No, I think it is important that this was after nine eleven. I think this is really the reason why this happened. UM one of the original Reform Party founders that the Reform Party is the more populist one. So one of the original founders named Stephen Harper, took control of the populist Conservative Party and worked to improve the optics of the more extreme sides of his party.

I think it's very important that this this happened after nine eleven, and this is how the merger actually worked. So in two thousand three, merger talks sort of up again, and in August of that year the two parties announced the merger had been completed. There was a new United Conservative Party. UM. In the announcement, Harper is quoted as saying, our swords will henceforth be pointed at the Liberals, not to each other, And in December Harper was voted in

as the new party leader. The work did pay off in the two US and six Canadian federal election. The Conservatives gained a controlling minority government among the electorate, with the former co founder of the extremist you know, populist Reform Party, Stephen Harper, becoming the new Prime Minister of Canada.

So this is how he got from Reform Party to being the you know, the prime minister in through the through the two thousand's um he was the prime Minister of Canada for most of the time I lived there. That that that's who I think of when I think of the Prime Minister of Canada's I think of Stephen Harper. So Harper remained as Prime minister until the two thousand and fifteen election that saw noted black face appreciator Justin

Trudeau elected under the Liberal Party. So that's good. What a good system we have that that that man like just your range of his blood. Look, say what you will about the man, very careful, know you under no circumstances gonna hand it to him. You do not, in fact have to hand it to him. Well, you have to hand him the little towel that he uses to get the black face off of his face. He can go into his work running Canada. Uh huh, yep, cool country.

Didn't find out that like five of our governors all had black face photos. It was it was. It was a big year for black face. It really, it's incredible because I can't picture like again, I grew up very right wing and definitely had some said some uncomfortable things in my time. I don't think there was ever a point in which I would have been like, yeah, this seems like a good idea. It's what the fuck like? Yeah, it's pretty What is the joke there? It's pretty it's

pretty bad. Justin Trudeau liberal, Yeah, he is. He is the one. All of the wind Mom's thirst over. Yeah, that's scans, that's not yeah anyway. Um, Beyond making it easier to vote in right of center candidates, what what the Canadian Unite the Right accomplished was pushing the conservative establishment much further to the right than what the previously popular Progressive Conservatives had established, while maintaining the respectability and

civility the progressive Conservatives had cultivated. We are now going to skip ahead to two thousand seventeen. UM. In January seventeen, soon after the US President Donald Trump put into place the travel band from from you know, seven Muslim majority countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a message via Twitter to those fleeing persecution, terror, and war. Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. Hashtag welcome

to Canada. So Trudeau is like, if the US is gonna be racist. We're gonna we're gonna let them in. UM. For this uh, for this next part, I'm going to quote from the New York Times. UM. Just hours after watching the television reports East in Canada would accept immigrants that were shunned by Trump, the twenty eight year old political science student packed his glock, handgun and rifle and trudged through the snow covered streets of Quebec to a

nearby Islamic cultural center. As fifty three men were finishing evening prayers. He unloaded forty eight rounds. Six people were killed, several of them with shots to the head, and nineteen others were injured. One was paralyzed for life. In the month before his rampage, the shooter tralled the Internet eight hundred and nineteen times for posts related to Mr Trump, reading his Twitter feed daily, and homing in on the

American president's travel ban on several Muslim majority countries. He kept a cash of guns underneath his bed at his parents house, and among his friends was just his twin brother. The shooter told investigators that he wished he had killed more people and he wanted to protect his family from

Islamic terrorists. Experts on Radicalization say that in Quebec, the French speaking province surrounded by an English speaking majority, the anti immigrant far right offers fertile, fertile, imperilous ground first ecologically unstable youths seeking a sense of identity and a scapegoat the head of the Canadian based Center of Prevention of Radicalization leading to Violence, they said that the Quebec mosque shooter was in part of was part of a

growing number of educated, middle class to white youths in Quebec drawn to far right ideas, fueled by the election of Mr Trump and fanned by fears of immigration that threatens Quebec's identity. When the Anti Radicalization Center was started in two thousand and fifteen, they dealt with sixteen cases of youths in the province that we're getting radicalized by the far right. Last year, which was like six uh, this center had one hundred and fifty four such cases.

So this is this is kind of the the arc of things. Really, Trump's Trump's election did respire, did did spur a lot of this growing like oh, these political beliefs are acceptable now, right, Like this is something that is like we are we are, we are allowed to do this, and that that did echo in Canada and across a lot of the a lot of a lot of other countries. What what one of one of the victims of the of the Quebec uh massacre his his father said that he come to Canada from Algeria in

the to escape terrorism. UM and he said that like Quebec did not create the monster the shooter, but the Islamophobia that is inherent inside Quebec gave him like the motive. So this is really does relate to connate to like the political situation of Canada. And it's very it's it's it's not a coincidence that the majority of these types of attacks are inside either Quebec, Toronto or um. You know, if you're if you're a white, if you're if you're

in Alberta. It's sadly it's more tied to like other other like conservative values, but like a lot of it is around Quebec for a lot of these like shootings and all these acts of terrorism. Um there was like the there was the in cell guy who ran over tons of people in Toronto with his car. Um same same kind of thing of like of getting more more used to these kind of having these far right ideas be more allowed, um and then think them as more

of like a normalized thing. So that so the Quebec mosque shooting, uh kind of well couple a lot of people in Canada's being like, oh, we're not immune to this. This is like an actual thing that we have to deal with. Two. Um. And the next few months after Tradeo's January announcement, border crossings did see an increase in Canada formally accepted more immigrants and refugees and and not. And there was like, uh, the term in Canada is

like an irregular spike of border crossings. Um. The fact the way Canadian media reported this, I think it's very irresponsible, the way they tried to like frame this as like after this announcement, We're getting so many irregular crossings that only fueled this type of like this type of anti immigrant sentiment. Um. It was. It was not really great. A lot of the old articles I pulled up for this for like, had really had really disgusting framing, especially

you know, viewing it now. So in March, the Canadian Parliament passed a motion that condemns Islamophobia and request that the government recognized the need to quell the public of climate of fear and hate, specifically around Muslims and immigrants. Um. The motion was non binding, so it doesn't it doesn't mean anything. It's just the government saying something nice. Um. But it's still it's it's still sparked tons of outrage. Um. You know. It called on the government to condemn Islamophobia

and all forms of systemic racism and discrimination. Uh. The the margin was passed by like, it was passed by a margin of like two hundred two h two over ninety so people a lot of a lot of the Conservatives in Parliament didn't didn't like this, but it it's it's it garnered so much online backlash. There were there were petitions and nationwide protests condemning this bill as an

attack on free speech. Um and Uh. The person who introduced the bill um uh in an MP named um Akra Khalid see death threats um on through like their email and like they had like their private private information leaked. And it turned in this very very big kind of one of the first things where it had like these like national protests in Canada that you know, similar to how we had like the free speech thing around to two US and seventeen. This was like the Canadian version

of that and how this kind of started. Um And in December, Urdeau signed into the United Nations Global Migration Pact. There's another non binding incentive designed to provide understanding among nations about how to deal with the global immigration crisis. Again, all these things are just people talking um. But it made people very very mad because if you're talking about it, that means it actually is real and it's actually gonna affect you, or it's just ignoring that these problems exist.

So really, after Trump's election, after the Quebec, after after the Quebec mosque shooting, then we have all these bills. This kind of ignited a in person rallying possibility and in person protests that Canada hadn't really seen before for this type of like anti immigration sentiments. UM. And we'll we'll talk more about these protests after after we have a little little bit of an ad break. You know, who doesn't get protested except for that one time when

they illegally overthrew the government of Ecuador. Uh have to be more the that's right, Garrison, our sponsors only one time did they inside cause mass protests as a result of overthrowing a sovereign government. That's pretty good, Garrison, pretty good. Are you trying to do like a Banana republic thing? What are you? What are you doing? I'm just saying most podcasts three to four governments overthrown by their sponsors. All right, it could happen here just the one baby, Hello,

welcome to Why Canada isn't a liberal utopia? Uh and actually has a lot of the same sytemic problems that every other Western country does. And it's not immune to fascist infiltration and option so as so I know, we we've you've talked a lot about Quebec and stuff, which is uh great because yeah, it is a problem. But this exists in the Western provinces as well. Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC have a lot of these growing kind of things.

But they're not French Canadians doing this. They're more like you know what we in America would you know recognize as like rural conservatives. Um. So, around all of this, you know, increased discussion around immigration in t seventeen um around the same time people in Western Canada had we're

facing a bit of an economic recession. They had you know, significant job loss around this time UM, and projects that traditionally brought work to the area, like pipelines were you know, there was discussion of them getting stalled and people you know, moving more towards renewable energy. This kind of increased a lot of the political tensions between the Eastern you know, liberal majority Canada and the western more rule Canada. UM quoting an article from the CBC, Uh, Trudeau just keeps

giving away all of our money to immigrants, said Samantha too. Boy, that is a that is a French name. I'm not even attempted that one. Samantha Frenchie anyway, This mother of five, she attained a January fifth rally with a webster, her husband, and two of their children. It was her first protest for any cause we're stuck paying for all this money that he wants to give away to everybody but Canadians.

My kids are growing up, and my grandkids and all of their kids are going to be poor and stuck in a hole that they're never going to get out of. This is this is you know, very common type of thing like oh, we're getting taxed and taking all of our money and giving giving away to immigrants. This happened after this, after the Syrian refugee crisis, when Canada's sort of accepting a lot of Syrian immigrants. That's that's around

the time that I left Canada. Um. But I totally remember people, you know, having very similar sentiments of like, why are we you know, paying for all of these refugees, know, and of that that that's that's the thing that happens in the States too. Yeah. Um. So the economic tensions developing in Western Canada, combined with the increase in anti immigration sentiments among conservatives, were in part spurred by the Trump presidency, led to the Canadian Yellow Vest movement. UM.

This is totally separate from the French protest movement. UM. The Canadian version just stole like the working class branding, just used it for their proto fascist crusade. Um. So the Canadian yellow Vests were a a group of connected protest movements over the course of nineteen that had a lot of like in personalities but also a lot of

online mobilization. It's kind of since tide out, but it was a major force in pushing right wing extremism in Canada and having it be accessible to like regular people. Right it's it's not it's not like the Proud Boys at all, where it's like you know, specific you know, bad people doing this thing. It was like appealing to like, you know, the oil workers, appealing to like the moms. It was like it was it was it was primarily used Facebook as a means of passing off this type

of information and making it seem you know, acceptable. Um the Canadian Loovest's quoting an article from Vice UM Canadian Yelovests, which had over a hundred thousand members on their Facebook as of May, carries the greatest potential for radicalization leading to violence in Canada right now, according to the executive

director of the Canadian Anti Hate Network UH. The group description says it says it was created to protest the carbon tax and build that pipeline and stand against the treason of our country's politicians who have the audacity to sell our country's sovereignty over to the globalist u N and their tyrannical policies. But concerns over Canadian soil sector appeared to be a very little factor in the discussion

that goes on inside these groups. Instead, members are obsessing over with the defending you know Western civilization from Islam Bashing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and spreading whatever you know, far right conspiracy theory is trending at the time, and I cannot overstate the amount that these people hate Trudeau. But it's it's not for like reasons because he wore black face. Like they find the most bizarre ways to

hate this man. Um A lot of these people think that Justin Trudeau is the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro. This is this is kind of look similar. This is a very a very popular conspiracy theory in Canada. It is like the way that Trudeau is treated by conservatives is baffling because like, I hate Justin Trudeau, but I think I hate him for like reasonable reasons, Like he made a lot bunch of promises around you know, environment stuff that he didn't follow through on. He doesn't do

he doesn't do anything he is. He does a lot of black face. It's like there's a lot of reasons to hate Justin Trudeau, but not because he's the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro leading us to like leading trying to sneak Canada into it the socialist You end, like, that's not that's not what he's doing, like like the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro. There's a couple of those in the United States. One of his daughters is now like a right wing radio personality and fun that makes

so much sense. He you know, he's Castro. He did a lot of fucking like who who would care? It's not your your fault, who your dad is. It's just like this is it's it's like it's like a weaker, like funnier version of Birtherism. Yeah, it is. It makes it is like the Canadian version of that. Like it's very weird. He's like justin Trudeau is very cringe e. He lies about all of his promises. Um, he talks about game. He does a lot of virtue signaling. It

does a lot of black face. There's are all really good reasons to a lot of black face. Um yeah, a lot of black face. But the way, the ways that they come up with trying to make him seem like a bad dude just baffling. Um, very very bizarre.

So um. In an interview with somebody from the Yellow Vests exposed Anti Fascist Research Team, which was a very good Twitter account around it's it's it's inactive now, but this this was a very good account, a very good account that did really really solid research into the into the Ellis movement. UM. In an interview, they were asked what type of impact they think the elves Is could have in Canada and this was this was their response.

The image of the threat is no longer the skinhead, blooded, blood, blood and honor type. We're dealing with average people who don't understand the impact of the rhetoric. They're calling for the mass death of an entire religion, or they're celebrating them, or they're celebrating the violence against that religion, or they're

celebrating violence against government officials. They are just one step away from outright fascism, but they can't see that, and they refuse to see that, which I think it's very is a very good UM summary of like how the

yellow vests were a popular movement specifically on Facebook. UM. Another part of it was the idea of like Western separatism UM, Like you know, the people in Western Canada feel ignored, They feel you know, put upon, They feel oppressed not just for feelings, not not just for being Westerners, but they honestly feel oppressed because they're white they feel like, oh, we're focusing on you know, only gonna give money to the brown people. That's the kind of thing that they

feel like in the West. Um, they're like, well, you know, my right to free speech was taken away because of the because of the non binding bill, and refugees can just walk across the border and they make more money than I do. So they they have they have all these all these ideas that are not actually based in reality, but they can believe them. Um, and they you know, find these new sources that are just echo chambers that

reinforce this belief to the point where they become radicalize themselves. Um. It's very it's a very very common thing, especially around twenties nineteen. I was tracking a lot of these Facebook groups around twenty nine as well, just in my spare time, UM,

because it's just interesting to watch them interact. UM. I'm gonna give like, you know, like a brief recap of like a typical yell yellow US protest around like Edmonton, UM based a bit off of a cup of of of of a few CBC articles, So you know, protesters would gather around in front of UM like the Legislative building, holding signs wearing bright yellow vests. Um. And they would do this like basically every every weekend for you know,

months and months and months on end. Um. Some protesters why stand at the podium showing conspiracy theories about how powerful the Jewish families controlling the world are um as one as one dude did at the Alberta Legislature UM on like January. Um. Some may come sporting red make Alberta great again? Hats uh, this was very very popular, very popular. Um. Others may proud the sidelines, stress like

they belong to a biker gang. Um instead of only instead of Hell's Angels, patches that you have patries that say wolves of Odin and Canadian infidels. Uh. I'm gonna give you one, guests, what type of ideology the Wolves of Odin have? Yeah? The the communists, Yeah, no, they're not, say um, but most of the protesters voices are not away from like are not from the fringes. Most of them just have jobs, um, you know, you know in like high rises, or they drive for uber the or

their teachers or pipe fitters or real estate agents. And although their message is like muddled by all of these other like you know, much more overtly extremist kind of talking points. They all have one thing in common that they feel like they're getting ignored and being left behind by the liberals in the East. UM. This is echoed by one of the person they got interviewed at these rallies was named Lynn Smith, who was a former oil

and gas worker who now works in the school system. UM. They were at a a yellow vest rally on in January nineteen. It was like the first first fourth protest she attended. UM. She said, they're just giving away our country. We have no rights anymore, they're taking them away. No more Lord's prayer, but they're putting prayer prayer rooms in schools for Muslims. Um, marry Christmas. You're you're You're not. You're not allowed to say it anymore. It's supposed to

be happy holidays. They're changing, they're changing our country, and we've got to stand up and say something about it, because because this is our country. I was born here, my parents are born here. It's wrong. So you know, I'm sure people in the States they're from earlier with

this type of rhetoric. UM, but just the the increased nature of in Canada was surprising to a lot of Canadians and like president of a lot of like liberal Canadians, because they're like, but you're you're in Canada, Why are you doing the States thing? What? Why are you doing the thing that they do in the States. Why are

you doing it here? Um? But you know, the same reason you know people do in the States is because they feel ignored by politicians, you know, saying that's that's why this happens in Saskatchewan and Alberta m NBC way more than it happens in like Ontario. Right. It's because you know, the more farther away you are from you know, the big cities, the less your interests are cared for by a lot of politicians. So the ones that speak to you are these like extremists who are trying to

pray on these actual you know, financial insecurities. Um. So A lot some of the protesters say that they're not like a post immigration but but most of the focus of the Edmonton Yellow Best rallies has been has been about who can come into the country and how they're allowed to get here. Um. One one guy named Brett Webster, the father of five, who works like a construction construction

industry says they're overwhelming our resources. We can't properly vet these people and make sure it's safe for them to come in and make sure that they're skilled and assimilate into our country and know our ways and our values. So most of the extremest stuff in Canada outside of Quebec does come from does come specifically from Alberta. You know, the big big cities in Alberta are our Calgary and Edmonton.

This happens also in a lot of the more rural areas that you know, mostly used to run on like oil drilling. Um. After losing an election to the more social democratic NDP party UH, the two provincial Conservative parties in Alberta had their own little mini Unite the Right and merged together in to us in seventeen, leading to

their success in the polls in tween. So then the Conservatives have since then, they've done a whole bunch of stuff in Alberta, like cutting down their health care to actually a lot of a lot of the Conservative voters don't like, but like they voted for because that was the platform. You just were being scared of brown people, so you voted for the Conservatives. But now, but now

your healthcare is cut. So that's that's how politics works. Um. So that that's kind of a brief summary of the yellow vest movement and how it how it gained a lot of popularity. Um. They they would do rallies around like polling centers. They would they would they would like they would attack people. They would have you know, violent rallies where a lot of like older older men who were in the Yellows movement would be you know, pretty violent towards you know, and anyone in their area during

a protest. UM. But they kind of kind of around COVID, the yellow Vess kind of sput it out. A lot of the people in these Facebook groups got you know, moved into other conspiracy theory groups, um, and the Ells movement kind of lost its train. Um. So that's where we're kind of going to end for today, is with

the kind of the Elves kind of fizzling out. And then the next part we'll talk about what's happening from like and the election that year took like kind of the present fascist rumblings um inside different sectors of Canadian politics. So yeah, that is that's my that's my very very brief right up of of right wing populism and extremism in Canada. Uh. Pre yep, it's fun. It's not fun.

It's it's it's it's it's upsetting. Um, and it's you know, it's a lot of the same problems we have here of you know, politicians really ignoring people in certain parts of the country which provide provide very fertile recruiting ground for a lot of extremists. I think it's going to all end well, well, that is our that is our that is our official policy, that everything is going to turn out great. Yeah, it seems fine. I mean there's like,

there is actual ways of preventing this from happening. Right, It's not it's it's not a hopeless thing. We can actually do it if we want to. Just people with power to do it, don't don't don't like doing it. Yeah, well and good. That is the message of the pod Sophie. Cool and good. So yep, that's that's Canadian fascism part one. Cool um. I would recommend if people want to learn more about the Canadian uh yellow vests, check out the

yellow Best Exposed Twitter account. Uh. There's also like there's also articles about them. They were a very a very good anti fascist research team. Um yeah, I would just recommend if you want to learn more about this, the specific movement, all of their work on it has been great. Um so yeah, shout out, shout out to Yellow Vests Exposed.

That's the pod. Alright, Well go get your Tim Hortons and tomorrow, yeah, I go get your Tim Horton's and you're I don't know, maple syrup and go find a moose fo Zone Media or Happen Here pot on the twits and the inst against Bye bye everybody, a goodbye a It could Happen Here is a production of cool zone Media. For more podcasts from cool zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or

wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for it could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.