Organize to defeat the far-right threat

Across the country the far-right is growing – hardening and pulling political debate to the right. And increasingly, they are moving from online hate to organizing on the streets. But these forces are also riven with contradictions and divisions. They can be isolated and defeated, if anti-racists mobilize a broad, confident and unified response.

 

Emboldened by Trump’s 2024 victory and far-right gains internationally, far-right networks across Canada have significantly stepped up their organizing and visibility. While these forces are not yet as strong as their counterparts in other parts of the globe, their rapid growth in the past year should alarm every anti-racist.

 

Their normalisation of virulent racism and efforts to develop a hardened core takes place in a context of ongoing economic and political crisis. Importantly, they are building on the scapegoating narrative and policies promoted by politicians like Mark Carney and Doug Ford that falsely blame immigrants for the crises in housing, healthcare and jobs.

 

Organizing to stop them now, while their base is still relatively small, is an urgent task.

 

Canada’s white nationalists

 

According to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, “Canada’s white nationalist movement has consolidated into a network that includes three key branches: Diagolon, the propaganda arm; the Dominion Society of Canada, an incorporated political arm; and Second Sons Canada and other Active Clubs, the militant arm of the movement.”

 

• Founded by former executive director of the People’s Party of Canada Daniel Tyrie, the Dominion Society presents itself as the ‘respectable’ arm of this far-right movement, describing themselves as a pressure group pushing adoption of ‘remigration’ by the Conservative Party. Inspired by Austrian fascist Martin Sellner (a key figure in the rapid development of “remigration” as a clarion-call for the far right in Europe), they aim to radicalize what is ‘acceptable’ speech on immigration. They promote the Great Replacement theory, a racist conspiracy theory that claims that “elites” are engineering mass immigration to replace white people, and depicting immigrants as dangerous invaders threatening “Western culture”.

 

• Founded by white nationalists Jeremy MacKenzie and Alex Vriend, Second Sons promotes itself as a type of fighting club for its adherents, including mixed martial arts and weapons training, projecting the threat of violence on its opponents. They have close ties with fascist groups in the US and its leaders’ posts are rife with pro-Nazi and violent statements.

 

• MacKenzie is also a key figure in Diagolon, a rabidly racist and anti-semitic online platform that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and later supported the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that occupied Ottawa in 2022.

 

There is crossover between these networks. Alex Vriend boasted that the membership card he received when he joined Dominion Society was #88 – neo-Nazi code for the letters “HH” or “Heil Hitler”. And MacKenzie, Vriend, Tyrie and other Dominion Society figures appear on livestreams together. As Dominion Society co-founder Ken Jones stated, “I think that obviously organizations like the Dominion Society and Second Sons and the community of Diagolon are all complementary of one another.”

 

Together, they push virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Indigenous racism, pressure politicians to normalize this bigotry into rhetoric and policies, and increasingly attempt to project a street presence.

 

Fueling racist violence

 

The torrent of racist abuse online pumped out by the far right – in particular, targeting South Asians – has been accompanied by a rise in reported hate incidents.

 

Between March 1 and April 20, 2025, in the lead-up to Canada’s federal election, over 2,300 posts containing anti-South Asian hate were shared across various platforms which collectively generated over 1.2 million engagements. A recent report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue stated: “Our analysis of the Canadian white supremacist network Diagolon reveals how extremists have been demonizing these groups in practice: by harassing South Asian politicians and community groups, promoting hateful slogans, and openly celebrating their death and suffering, such actors are fueling a growing culture of hate in Canada…”

 

Statistics Canada reported that, “In 2025, there was a notable increase in police-reported hate crimes targeting the South Asian population, particularly in Ontario and British Columbia.” In London, Ontario, South Asians were the second most targeted group in 2025, with 35 reported incidents – a 105.9 per cent increase from the previous year. Across the country, police reported that hate crimes targeting South Asians rose by 227 per cent from 2019 to 2023.

 

The horrific and deadly consequences of this hate are clear: on June 6, 2021 when white nationalist Nathaniel Veltman – an adherent of Great Replacement theory – deliberately rammed his truck into the Afzaal family on a London street, killing four of five family members.

 

Remigration and Great Replacement Theory

 

Dominion Society tries to wear a mask of respectability. But the matching green golf shirts and khakis can’t cover the stench of what ‘remigration’ means: the violent ethnic cleansing of millions of non-white immigrants.

 

Remigration is associated with Sellner and his so-called ‘Identitarian’ movement. In 2023, Sellner met with a select group of Alternative for Germany (AfD) figures and fascists to lay out his plan for the forced mass deportation of people not born in Germany and those who had failed to properly “assimilate” once the AfD took office. This meeting prompted mass anti-fascist protests. Since then, the AfD has embraced ‘remigration’. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), which could win the next elections, also promotes ‘remigration’.

 

According to Charles R. Davis, a journalist based in Vienna, “Remigration is basically the policy response to the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory” – the idea that there is a “global elite plot” (typically by Jews) to replace white people in Europe and North America with immigrants. As Richard Donnelly explains, “Instead of attributing housing shortages, collapsing public services and wage stagnation to decades of market-driven economic restructuring, [great replacement theory] blames demographic sabotage.

 

Antiracism, feminism and LGBT+ rights are recoded as tools designed to weaken social cohesion and drive down white birth rates. Supposed state repression of the far right becomes proof that the process has entered its decisive phase.”

 

In June, at a ‘Remigration Summit’ in Portugal, Dominion Society’s Tyrie and others rubbed shoulders with Sellner and former commander-at-large of US Border Patrol Greg Bovino, a keynote speaker who led the assault on immigrants in Minneapolis and was subsequently fired. When asked if he met Bovino, Tyrie said: “Of course. Have his number for when we need to start rounding them up.”

 

In early August, the Dominion Society announced that Sellner, along with UK fascist Charlie Downes, would be keynote speakers at a Dominion Society conference in Hamilton on August 29th. Billing it as the ‘Premier Canadian Nationalist’ event, they also invited Quebec ethno-nationalist Alexandre Cormier-Denis – once a keen promoter of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally who now says she is too soft on immigration.

 

We can stop the far right

 

In response to Dominion Society’s increasing push to build its far-right network in communities across Ontario, people have organized to oppose their hate.

 

On July 25th, about 70 Dominion Society supporters descended on Orillia, Ontario to conduct a door-to-door campaign promoting their group. They were met by a loud and angry protest by local residents and anti-racists.

 

In response to Dominion Society posters appearing in downtown Peterborough, Ontario, community activists organized an anti-hate rally for August 29th.

 

And in Hamilton, in response to Dominion Society’s planned conference, community organizations, labour and anti-racist activists have built pressure to get the venue to cancel the booking, and have called for a unity rally to show broad opposition to their racist filth.

 

The far right are not unstoppable. They are riven with divisions, between so-called “civic nationalists” and “ethno-nationalists”, between those who promote Holocaust denial and open anti-semitism, and those who try to ‘sanitize’ their message to gain a bigger audience.

 

A strong movement that exposes the fascist forces within their ranks and which mobilizes to deny them the ability to organize in the streets can drive them back.

 

But this will require a broad and persistent effort everywhere they seek to organize. They are gaining an audience in communities, workplaces and schools. We need to counter their ideas, but just as important, we need to fight against the conditions that are feeding the despair they grow on.

 

This means taking on Carney and Ford when they attack immigrants. When mainstream politicians open the door to racist scapegoating to deflect blame for their own failures, they give confidence and legitimacy to the far right. We need to both oppose scapegoating and challenge their priorities of pipelines and war instead of social needs like housing, healthcare and education.