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Trumpism in Canada

(January 11, 2021) A loud and heavily policed protest gathered at Dundas Square across the street from the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto on Saturday, January 9, 2021 underlined the international reach of Trumpism and his white supremacist politics.  The protest was ostensibly about the Ontario government’s mandate (however unenforced) to wear masks in public when social distancing isn’t possible.  But as is evident in the United States—and countries across Europe—the anti-mask movement is a cause that brings together white supremacists, people from the anti-vaccination movement and right-wing hobbyists and politicians. 

An undated photo of Conservative Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen wearing a MAGA hat has been circulating online indicates her support of Trumpism. Her response decried the violence of the insurrection in Washington, DC, but not the ideology of insurrectionists. 

Conservative senator Lynn Beyak was suspended without pay last May after refusing to remove derogatory letters about Indigenous Peoples posted on her website, a suspension that ended automatically when Parliament dissolved for last fall’s federal election.

Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Erin O’Toole won’t say if he believes there is systemic racism in Canada and, in December, had to walk back comments he made about residential schools when speaking to a group of students at Ryerson University, where he said, “residential schools were meant to try and provide education” and that “lefty radicals are the dumbest people at your university.”

As The Charity Report reported in June, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) released Environmental Scan of Right-wing Extremism in Canada, an interim report represents one of the most comprehensive efforts to date to assess the scale of right-wing extremist activity online in Canada. The study “identified 6,660 right-wing extremist channels, pages, groups and accounts across 7 social media platforms.” The reach of these channels, pages, groups and accounts was significant, and collectively they have reached over 11 million users across these platforms. Anti-Muslim and anti-Trudeau rhetoric are the most salient topics of conversation among right wing extremist actors in Canada.

A Trump supporter attending a pro-Trump, anti-mask, anti-vax protest at Dundas Square in Toronto on January 9, 2021.
Photo © The Charity Report.

Conservative Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen wearing a MAGA hat has been circulating online and indicates her support of Trumpism. Her response decried the violence of the insurrection in Washington, DC on January 6th, but not the ideology of insurrectionists. 

Canadians for Trumpism attending a pro-Trump, anti-mask, anti-vax protest at Dundas Square in Toronto on January 9, 2021
Photo © The Charity Report.

White supremacists often use the language of civil rights leaders to rally their troops. This sign, held by an attendee at a Dundas Square protest in Toronto on January 9, 2021, which reads”Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed” is a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The sign on the right contains a quote from former president, John F. Kennedy.
Photo © The Charity Report.

Several protesters at the January 9, 2021 Dundas Square rally flew what has become known as the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled rattle snake with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” emblazoned underneath. The flag is named after American general and politician Christopher Gadsden (1724–1805), who designed it in 1775 during the American revolution. It is often used in the United States by conservatives as a symbol for gun rights and limited government, and is used by the Tea Party movement.
Photo © The Charity Report.

A speaker at the protest called COVID-19 a “hoax” and used, as evidence, the number of politicians who took vacations outside the country. “They know,” he told a cheering crowd, “there is no pandemic. That’s why they felt free to take their holidays.”
Photo © The Charity Report.

Related articles

Ontario hospital CEO and COVID advisor, Dr. Tom Stewart, vacations outside the country for weeks as pandemic spikes January 7, 2021

Right wing extremist groups growing in Canada: Muslims and the prime minister key objects of their scorn June 21, 2020

Filed Under: Headlines, Photo Essay Tagged With: The Charity Report, Trumpism in Canada, white supremacy

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