Tracing the History of Right-Wing Extremism in Canada

Abstract

This chapter explores the landscape of right-wing extremism (RWE) in Canada. Three overlapping sections make up this chapter: (1) historical context; (2) contemporary categories and distribution of groups; and (3) nature and threat of violence. We first provide a historical timeline of RWE in Canada, from the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the 1920s to the racist skinhead scene in the twenty-first century. We then outline the categories and key figures of the Canadian RWE movement that emerged from our research, followed by a detailed look at the distribution of extreme-right-wing groups in Canada. This includes regions in which organized hate groups reside in Canada, as well as the estimated number of groups and number of members per group, and target communities. Finally, we piece together a picture of the nature of the violence associated with Canadian RWE by describing the methods, objects, agents and the contexts in which violence tends to emerge from the radical right, as well as linking this section to our analytical frame and providing key examples of violence from the radical right. We will also describe how the criminality of RWE individuals and groups fall into three camps: (1) non-violent crime; (2) criminal violence; and (3) extremist violence.