The Radical Right in Québec

Extremist right-wing organisations in Québec generally reflect the preoccupations of counterpart movements in North America and Europe. Irregular border crossings from the US into Québec and the debate on religious values have increased concerns about immigration. Some Québec opponents of Muslim immigration cite the danger of reviving religious influence in politics. The province’s extremists follow French right-wing ideologues, US Alt-Right outlets and personalities such as French politician Marine Le Pen and US President Donald Trump. Several groups are dedicated to building right-wing extremist coalitions.

In recent decades, socio-political dynamics have created a favourable context in Western states for the dissemination and acceptance of ethnocentric and xenophobe ideologies. In particular, the decline of the manufacturing and industrial sectors, the concurrent globalisation of production and the subsequent decline of the working classes, alongside the rise of financial capitalism, the emergence of new interest groups and the perceived indifference of neo-liberal institutions to these trends, have all contributed to the increased global influence of radical-right groups.

These socio-political dynamics, combined with the strong waves of migration from the Global South, have profoundly altered popular political discourse throughout the Western world, with discourse centred around religion and ethnic nationalism surpassing angst over power and class conflict. This is also true in Québec, which is currently contending with a range of distinct radical-right groups.

Composition and Motivation

In the province of Québec, radical-right groups can be roughly divided into four categories based on the identity they construct and the tactics they employ:

1. Potentially violent semi-clandestine groups, such as: Atalante, Northern Order, Légitime Violence, Dead Boys Crew, Légion Nationaliste, Québec Radical, Ragnarok, Vinland Front, Québec Stompers, Nouvelle France Skinhead Crew; Section de Guerre, and Coup de Masse;
2. Nativist reformists. Ultranationalists who are motivated by the conviction that Québecers of French-Canadian stock must actively protect their language, culture and identity against the threat posed by immigrants. These include: the Fédération des Québécois de Souche, Pégida Québec and the Northern Guards;
3. Groups on the margins of established political movements, with similar—but generally more inclusive—discourse to nativist reformists and a profound anti-establishment outlook, such as: La Meute, Storm Alliance, and le Mouvement traditionaliste du Québec; and
4. Vigilante groups, which posture as guardians of the law in the face of unfit authorities, typically targeting communities whose values do not correspond to nativist values, including Soldiers of Odin and the Three Percenters.

Despite constructing their identities differently and employing different tactics, these groups do not operate in complete isolation. Instead, they routinely coordinate their activities. For example, on 25 November 2017, La Meute, Atalante, Soldiers of Odin and Storm Alliance worked together to coordinate a protest in Québec City^{Footnote 31} . This increasing level of collaboration mimics a wider trend also perceived abroad, where radical right groups are frequently collaborating internationally, putting aside their differences and cooperating to increase their influence, reach and impact^{Footnote 32} . Notable examples of this collaboration include the campaigns around the Defend Europe mission in the Mediterranean and the Charlottesville rally (aptly titled Unite the Right). Both campaigns received financial and operational support from numerous European and North American groups.

Environmental scans of the radical right movement in Canada have identified it as a highly fragmented and diverse collection of independent groups^{Footnote 33} . However, analysis of 1,200 posts on key accounts on the Facebook groups of five popular radical-right groups (namely the Soldiers of Odin, La Meute, Atalante Québec, Fédération des Québécois de Souche and Storm Alliance) surfaced five common themes:

1. The fear of the return of religion into the public space;
2. The perceived inertia of the political class and its complicity with media and minorities;
3. The misuse of legal instruments to dilute collective rights in favour of minority rights;
4. A strong opposition to multiculturalism, as a factor of de-nationalisation and social fragmentation; and
5. The perceived emergence of a Muslim enemy whose values are irreconcilable with Québec culture.

The themes of Islamic religious practices being ‘irreconcilable’ with Québec’s values, and multiculturalism as a source of de-nationalisation and social fragmentation are particularly prevalent across all groups^{Footnote 34} . While concerns over immigration, refugees and the status of non-Christians are presented as major pillars in radical right discourse in several Western democracies, two unique characteristics specific to this discourse in Québec are noteworthy.

First, mainstream political parties in Québec have periodically elevated tensions by tabling bills such as Bill 62 and the proposed Test des valeurs (“values test”). As evidenced by the debates surrounding the Québec Charter of Values, these initiatives served to crystalise anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiments in Québec in a fashion akin to that of European radical right parties such as Le Front National and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

Second, there is the intrinsic link in the discourse to the collective historical trauma emerging from the institutional meddling by the Catholic Church in both private and public life. The so-called Great Darkness took place in Québec until the 1960s. Invoking this time period, during which progress was halted by the power of the Catholic Church, La Meute (which claims to be a nationalist but centre-left organisation)^{Footnote 35}  routinely frames its opposition to Muslim immigration as the logical continuation of laïcité tradition and the shedding of religious control over the state. By exploiting images and symbols most often diverted from their original meanings, Islam is thereby presented as a totalitarian ideology inherently incompatible with secularism and the progress accomplished during the Quiet Revolution.

International Influence

Far-right groups in Canada also borrow from political rhetoric that is repeated in international discourse, both from leaders such as Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, as well as an array of far-right political parties in Europe. Indeed, the discourse and ideology of extremist groups in Québec appear to be largely shaped by four sources: 1) domestic rhetoric from within Québec and from other parts of Canada; 2) Scandinavian neo-Nazi organisations; 3) pre-eminent radical-right philosophers and groups in France; and 4) the political context and alt-right movements in the US.

Like radical right groups abroad, groups in Québec appear to be profoundly influenced by Scandinavian neo-Nazi organisations that popularise the use of neo-pagan iconography, symbols and identity. This is far from a new phenomenon; in fact, since the 19th Century, North American white supremacists have co-opted pagan symbols, ostensibly attracted by the notions of virile Northern European hypermasculinity (the chance at re-enacting the glory of their presumed Viking ancestors), and by the idea of “Vinland” (the portion of eastern Canada explored by Vikings prior to the conquest of Christopher Columbus)^{Footnote 36} .

In fact, Nordic religious motifs of revenge and action are prominent amongst radical right groups in Québec, arguably because they resonate far more than the values of Christianity and allow them to reframe their struggle as fighting a sacred battle against white genocide. Indeed, research has demonstrated that the members of the Soldiers of Odin in Québec were not only distinct from other Canadian chapters but more closely interlinked with their Swedish and Finnish counterparts^{Footnote 37} . This partly explains why the Soldiers of Odin in Québec remained affiliated with the worldwide movement despite the distancing and rejection of the Finnish leadership by the Canadian executive. This is particularly concerning given that the Finnish and Swedish Soldiers of Odin have previously been involved in violent street fighting and altercations^{Footnote 38} .

However, despite the clear links to Scandinavia, France is another country by which the radical right in Québec is inspired, both in terms of organisational capacity and ideology. When the Fédération des Québécois de souche emerged in 2007, it did so as the Québec branch of the Mouvement National-Socialiste Français (MNSF) and originally received its web-hosting service from MNSF. More recently, the group Atalante adopted the slogan Exister, c’est combattre ce qui me nie (“To exist is to struggle against what denies me”), a tribute to Dominique Venner, a French ethno-nationalist thinker and former member of Organisation Armée Secrète, who committed suicide in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris to protest the legalisation of same-sex-marriage in France. French thinkers such as Jean Renaud Gabriel Camus are also gaining significant prominence within radical right circles in Québec. Philosophies such as Camus’ Great Replacement theory, which states that white Catholic French populations (and the white Christian European population at large) are being systematically replaced with non-European people through mass migration and demographic growth, provide the radical right in Québec with a basis for their framing of current demographic trends and immigration policies.

Lastly, while Canadian extremists have long borrowed far-right narratives from the United States, the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 seems to have had two main effects on the radical right in Québec. First, Trump's rhetoric on immigration and his politicisation of immigrants have fed the rhetoric of radical right groups in Québec and emboldened these groups across North America. Discourse surrounding the threat of illegal immigration has grown more prevalent, mirroring the discourse of the president and other politicians, which also further emboldened the radical right in the US. Second, observing the subsequent stimulation of the US radical right, Canadian groups sought to coordinate and participate in this resurgence. As such, many Canadians were involved in radical right media platforms such as Stormfront^{Footnote 39} , and a number of radical right militants from Québec travelled to the Unite the Right rally^{Footnote 40} .

The final effect of the Trump presidency on the Canadian radical right relates to the implementation of controversial policies, notably the revocation of several categories of temporary visas. The ensuing increase in irregular border crossings by asylum seekers into Canada—particularly in Québec—fed into the radical right rhetoric and created a mirror image of the putative crisis on the US southern border that has also fuelled much of US political discourse of late. The Trump administration's contribution of this situation at the Canadian border gave Canadian radical right groups the opportunity to entrench themselves in public discourse, gain visibility, and created the false impression of a crisis that legitimised their actions; as such, one can note Storm Alliance's ‘monitoring’ of the border in the summer of 2018, as well as two large-scale protests by La Meute and other groups in Québec City.

Groups like La Meute have tailored their narrative of Québec identity carefully. Their incorporation of narrative threads from traditions as disparate as the First Nations, neo-pagans and Christians into more widely understood and accepted narratives of Québec identity and history resonates with a wider audience. As a result, they appear to be more successful in gaining mainstream support, particularly when compared to other groups with a more distinctive European focus and ideology.

Despite an initial rapid growth, groups with a more European focus (such as the Soldiers of Odin in Canada) have been plagued by splintering and defections. Experts argue that this at least in part due to tensions between feelings of Canadian nationalism and the group’s transnational European orientation^{Footnote 41} . Indeed, the tensions resulting from the desire to prioritise local concerns over transnational ideologies led to a large number of Soldiers of Odin defecting to other groups such as La Meute and Three Percenters, and to the creation of splinter groups, notably Storm Alliance. Nonetheless, ideological and organisational links between Québec-based groups and Scandinavian structured neo-Nazi organisations remain important.