The far right is here to stay

Vincent Larin

Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 23:33

UPDATE
Wednesday, 16 August, 2017 23:46

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The far-right groups that are increasingly noisy in recent days in Quebec are not going away and may become even more visible, say experts, who speak of the phenomenon as a slippery slope.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” says the co-director of the Observatory on radicalization and violent extremism, David Morin.

Last Monday, the right-wing group Atalante Québec has also installed banners with anti-immigration in the Old Capital, and has subsequently announced it intends to open a fight club. A manifestation of the group The Pack, who is campaigning against radical islamism, is also planned for Sunday in Quebec city.

Although the number of members of the small groups of the extreme right is largely overestimated, they have become much noisier in recent times, ” explains David Morin.

“There is a difference between groups like The Pack, which are mainly on social networks with a few events here and there, and other groups such as Atalante, which are organized, structured, and active on the field,” describes the professor at the University of Sherbrooke.

Scapegoats

But the ability of these groups of the extreme right “anti-immigration” to attract crowds at their events remains to be seen, according to David Morin.

“Often, one has the impression that the mountain has given birth to a mouse as in their last event at Lacolle, where there were only 70-80 people,” he says.

For the researcher, the massive arrival of asylum seekers in recent days is the perfect opportunity for the far-right groups to be heard.

“They are looking for scapegoats,” says David Morin. Sometimes, it’s going to be the political elites or the media, but in the international context of migration crises, immigrants are perfect targets “. The violence that took place during a demonstration of the extreme right in Charlottesville are also factors that can stimulate these small groups in Québec, according to the researcher of the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul Dandurand Chair of Véronique Pronovost.

“The advent of social networks and the geographical proximity between the Quebec and the United States to promote exchanges of views between the right-wing movements québec and the u.s. “, she said.

Measures could be adopted by the government to regulate hate speech, according to the professor of sociology at UQAM and a specialist in racism Maryse Potvin.

According to her, it must at all costs avoid that the speech of these groups become the norm.

“What we are witnessing is a process of unification of extremist groups, with as a strategy to a passage in the politics,” she says. […] We will end up with a political party like the Front national in France, if nothing is done. “

Against the hate

In Quebec city, Wednesday, thirty people gathered in front of the U.s. consulate to denounce the gathering murderous white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia. The organisers wanted to demonstrate the importance of being ” united against hate “.

“It multiplies. There are thousands of people. This year, there has been more of a demonstration organized by the extreme right-wing racist, ” said Sébastien Bouchard.