We were doing one of our regular check-ins with the Sudbury Soldiers of Odin recently when we noticed that one of the guys has moved on to the realm of slightly more respectable racism. We know Justin Smith from 2017 when, for some reason, after a petition campaign by Sudbury Against Fascism to stop them from volunteering at a local soup kitchen, he took over the leadership of the local chapter from the former president David MacKinnon.

Justin volunteering at the Blue Door Soup Kitchen with Soldiers of Odin.

Justin in his Soldiers of Odin colors with the whole gang

Justin lives in Goderich now, where he manages a used furniture store and organizes with the People’s Party of Canada. Strangely, he does not include his experience with Soldiers of Odin on his CV.

Justin politicking with the People’s Party.

Justin is a lot more active on social media now compared to when we first ran into him and the content he shares is the kind of crap from dubious sources that you’d expect from someone from a xenophobic, far-right vigilante group, who is now in a xenophobic, far-right political party.

Like fellow party member Jason Lafauci, there is very little chance Justin will ever be elected to public office. What’s concerning is that the PPC grants him and his views a veneer of legitimacy that the Soldiers of Odin do not have. His case also illustrates the direct pipeline from white nationalist groups to the more socially acceptable racism of the PPC.

Both of the PPC candidates that we’ve run into so far in our travels have had connections to racist groups and we believe that this is probably only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to rot within the PPC.