The extremists, which typically espouse and focus on racist, homophobic, anti-statist, and nationalistic ideologies have, for decades, been responsible for some of the more violent attacks on Canadian soil. Recently, a spur of anti-Islamic groups like the Soldiers of Odin and III% Canada popping up across the country have grabbed people's attention.

Right wing extremism has always existed in Canada, but it does feel like we are going through a moment.

You can't be blamed if you thought that the phenomena skipped the nice, polite country that is Canada. Thanks to a mixture of issues causing us to ignore the issue, there hasn't been many counter initiatives to or academic research on right wing extremism in the Great White North.

Dr. Barbara Perry and Ryan Scrivens—two of Canada's leading academics in the field of right wing extremism—are attempting to change that. The duo just published their second paper in a three part series examining the issue in Canada—the first paper outlined the current state of the far-right extremist exo-system in which they found over 100 groups operating in the country. Ryan Scrivens told VICE that with the trilogy of papers, the duo wanted to fill the void of knowledge that existed in regards to right-wing extremism.

"My colleague, Dr. Barbara Perry who is a hate crime expert, started noticing many moons ago that there was a real gap in our understanding about the hate groups in a Canadian context," Scrivens told VICE.

"The focus, especially after 9/11, was on violent Islamist terrorists instead of the far-right. We just don't focus our energy on domestic right-wing extremism."

The paper published in the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice is entitled "Resisting the Right: Countering Right-Wing Extremism in Canada" and it lays out a multidimensional plan for Canada to tackle the growing problem. To complete it, the two conducted interviews with "Canadian law enforcement officials, community organizations, and right-wing activists, paired with analyses of open source intelligence."

Through this study, the duo found that right-wing extremism in Canada is a multi-faceted issue and therefore counter-extremist initiatives must be multidimensional as well. They urge "the necessity of multi-agency efforts coordinated around acknowledging and responding to the radical right" which, put into layman's term, is essentially advocating for law enforcement, activists, victims, and advocacy groups to work together.