Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale gave a speech on national security last week and told the audience that far-right extremists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists threaten us as Canadians.

This is stating the obvious to those of us who study extremism, but may signal an important shift in policy for government, law enforcement and security services who are not investing resources to combat right-wing extremism in proportion to today’s threat.

In the past two years alone, the new far-right movement, anti-women and anti-Muslim propagandists and sentiment are responsible for the deaths of more than 16 people in Canada, counting the victims of Alexandre Bissonnette, the Quebec mosque shooter, and Alek Minnassian, the alleged Toronto van attacker.

The RCMP doesn’t appear to be knowledgeable on the subject. One spokesperson recently told reporters that they have never heard of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) has documented the Proud Boys engaging in unprovoked attacks at demonstrations.

Another RCMP spokesperson has stated that the Soldiers of Odin, an anti-Muslim neo-Nazi group aren’t a concern, despite an intelligence report from the Canadian Border Services Agency that this group is “not afraid to use violence to achieve objectives.”

Likewise, CSIS shut down its right-wing extremism desk before the mosque shooting. They have now reopened it, but there are indications it isn’t properly resourced.

Last month Public Safety Canada issued a report which incorrectly stated that individuals with extreme right-wing views are not promoting violence. CAHN has documented desires for, celebrations of, and calls to, violence on a daily basis and can only conclude that this error comes as a result of inadequate monitoring of these groups.

We raised this as a concern and had the opportunity to speak with Minister Goodale following the report, and are encouraged by his public statement acknowledging that hate groups in Canada are a significant threat.

Today, Blood and Honour, an old-school violent and criminal neo-Nazi group is connecting with teenagers and young adults in the alt-right neo-Nazi movement on their forums. In 2016, they told a highschooler on Vancouver Island to take a “permanent solution” to the “leftists” at his school. Thankfully that didn’t happen.

In September an Ontario user on the fascist Forge forum wrote that he was looking to contact “Nazis in my area and eventually get some sort of cell going here . . . [I have] spent some time training with a friend up in NS (Nova Scotia) on guerrilla tactics.”

CAHN and others have documented dozens of death threats, including those directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and MPs, on the Yellow Vests Canada Facebook page. Regardless of what the movement represents in France, the Canadian movement has been entirely coopted by the far right and is characterized by its many anti-Muslim and conspiracy theory posts. One video shows a member of the movement swinging an extendable baton at counter-demonstrators in Hamilton. The Yellow Vests movement in Canada represents a public safety concern, according to a briefing note authored by the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies – Vancouver.

Canada has a seemingly robust program to monitor would-be ISIS extremists, working with the Muslim community to intervene in the early stages and carry out deradicalization. As several experts have pointed out, the way that groups like ISIS use propaganda and radicalize vulnerable persons is very similar to alt-right and neo-Nazi strategies.

We would like to see similar programs to address radicalization leading to violence targeting right-wing extremists. The more amorphous hard right movement is arguably more difficult to address, but Goodale’s comments about working with Internet provides is a good start. We believe the best way to prevent violence and reduce the likelihood of so-called lone wolf attackers is to target the sources and distribution platforms of hate propaganda that radicalize those individuals.

Before the advent of the Internet, white supremacy and related violence was at best sporadic and recruitment erratic to difficult at best. The Internet has provided a platform to reach potentially thousands and extremists from all corners have been astute to its possibilities.

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Internet service providers cannot be casual observers any longer. Given the large number of targeted murders that have occurred in Canada with the possibility of more on the horizon this is no longer a theoretical issue.

Minister Goodale has taken an important first step. ISP providers, police, educators and all levels of government must now join him and become part of the solution.