In his mandate letter to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau included the creation of an Office of the Community Outreach and Counter-Radicalization Coordinator. In the 2016 federal budget, the Liberal government pledged to spend $35 million over five years to set up such an office. So far, the Liberal government hasn't made any official announcement about the office, although Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale hinted to some news outlets that the so-called office would focus on "radicalization to violence of all kinds," as opposed to the previous Conservative government's strategy of exclusively targeting Muslim Canadians.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Feb. 8, 2017. (Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters) According to some media reports, it seems that the Canadian government's counter-radicalization model gets its inspiration from what the British government has already implemented in recent years: the Prevent strategy, a program that proved to be a failure at many levels and by all standards. Two NGOs, the U.S.-based Open Society Justice Initiative and Rights Watch U.K., studied Prevent and its sister program, named Channel, and found in 2016 major flaws with them both. One of the main criticisms is that these programs are based on profiling and targeting Muslims, particularly in schools, in kindergartens and in health institutions. But most importantly, there is a lack of consensus among academic experts that these counter-radicalization programs are scientifically reliable. The notion of certain "indicators" identified as risk factors that would draw individuals to terrorism has been discredited by many scholars: "Indeed, the claim that non-violent extremism -- including 'radical' or religious ideology -- is the precursor to terrorism has been widely discredited by the British government itself, as well as numerous reputable scholars." The narrative that "Muslim youth are attracted to violence and Jihad" remains very widespread. The creation of such a program relies on several false premises. It wrongly assumes that Muslim youth are prone to espouse violent ideologies or perpetrate violent crimes more than their peers. Recently, Statistics Canada released the disturbing figures about hate crimes in Canada that happened in 2015. In summary, the new figures convey to us two main points: That Muslims communities are among the groups that saw the highest increase of hate crimes perpetrated against them.

That the perpetrators of these heinous acts are young men between the age of 18 and 24. These figures are not surprising to say the least. Many grassroots groups have in the last couple of years shown and documented the rise of Islamophobic acts. Simultaneously, academics brought attention to the rise of violent right-wing extremist and racist groups in Canada. Neither the provincial or federal governments took these indicators or studies seriously and never acted upon them to present new legislation to fight this phenomenon. The narrative that "Muslim youth are attracted to violence and Jihad" remains very widespread. Meanwhile, groups like Pegida, La Meute, Soldiers of Odin and the Jewish Defense League, to name only a few, are thriving and gaining in popularity and seeing their membership increase. Their protests are also becoming more public and more provocative. Up until today, an investigative piece reported about a new violent anti-Muslim group -- III%, or the "three per cent," -- which claims that they are heavily armed and ready to wage a war on Canadian soil.