![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
This article examines the resurgence of the far Right in Canada, as expressed through the movement against pandemic restrictions and vaccine mandates that culminated with the Freedom Convoy. It argues that the growth of the far Right is a response to a series of overlapping crises of which the COVID-19 pandemic is but one. The article also explores the class character of the contemporaryfar Right, arguing that it has the hallmarks of a middle-class or, to use the Marxist idiom, petty bourgeois movement.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 This included Swastika, Confederate, Gadsden, and Red Ensign flags.
2 The far-Right organization Canada Unity issued the demand for the government’s dissolution, while, according to police intelligence, Ontario politician and antivaxxer, Randy Hillier, called for supporters to overthrow the government. While one might be inclined to dismiss such things as the petulant rantings of a lunatic fringe that had no chance of transpiring, we should be careful not to trivialize such things, not least because it offers a window into the political aspirations and machinations of such a movement in the midst of an occupation of downtown Ottawa in a moment of sharpened political conflict—a movement, moreover, that counted among its supporters people trained in the military, police, and intelligence communities. McLeod and Dickson, “OPP Profiled Randy Hillier.”
3 The “far Right,” as used here, represents a continuum of Right-wing politics that ranges from fascists to those who might not be (or are not yet) fascist but more openly and aggressively promote a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, anti-union, and colonial politics than does mainstream conservativism, while also being less committed to the sanctity of liberal democracy than the latter. The far Right is also much more oriented towards building a mass street-based movement than mainstream conservatives, elevates the role of violence in building its power—especially its fascist wing—and has a leadership and base drawn disproportionately from the middle class or petty bourgeoisie. The petty bourgeoisie is understood here in the Marxist sense as small business owners, rural landowners, managers, professionals, and military and ex-military members, that is, social groups that are neither working class (those who rely on their labour power for survival and have no significant managerial authority at the workplace) nor larger capital.
4 See, for example, the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Communications, “Alt-Rights in Canada”, edited by Russill.
5 Witnessed, for example, in the formation of several competing violent far-Right groups in Weimar, Germany and the ascendance to power of Italian fascists following World War One; the emergence of fascist organizations globally during the Great Depression of the 1930s; the significant growth of street-based fascist movements in North America and Europe amidst the unravelling of the postwar boom in the 1970s; and the growth of groups like the Heritage Front in early 1990s Canada.
6 My focus here is on the organized far Right, not the terrorist actions of individuals. While the latter represent an important phenomenon of twenty-first-century reactionary politics, there is not space here to adequately explore it.
7 The post-2008 dynamic of accumulation in Canada is discussed, and the data is presented, in McCormack and Gordon, “Flagging Profitability and the Oil Frontier.” See also McCormack, “Canadian Macroeconomic Instability in the Time of COVID-19,” 25, 34–41.
8 International Monetary Fund, “World Economic Outlook, April 2021”; Statistics Canada, “Gross Domestic Product, Income and Expenditure”; Canadian Press, “Canadian Economy Suffers Biggest Contraction.”
9 For an overview, see Government of Canada, “COVID-19”; Bank of Canada, “COVID-19.”
10 Zhang et al., “Trends in Canadian Business Debt Financing”; Plender, “Debt Dangers Hang over Markets”; Canadian Press, “Household Debt-to-Income Ratio”; OECD, “Non-Financial Corporations Debt to Surplus Ratio.”
11 Government of Canada, “Insolvency Statistics in Canada.” The real possibility of a sharp recession in the near future is not lost on Canadian business. See Kirby, “It’s Hip to Be Bear.”
12 Bascaramurty, “Canadian Online Searches Grow.”
13 Taylor, “‘Pandemic of Hate’”; PressProgress, “Canada’s Anti-Lockdown Protests”; PressProgress, “Notorious Canadian Neo-Nazi Shares Photo”; Turcato, “How Extremists Are Getting Involved in Anti-Mask Demonstrations.”
14 Jabakhanji, “Politicians, Medical Groups Condemn Protests”; Lindsay, “B.C. Officials Decry Targeting of Health-Care Workers”; O’Shea, “Standoff Includes Police as Mississauga Gym Owner Reopens”; Kerr, “Cities Crack down on Businesses.”
15 Canadian Anti-Hate Network, “The ‘Freedom Convoy’”; La Fleche, “‘Freedom Convoy’ Leader”; Gilmore, “Some Trucker Convoy Organizers”; Mosleh, “Why Banning Hateful Symbols”; CBC, “Convoy Organizer, Les Farfadaas Member.”
16 Indeed, it clearly has not. Boisvert, “Jagmeet Singh Verbally Harassed”; Radio Canada International, “Trudeau Cancels Appearance at Surrey Fundraiser.”
17 McKenzie-Sutter, “Some Ontario Teachers Refuse Work”; CBC, “33 TTC Bus Drivers Walk off Job”; Wayland, “Work Stoppage over Coronavirus Fears.”
18 Francis, “What We Know about the Organization behind Demonstrations”; Linkedin, “Lamont Daigle”; Landau, “Ontario Disgusted with Peterborough”; O’Shea, “Standoff Includes Police as Mississauga Gym Owner Reopens”; Smith, “Watch Out For This Antisemitic COVID Conspiracy Group”; PressProgress, “Notorious Canadian Neo-Nazi Shares Photo.” See also Ian Brown’s interview with prairie-based convoy activists. Although it is not reflected on by Brown, it is notable that they are all small business owners. Brown, “They Came. They Idled. They Left.”
19 While the farm sector has been consolidated over the last two decades, and now has fewer farms of a larger size, the large multinational farming operation with a significant number of employees is certainly not the dominant form of operation in the sector. The average number of employees per farm is below two. The highest average is in horticulture, and the highest average among subsectors in horticulture is 21.6. Many subsectors in horticulture and other farm sectors are well below that number. Meanwhile, profit margins remain slight in most farming sectors—the “expense-to-receipt ratio” is higher than the national average in the majority of farm sectors—and the profitability ratios of the sector overall were declining before the pandemic and are now at their lowest point in over a decade. Although debt levels declined over the last two years, they remain higher than they were a decade before. Nearly half of all farm owners must work off farm to supplement their income. Statistics Canada, “2016 Census of Agriculture”; Statistics Canada, “A Portrait of a 21st Century Agricultural Operation”; Statistics Canada, “Farm Income, 2017”; Statistics Canada, “Number of Employees in the Agriculture Sector, 2016, 2017 and 2018.”; Statistics Canada, “Balance Sheet of the Agricultural Sector, December 31, 2021.”
20 King, “The Trucker Convoy Is Not A Workers’ Revolt.”
21 Rana, “Almost One in Five Canadian Truckers Is South Asian”; Balintec, “Convoy Protests Ignoring Real Hardships Truckers Face.”
22 This is drawn from the publicly accessible Facebook accounts of one of the arrestees, Donna Nycole Dicredico, and her immediate family. The other arrestees’ personal information was unavailable. On the arrests, see CBC, “2 Windsor, Ont., Residents Charged.”
23 Gervais, “Sounding Their Horns.”
24 This is based on a personal observation.
25 Freeze, “Convoy Protests’ Key Figures”; Parkhill, “Who Is Who?”; Melnychuk, “4 Sask. Residents Acting as Leaders”; Toronto.com, “Benjamin Dichter.”; International Gypsy Equine Association, “Breeders and Farm Directory.”Another prominent leader of the Freedom Convoy, far-Right gadfly and conspiracist, Pat King, describes himself as an independent journalist. On surreptitious support from active duty police and intelligence officials, Dickson, McLeod, and Walsh, “Convoy Protesters Received Leaked Information from Police.”
26 GiveSendGo, “Click Here to Give Now.” The GoFundMe page is no longer publicly accessible.
27 Anderson and Coletto, “Pandemic Frustration.” Convoy organizer Benjamin Dichter also spoke at a pre-pandemic Peoples’ Party event.
28 Parkin and Savoie, “Who Voted for the People’s Party of Canada?”
29 Zhang et al., “Trends in Canadian Business Debt Financing”; Statistics Canada, “Survey of the Canada Emergency Business Account.”
30 On the global phenomenon of zombie companies, see Roberts, “Fallen Angels.”
31 Brethour, “Tax & Spend”; Canadian Federation of Independent Business, “Small Businesses.”
32 Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Association, “Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Calls”; Adams, “Statement on the Blockade”; Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada, “Disruptions at Border Crossings.” Some small business organizations eventually expressed concern with the blockades, suggesting that not all representatives of small capital have been convinced of the need for direct confrontation.
33 Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, 171.
34 On the importance of traditional family and gender norms to conservative movements and the far Right, see Cooper, Family Values, and Stern, Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate. Unfortunately there is not enough space in this article to fully explore this subject and the Canadian far Right.
35 Parent, “Protest Organizer.”
36 On the e-commerce website Etsy, one can even buy a “Freedom Convoy 2022 Canada Unisex T-Shirt for Patriots.” See Etsy, “Freedom Convoy.”
37 Freeze, “Convoy Protests’ Key Figures”; Parkhill, “Who Is Who?”
38 Parkin and Savoie, “Who Voted for the People’s Party of Canada?”
39 Public Health Ontario, COVID-19 in Ontario.
40 This is discussed in Mirrlees, “Carbon Convoy” and Tewksbury, “Petro-Nostalgia.”
41 Mirrlees, “Carbon Convoy.”
42 Guillemette and Turner, “The Long Game,” 13.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Todd Gordon
Todd Gordon teaches in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.