Countering the threat of far-right extremism

Far-right extremist groups have long flown under the law enforcement and policy-making radar, but the events of the past year have made them impossible to ignore. The violent demonstrations of white supremacists and nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the planned protests by the anti-immigrant group La Meute in Quebec City this summer are just two examples of the alarming rise of far-right extremist activity.

Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, wrote recently in Policy Options about the phenomenon of far-right extremist groups in Canada. She joined journalist and McGill University law student Ryan Hicks to discuss the threat these groups pose and what policy-makers can do about it in the latest episode of the Policy Options podcast.

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Photo: Police hold back far-right protesters during a demonstration in Montreal, Saturday, March 4, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.

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Ryan Hicks

Ryan Hicks is a law student at McGill University in Montreal, journalist and 2018 McBurney Latin America Fellow. He is a former Quebec political correspondent for the CBC and has reported from across Canada and around the world.

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Barbara Perry

Barbara Perry is a professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She has written extensively on social justice generally, and hate crime specifically. She has begun to contribute to the limited scholarship on hate crime in Canada, including anti-Muslim violence, hate crime against LGBTQ communities, the community impacts of hate crime, and right wing extremism. Books she has published include Diversity, Crime and Justice in Canada, and In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crime.

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