Trudeau government greenlights $300,000 to counter “rise of far-right in Quebec”
It should come as no surprise that Ottawa would approve another $300,000 to tackle “the rise of the far-right.”
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It should come as no surprise that Ottawa would approve another $300,000 to tackle “the rise of the far-right.”
Ottawa has greenlit the money necessary for a three-year research project with a focus on "the rise of the far-right in Quebec," reports CBC.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale gave the announcement that they will be giving $300,000 for the project which was spearheaded by the Centre of Expertise and Training on Religious Fundamentalism, Political Ideologies and Radicalization (CEFIR,) which is based out of Edouard-Montpetit CEGEP in Longueuil.
The director of the project, Martin Geoffroy, says the project comes at a pivotal time due to what he considers to be the rise of far-right discourse, and its seeping into the mainstream.
"We want [people] to know to be able to make the difference between what is fact and what is mere opinion or blatantly false," said Geoffroy on CBC Quebec's Breakaway.
The group says the money will be put towards tools to counteract this type of harmful rhetoric online, while also focusing on former military and police.
"What I have seen so far from my research is that many people that are in the far-right are ex-soldiers," said Geoffroy, adding that the research also intends to make anti-radicalization information more accessible for young people.
The Trudeau-led Liberal Party has given big money for far-right research in the past. According to The Washington Post, the Liberals pledged to provide over $23 million starting in April of 2018—money which would go to "multicultural programs and cross-country consultations on racism."
That $23 million figure, approved in February of last year, emphasized the importance of diversity in Canada and how it was threatened by the rise of “ultranationalist movements and protests against immigration, visible minorities and religious minorities.”
With that being considered, it perhaps should come as no surprise that Ottawa would approve another $300,000 to tackle "the rise of the far-right." In December of 2017, Canada listed right-wing extremism as "a growing concern," a change in tone from only years earlier, when CSIS had declared that right-wing extremism was "not a significant problem in Canada."
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