Tracking Canada’s fascist fight clubs
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In public parks, gyms and martial arts clubs — where children take classes — some of Canada’s most notorious white supremacists are preparing for violence.
The members of these fight clubs, known in white nationalist communities as “active clubs,” are hiding in plain sight. As part of their recruitment and online propaganda, they post videos of their training sessions, taking care to hide their faces and obscure their locations.
But a months-long CBC visual investigation, in collaboration with The Fifth Estate, reveals exactly where some of these groups are training.
“It’s f–king unacceptable,” said Kevin Mans, the owner of Niagara BJJ in Welland, one of the martial arts studios CBC identified. “I have built a team that is pluralistic… these guys are scum.”
Active clubs are part of a decentralized white supremacist and neo-Nazi network that has grown globally in recent years, increasingly moving from online forums to real-world training groups and anti-immigration protests.
‘Active clubs’ are all over Canada. What are they?
Active clubs bill themselves as defenders of Canada’s European roots offering a path to community and fitness. But some experts regard them as the fastest-growing extremist threat in Canada.
These are people that in many cases are training for what they believe is to be an upcoming race war.
“On the surface level, they are recruiting people that are interested in getting in shape and learning martial arts,” said Mack Lamoureux at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a U.K.-based think-tank dedicated to studying authoritarianism, hate and extremism.
“The minute you peel back even the slightest layer of this onion, it becomes far more insidious. These are virulent white supremacists. These are people that in many cases are training for what they believe is to be an upcoming race war.”
There are 187 active clubs in 27 countries, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, with several in Canada. One of the most prolific is the Hamilton-based Nationalist-13. More recently, a group called Second Sons has spread across Canada, which experts say is an active club in all but name.
White nationalism’s evolution
Canadian active clubs “have very, very deep connections with other far-right and extremist organizations,” said Lamoureux.
These include groups like the Canadian Proud Boys and the notorious Atomwaffen Division, which has been linked to five killings in recent years.
Both groups were listed as terrorist organizations by Public Safety Canada in 2021, and disbanded in Canada shortly afterward. However, they remain active internationally with Canadians still involved, and some of their members dispersed into active clubs.
In a 2023 terrorism investigation, the RCMP arrested two Ontario men for their roles in creating recruiting videos for Atomwaffen. The RCMP concluded “many former Atomwaffen Division members joined Active Club Canada.”
Active Club Canada, which the RCMP “observed performing combat training exercises in local community parks,” is now defunct. But it was a precursor to current active clubs like Nationalist-13.
The RCMP also said members of Active Club Canada had ties to a violent skinhead gang known as the Vinland Hammerskins. In 1993, three Canadians affiliated with the Hammerskins were found guilty of murdering a Black man in Texas.
Content retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/fascist-fight-club.
