Let’s not forget that Proud Boys originated in Canada. In Ottawa in fact. And McInnis’s first foray into right wing extremism was an article he wrote in 2005 for a white supremacist website. I was one of the targets of that article and got many death threats because of it.

We have a major problem with this type of extremism in Canada. But our security officials don’t tend to take the threat as seriously as they should. @JordanLeichnitz lays out the problem here. https://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/security-and-defence/canada-has-a-white-supremacist-problem-4757/

Sympathies for these hateful narratives run deep in our communities. In my experiences in politics, in government and even in labour, I’ve seen the nasty reaction that the slightest mention of equity can incite.

When McInnis wrote his 2005 article (still available online if you’re interested in his origin story), I got numerous death threats on email. But the freakiest thing was coming home to a jammed door lock because someone had tried pushing it in.

It could have been pure coincidence. I convinced myself that maybe a couple of teens on our floor had been playing rough and had run into our apt door. But the chill at that moment was real.

Our security officials have to start taking these threats seriously. Just look how often prominent activists like @JulieSLalonde get threats. What will it take to actually follow up on these? Why aren’t we treating these terror groups the same way we’d treat an al-Qaeda cell?