Back on July 2, 2016 a rally and counter protest occurred at Queens Park in Toronto which in and of itself wasn't especially unusual. On this day were those who were demonstrating in support of al-Quds Day. On the other side were counter-protesters including the Jewish Defence League and supporters of the then newish Pegida Canada. While this event in and of itself would have been worth looking into in more detail had I been more on the ball at the time, it was what I have subsequently learned about what was happening on the periphery as a lone individual observed and commented on the event that I now find especially interesting:
The individual observing the event is seen above commenting on 4chan which is one of the toxic cesspools found online rife with racism, sexism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism. The individual took a number of photographs documenting his or her presence at the event:
The posts made by the individual (highlighted in red) and others certainly conform to the vicious hatred that one would expect to find on 4chan as well:
In some cases I've included the comment being responded too and combined it with the reply. |
Now if I were to post every racist thing posted on 4chan, even if I confined myself to including only Canadian posts I'd be too busy to do anything else with my day. The reason why this particular thread is compelling is because of this comment in which the individual claims to be a writer for Rebel Media as well as being on the administrative team for Generation Identity Canada:
Generation Identity Canada, now rebranded as ID Canada, was barely on my radar at the time this post was made. I was somewhat aware of the movement in Europe but was more focused on more public groups such as the Soldiers of Odin and Pegida Canada. Over the past few years however this particular "identitarian" group and the movement in general has come to occupy a fair amount of my time.
Now while regular readers are likely all well aware of who Generation Identity/ID Canada is as well as the beliefs the membership holds at this point there may be a few new readers who would like a bit of a primer:
- Likely Generation Identity Canada Leader Revealed
- Generation Identity, Alt-Right Montreal, and the Identity of "Date"
- Generation Identity Canada Rebrands As ID Canada: Flyering Campaign This Past Monday
I can't speak to the truthfulness of claims the person posting these messaged made regarding his or her involvement with both Rebel Media or Generation Identity. I haven't been able to find any video on "The Rebel's" website that match the description of what was described and the original Generation Identity Canada Facebook page has long since gone the way of the Dodo only to replaced by a new Facebook group. However, one thing that is very clear is that current and former members of the Rebel Media team have had a very close relationship with Generation Identity/Generation Identity Canada/ID Canada over the years and have spent a lot of time promoting the group (full video "Exposure Undercover: Inside Britain's New Far Right can be found here):