Counter Protestors Overwhelmed an Anti-Islam Rally in Ontario

You could hear them telling each other to go fuck themselves from blocks away.

It only got louder the closer you got to the mass of people milling about in front of London, Ontario's city hall on Saturday. Cops had shut down the block and, while the dueling rallies weren't supposed to start until noon, the anti-racism protesters were there in spades by 11 AM to counter the rally planned by an anti-Islam group.

By the end of the day, two people—one from each side—would be arrested.

There are many reasons why far-right protesters would choose London. The southern Ontario city of about 400,000 has a checkered past when it comes to racism in Canada. It was the longtime home of the notorious Canadian neo-Nazi Martin Weiche who held cross burnings outside his home. In 2012, a year after Weiche's death, a white pride group attempted to hold a rally but were chased out by a much larger group of anti-racist demonstrators. So London is no stranger to this sort of thing—politicians connected to the city seemed to realize this and prior to this weekend's rally, the mayor of London, the city council, and a local MP spoke out against it saying racism has no place in the city.

Saturday's event was organized by PEGIDA, a group that was founded in Germany and whose acronym translates to "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West." The main focus of PEGIDA is the idea that Islam, through both legal and illegal immigration, is slowly but surely taking over western society.

The small gathering of people on the PEGIDA side—maybe 15 in total—came from an assortment of groups. Several members of III% Canada, a US-styled militia that recently formed in the Great White North, donned black attire with flack jackets and attempted to provide security. There were members of the Canadian Combat Coalition and even a few young edgelord kids who seemed to exist solely to flip off and make fun of the counter protesters. Notorious anti-Islam crusader Eric Brazeau, a familiar face at Ontario rallies like these, rounded out the crew.

On the opposing side it was another mishmash: there were religious groups, young people, old people, Communists, drummers, a few bikers for peace, and many, many people who have been sparked to activism after what happened in Charlottesville. The group sang, yelled, and drummed, drowning out the speakers of the PEGIDA rally. At one point, the mayor of London, Matt Brown, showed up on the outskirts of the counter-protest and spoke to some of the rally attendees.

While the majority of attendees were peaceful, it wasn't hard to see that some on both sides were itching for a confrontation.

The London standoff was the latest in a rash of highly emotional rallies taking place across the country. While the players change, the story remains remarkably similar: a group—almost always an anti-Islam one—organizes a rally over an issue such as "free speech", immigration, or, as was in London's case, the preservation of "Canadian culture," only to be confronted by a much larger rally of people disgusted by their worldview. In the past two weeks we've seen it happen in Vancouver, Quebec City (just months after six Muslim men were gunned down while praying), and now London. Earlier in the year we saw similar rallies—at the time focused upon Motion M-103—in Toronto and other major city centres.

Police estimated there were about 500 people at the rally and, at times, the far-right protesters were outnumbered by at least 15 to one. When the two groups interacted things were tense with insults and names lobbed about without inhibition, but the violence seen in Quebec City and south of the border was essentially non-existent at the rally.

Wendy Goldsmith, one of the organizers of the anti-racism rally, told VICE that it was tactical move for the counter-protesters to show up at the rally earlier so they could "take the space." The night before, a large group of protesters held a de-escalation workshop taught by the Christian Peacemakers. They did this because "the last thing we want to see is our members hauled away by the cops when they get angry in the face of this hatred and we know that could happen," Goldsmith said. After the protest was finished she said it was heartening to see a significant turnout.

"It was wonderful to see that amount of people, it was great," Goldsmith said. "There were kind of two protests going on, there was one where I was coordinating people that wanted to speak and that was very loving and positive. At the same time there were people that chose to take on the haters face to face."

"That was their choice and that was also very necessary but it kinda divided the group and both things were happening at once."

For the majority of the protest, the 15 or so PEGIDA supporters were pinned up against a barricade and faced down hundreds of counter protesters. They held signs that touched upon female genital mutilation, honour killings, jihadism, and other things they attributed to Islam. The members of III% Canada made a line to block the protesters from PEGIDA.

"Go home and play Call of Duty, you racist piece of shit," one protester calmly said to a III% member. "That's all you're fucking good at."

The first arrest of the day took place after a scuffle between a III% Canada member and a counter-protester wielding a sign saying "I'm definitely not with these assholes." The two men told different stories as to what transpired. As the III% member was led away in cuffs he told VICE, "I got pushed, I pushed back, I got arrested."

However, Jeremy Larivee—the man with the sign—said that the III% member threw a punch at him.

"I got my sign up as he was walking through, and he bumped me. I got my hand up so he didn't push me again and he punched me," said Larivee. "It's going to take more than that for one of them to stop my message."

A few hours later, a female counter-protester was led away by police after spitting on one of the PEGIDA organizers. "She fucking horked at me," the woman on the PEGIDA side yelled as the young anti-racist protester was led away. In a press release, police said that investigations into both incidents are still ongoing and charges are pending.

One of the anti-racism protesters, a black woman named Chantelle Diachina, spoke to VICE and said that it's always been known that racist thoughts existed under the surface in London and that the political climate has changed so that people now have permission to say things they wouldn't normally say—oddly enough she explained, to an extent, this might be a good thing.

"Now we're having the conversation, now we're hearing the things that have always been there behind the scenes and now is the time that we can heal," said Diachina. "Is that a bad thing in the bigger picture? It's not."

"It means there is work to do. We need to see what is out there, we need people to be honest about their feelings so we can move forward. We can't address it if we don't know what everyone is really feeling."

The most routine names thrown at PEGIDA and their supporters were, unsurprisingly, "Nazi" and "white supremacist." Everyone VICE talked to on the side of PEGIDA adamantly denied holding anything that resembles this viewpoint—save for one. This man, who spoke to VICE but wouldn't give his name, wielded an anti-burqa sign and was among members of the Canadian Combat Coalition. Halfway through the conversation about him being labeled a white supremacist by the anti-racist activists, the man suddenly changed his mind on the question of white nationalism.

"For the record, I should be more honest, I do consider myself a white nationalist but that doesn't mean I'm a purist…. A white nationalist is someone that wants to remain a significant majority in their own homeland, they don't want to go overseas and impose their culture on other cultures which is what Islam does in the west."

The man pointed to the archetypal argument for white nationalism that centres on Japan and Israel having de facto ethno states. When asked if he thought there were white supremacists at the rally, he claimed that most on the PEGIDA side aren't, but again relented.

"There probably are [white supremacists here] though," he added. "I don't believe myself supreme because I'm white, I admire other cultures, I love Indian food."

A few staunch free speech supporters stood with PEGIDA and argued with them about their points while saying the group had the right to be there. In the high emotion of the rally, these people were likewise called "white supremacists" and "Nazis." Iain Palmer was one of them, he told VICE that he believes that views such as those expressed by far right-wing groups should be faced head on.

"I think [the counter protesters'] hearts are in the right place but they're not embracing really what Canadian values are, that is giving a voice no matter how repugnant those views are," said Palmer.

"I'm not scared of messages, I'm not scared of things I find disgusting being viewed."

The rally, much like it started, ended early as PEGIDA, their supporters, and a group of cops made their way to a parking lot nearby. As they walked away the counter protesters banged their drums, cheered, and sang. Some protesters followed them to the parking lot and shouted at them until they left.

It was, all and all, an event typical of the far-right rallies we've seen in Canada lately. There was yelling, high emotions, and resistance. The one constant you can take away from all these events is the same—the people who disagree with far-right ideals in the country far outnumber those who agree. Palmer pointed to this response as a remedy for the fear brought about by the resurgence of far-right extremism in Canada.

"If you even just get a hint of someone coming out to defend a confederate statue or having an anti-immigration protest, look at the response you're getting," said Palmer. "Do you think the right wing revolution is going to happen in North America anytime soon?"

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