Alex gets home from work most nights and turns on his computer to scroll through a familiar roster of right-wing extremist sites and chatrooms.He's not a participant — he's a covert agent, using aliases honed over years to sneak in and out of online fora to gather intelligence, sometimes by befriending enemies. Many of his findings will end up on a blog he runs, and sometimes he'll notify the police about alarming activities, but he says they rarely take the tips seriously.It's a pastime that doesn't come without risk: He and his rag-tag group of volunteers who run the Anti-Racist Canada blog — one of the only sites that exposes right-wing extremist activities in the country — are threatened with violence, bombings, and even death.
On this night, he's digging into the case of an Edmonton man who allegedly threatened two Muslim women at a public transit station with a noose, saying: "This is for you." He looks at photos online of the suspect. A white male, likely in his 60s, with a thin build and thick black glasses. He could be somebody's grandfather. (Since then, the man has been released by police without charge, but remains a person of interest in the case.) Visit VICE News to read more."This is something you see people saying in the U.S. Now we have similar situation in Canada."