Far-right ‘Christian supremacy’ group should expect opposition, activist says [video]

Far-right agitators should expect opposition if they hold events in the Fredericton area, says one local anti-fascist activist. 

Angus Fletcher was among a group of protesters who attended a public meeting held by the ultra-conservative political campaigner Tanya Gaw. 

Gaw spoke at the New Maryland Centre, just south of Fredericton, on July 31st. 

The event attracted supporters, but also a wave of complaints that prompted the Village of New Maryland to review its facilities rental practices. 

A group of protesters also showed up and disrupted the New Maryland event.

Event disrupted

Fletcher said there were about seven protesters in a room that was “fairly packed” with perhaps 50-70 attendees. 

“For the most part, we stood at the back and observed, and, you know, occasionally quipped, or coughed loudly or whatnot, as a presence, to demonstrate opposition and be a little bit annoying,” Fletcher said.  

When Gaw began describing Canada as an essentially Christian nation — a theme in her talks — one of the protesters shouted a comment about the Indigenous nature of the land, before starting to leave, according to Fletcher. 

“That person was then accosted by five or six members of the group and eventually left, after which the group [of Gaw supporters] called the RCMP,” Fletcher said. 

A spokesperson for the Oromocto RCMP said any altercations had ended by the time police arrived. There were no injuries or arrests, and no charges will be laid, according to Cpl. Terry Densmore.

Fletcher said her talk promoted a return to “Christian supremacy” in Canada. 

It’s unclear whether Gaw is affiliated to any specific church or religious organization. Her group, Action4Canada, didn’t respond to queries by publication time. 

Fletcher said it’s important for anti-fascists to make their presence known and to disrupt far-right mobilizations in New Brunswick and elsewhere. 

“If they build critical mass, then I think that their harassment of queer folks and of immigrants could intensify and I don’t think that we should allow it.”

Calls for cancellation 

On the day of the event, the village posted a statement on Facebook distancing itself from the far-right campaigner. 

“Unbeknownst to us, event organizers have invited a guest speaker that has previously openly and publicly expressed points of view that are not consistent with what our Council nor what we believe our community would support.”

In the statement, councillors pledged that the village would review its facility rental policy “to ensure these types of activities are avoided in the future.”

The statement noted positions espoused by Tanya Gaw on topics such as critical race theory, “part of a dangerous and harmful Marxist agenda intended to destroy the foundation of our nation.”

At one point, the village council’s statement called for locals to attend the event, if they had a problem with it, before that section was deleted. 

“We encourage all residents of our community that share our concern about these matters to join Council members and attend tonight’s event at the New Maryland Centre,” the deleted section stated.

Fletcher said the council appeared to be “scrambling to do something.” He felt encouraged that the village decided to acknowledge the error, instead of doing nothing.

However, he said it would be better to seek advice from local LGBTQ+ groups. “I think those groups would probably have had good advice about how to proceed as well,” he said.

Fierté Fredericton Pride learned about the event the night before it took place, and launched opposition with allies. 

Activists “worked hard to try to convince council to cancel the meeting or, in the alternative, to let FFP help them to craft their public statement, which they did not do,” according to Jenna Lyn Albert, an FPP board member.

Village prepares for ‘similar situations’

The village eventually deleted its statement after it attracted perhaps hundreds of outraged comments. 

Screenshots show vocal opposition to Tanya Gaw’s appearance, though some comments reflect support for Gaw or suggest any cancellation would amount to censorship. 

The mayor later issued her own statement, apologizing not for the event but the upset it caused among residents. 

“We had rented the space in good faith and later, and closer to the time of the event, learned the event was not what was presented,” the mayor’s statement said, in part. 

Council will meet with staff and seek legal advice to prepared for “similar situations arising in the future,” it said.

Branches across Canada

Gaw is one of the founders of a far-right political network called Action4Canada (A4C) which claims to have more than 100 chapters across the country. 

She recently held a speaking tour with stops in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, many of the events taking place at churches. 

A4C has published videos from those talks on Rumble, a platform popular with the far right, but no footage was available of the disrupted event in New Maryland. 

Her talks mix ordinary conservative politics — such as opposition to legal cannabis — with extreme-right talking points and appeals for donations and support with letter-writing and other political action.

In one video reviewed by the NB Media Co-op, Gaw tells her audience that Canada is “under attack” in an apparent reference to non-Christian immigrants, described as “the enemy” or worshippers of “false gods.” 

Invoking the violence of the Crusades, she insists that Canada is a “Judeo-Christian” country fundamentally at odds with Islam. She rejects diversity as a “strength,” stressing instead her vision of a homogeneous Christian state.

“This is not a multicultural nation,” she declares at one point during a two-and-a-half hour talk at the Glad Tidings Church in Moncton. Official multiculturalism has been in place for more than 50 years in Canada. 

Gaw also rejects Indigenous treaty rights, at one point stating that “unceded territories and all that is a pile of garbage.” That’s a decidedly hard-right position in a country where treaty right are baked into constitutional law, referenced in sections 25 and 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. 

Fletcher noted that although many of Gaw’s views may seem ridiculous, the far right poses a real threat, particularly for marginalized people. 

“They can seem silly and worthy of discount due to the heavily conspiratorial nature of these views,” he said. “But I think that they are serious, and that the people who hold them are serious, and that they intend to act on those views.”

Misinformation, bigotry 

Other themes in Tanya Gaw’s talks include a rejection of gender diversity, particularly any official support for queer and trans causes. 

Pride parades are “disgusting,” says B.C.-based Gaw, who rails against drag queens and led a campaign that flooded MLAs’ offices with emails supporting the Higgs government’s controversial changes to Policy 713.  

That policy, which sets minimum standards for supporting LGBTQ+ students in public schools, has emerged as an animating force in a far right that previously channelled populist resentment into the so-called Freedom Convoys last year.

Following the latest changes to the policy, announced this week by Education Minister Bill Hogan, teachers need the consent of parents before using the “preferred” name or pronoun of a trans or non-binary student under 16. 

In a video from her Moncton appearance, Gaw states that “you cannot change genders, you just can’t,” a declaration at odds with evidence of gender fluidity around the world and historically.  

Her talks are generally marked by a bewildering torrent of misinformation.

“There is no emergency climate change,” she declares at one point, prompting applause. 

“The climate is always changing, God is in control of all things,” she says.

Gaw also seems to oppose all forms of vaccination, including for a future grandchild.

“The best immunity is natural, what God gave us,” she states. 

She frequently makes inflammatory and inaccurate statements about Islam, notably claiming that a 2017 Liberal motion against Islamophobia “means you can’t criticize Islam,” a statement seemingly disproved by her own anti-Islamic invective. 

In fact, that motion called for the government to “recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear”; condemn Islamophobia and other forms of discrimination; initiate a study on the how to reduce or eliminate systemic racism and religious discrimination; and collect data to provide context for reports on hate crimes.

That motion was adopted in the aftermath of the Quebec City mosque shooting, which claimed the lives of six Muslim worshippers.

During remarks in Moncton and Halifax, she repeatedly listed China and North Korea among Muslim-majority countries. In fact, Muslims are minorities in both countries.

Gaw also promotes the bizarre notion that so-called “15-minute cities” are a government scheme to control people’s movements, a theory popular on the anti-vaxx fringe.

The concept of the 15-minute city stems from long-standing efforts in urban planning to make communities more walkable, or accessible by bicycle. 

Rental policy in question

The mix of far-right politics and religious bigotry raises questions about reasonable limits on forms of speech that are apparently designed to dehumanize entire groups of people. 

Mayor Wilson-Shee said the village council’s goal is to “make sure that no one is discriminated against in our community, and that we do support freedom of speech, within the guidelines of the Human Rights.”  

No timeline on the recommendations is currently available. 

Along with human rights legislation, there are laws against hate speech on the books, but the latter are rarely invoked. 

UNB law professor Kerri Froc previously told CBC that denying a rental based on political views could prove hard to defend in court. 

Even so, far-right provocateurs using public space to grow their ranks will meet organized opposition, Angus Fletcher said. 

“These are people who fairly openly talk about how they want more numbers to be able to do their organizing and I would prefer not to find out what they would do with them,” he said.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).