Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau denounces Proud Boys as a terrorist group

Melody Smith - Sophomore | News

Ever since the 2016 election, it has become increasingly apparent that radicalism and extremist violence has been on the rise in the US. Discussions of this have brought up many groups, such as the 13 Percenters, Boogaloo Boys, and most notably the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys is an all-male, far-right group that was founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a Canadian writer and right-wing political commentator.

He described the group by stating, “The basic tenet of the group is that they are ‘Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.’ Like Archie Bunker, they long for the days when ‘girls were girls and men were men.’”

Although Gavin McInnes has tried to distance the group from Nazis, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy, the Proud Boys are commonly being seen around individuals openly in support of nationalist, socialist and fascist values.

This was most prominently seen at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in August 2017. The rally ended up turning violent, breaking out into clashes and ultimately turning deadly when a car drove into counter-protesters, killing one citizen.

Recently, the Proud Boys have been getting a lot of attention after the storming at the Capitol on Jan. 6, as many reports placed the Proud Boys as key figures in orchestrating the storming.

On Feb. 3, the Canadian government declared the Proud Boys a terrorist organization, stating that the Proud Boys “espouse misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and/or white supremacist ideologies and associate with white supremacist groups.”

Another member of the Canadian government stated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington was a “contributing factor, but it certainly wasn’t the driving force for the declaration.”

“We strongly denounce ideologically motivated extremists including groups like the Proud Boys, white supremacists, anti-Semites, Islamophobic and misogynist groups,” said Bill Blair, Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

“I hope the Biden administration does something similar -- it seems we should have so progressed as a society now that we see these extremist groups that target people of color and ethnic minorities and religious minorities, and you would think that these groups would have already been denounced by our government.” said senior Jordan Sloan.