Each year, we here at rabble ask our readers: “What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the people leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch?” Every year, your responses introduce us to a new group of inspiring activists. This is our ‘rabble rousers to watch’ series. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here.
The next group featured on our ‘rabble rousers to watch’ list of 2025 is No Hate in Huron.
No Hate in Huron is a grassroots network of residents and allies based in Goderich, Ontario, working to actively resist and undermine white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in Huron County through community-building, education and political advocacy.
This month, No Hate in Huron celebrates its first anniversary. rabble.ca spoke with Patrick Corvyn, a founding organizer with No Hate in Huron, about the work the organization is doing to confront organized hate, challenge political silence, and build joyful, courageous resistance in rural Canada and beyond.
A conversation with No Hate in Huron founding organizer, Patrick Corvyn
rabble.ca: Can you tell us about the work that you’re doing with your organization?
Patrick Corvyn: No Hate in Huron emerged in August 2024, after white supremacist propaganda and an international neo-Nazi meetup appeared in and around our beloved hometown of Goderich, a small town in rural southwestern Ontario. We’re a grassroots network of residents and friends of the region, actively resisting and undermining organized hate activity in Huron County.
Our work spans political advocacy, community strengthening, and education. In November 2024, we organized a grand, gorgeous 14-hour community cabaret marathon at the local Legion. It featured music, dance, improv comedy, drag, collaborative art projects, cooperative board games, storytelling, community booths, a coffeehouse, spoken word, a community lunch and a peace walk around our town Square.
But where there is light, there is shadow. Our advocacy efforts unearthed an ugly and unexpected truth. What seemed at first to be an easy point of unity revealed itself to be a haunting line in the sand for some. When hate propaganda first appeared, we called on our local elected leaders to denounce the ideologies behind it. They refused.
Goderich Town Council did make early statements denouncing hate in general, but—for reasons never made clear—they refused to denounce white supremacy and neo-Nazism by name. Huron County Wardens Glen McNeil and Jamie Heffer chose complete silence and never even acknowledged our repeated calls to speak out. Conservative MPP—and Ontario’s Minister of Rural Affairs—Lisa Thompson declined to issue a statement. Instead, she emailed back an assertion of a private landowner’s right to erect large roadside White Lives Matter billboards. Two days later, federal Conservative backbencher Ben Lobb also declined to comment—and sent me a word-for-word excerpt lifted from Thompson’s email. He didn’t even bother to change the font. He signed it and passed it off as his own—ignoring my repeated clarifications that we weren’t calling for the signs’ removal, but for a clear public denunciation of neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies.
Undeterred, we applied steady pressure—through petitions, letters, counter-messaging, and interviews with local and national media. Yet to this day, not a single elected official or governing body in Huron County has issued an unequivocal public statement denouncing white supremacist or neo-Nazi ideologies. We believe the people of Huron County—and of Canada—deserve to know about this complicit silence.
On January 27, 2025—International Holocaust Remembrance Day—we officially closed that chapter of our advocacy, recognizing that after six months of sustained pressure, the window for a meaningful response had long since passed.
And still, we remain joyful and undeterred. We reject silence. We reject fence-sitting. We reject appeasement masquerading as “good vibes only.”
We choose camaraderie. We choose care. We choose courage. We choose joy. We choose resistance.
We were heartened when our advocacy led directly to public statements from a small number of Huron–Bruce political candidates during the back-to-back provincial and federal elections. We want to acknowledge Ian Burbidge (Ontario Liberal), Nick McGregor (Ontario NDP), and Melanie Burrett (federal NDP) for each issuing clear, unequivocal social media statements condemning neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies. They showed everyone else just how simple it really is.
Most recently, we hosted a powerful evening featuring a speaker from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) and a performance by local trio Upswing, who closed the night with our official song: Love Lives Here. At the end of the talk, the CAHN representative described what’s happening in Goderich as “magical” and proposed that it should be a model for the entire country.
Our one-year anniversary is this August—and naturally, we’ll celebrate with an afternoon of mutual aid, divas and disco. Because joy is resistance. (Note from the editor: more on this at the bottom of this interview!)
rabble.ca: How did you first get involved in activism?
PC: My first real foray into stick-your-neck-out activism came in 2007, when I publicly challenged the abusive, underhanded practices of a well-known performing arts institution in downtown Toronto—one I had just graduated from. This was more than a decade before Harvey Weinstein’s downfall and the tidal wave of #MeToo that followed.
I knew the cost would be high. I knew I’d be banished from one of my greatest loves. The theatre industry remains tightly gatekept—and back then, did not take kindly to even a hint of dissent. But I also knew that silence risked complicity. Eight years ago, the issue came roaring back. The abuse and harassment hadn’t stopped. A new generation of students bravely stepped forward. I believe our collective acts of courage helped spark slow but lasting tectonic shifts in the power dynamics of performing arts institutions. The artists who came forward remain unacknowledged heroes. I see the legacy of their bravery woven through Toronto’s creative community. My hope is that one day they’ll be recognized for their courage—and celebrated by the very industry they helped to transform.
That long, painful chapter taught me more than I sought to learn. I learned that those who seek power are often the least suited to hold it. That those entrusted with public safety and welfare often fail the most basic tests of sound leadership. That power, when challenged, frequently responds with short-term self-protection, wilfully permitting predictable, widespread, long-term harm. I saw how easily the language of progressive thought can become camouflage for those actively working against its core principles. I learned about hypocrisy. About betrayal. About silence itself.
rabble.ca: What does being nominated as a ‘rabble rouser to watch’ mean to you?
PC: Our movement has never been—and must never become—about any one person. At the heart of any true and effective movement for peace is a fabric of friendships. The success of No Hate in Huron rests entirely on collective action and camaraderie. Every victory has been made possible by many people contributing in beautifully diverse ways—often with quiet devotion, and across many levels of visibility.
I’m deeply honoured to be part of this community: a kind and kindred network of conscientious people who care deeply about the well-being of the place we call home. Being nominated as a “rabble rouser to watch” shines a light on our collective vision: a world where everyone is free to pursue joyous lives without fear of harassment, cruelty, or violence.
It also draws needed attention to a chilling truth: that in 2025, not a single one of our elected representatives—municipal, county, provincial, or federal—has explicitly and unequivocally denounced neo-Nazi or white supremacist ideologies, despite our repeated calls to do so.
That silence is a wound. A failure of duty. A betrayal of our community.
And yet, this nomination offers something more: a signal. An invitation. A door to broader coalitions beyond our county’s borders. Because while hate is powerful, it is no match for care, kindness, and love. Hate recruits from the ranks of the lonely and isolated. It thrives in darkness. We counter that by building connections—by exposing the rebranding tactics and recruitment strategies of hate groups. By taking care of one another. By showing up with real, ordinary, radiant compassion—that’s how we make it impossible for hate to take root.
rabble.ca: How do you take care of yourself and find the drive to keep going?
PC: I view activism as a spiritual practice. I strive to maintain calm clarity and honour the proud traditions we walk in. If we are to serve as instruments of justice, peace, and conscience, careful tending to our own minds and bodies is essential.
Nourishing food, physical activity, and quality rest are universal, non-negotiable foundations. Healthy connection and quiet reflection provide a compass—and invite inspiration.
I want to honour the memory of my personal heroes—their fierce legacies of resisting bigotry, racism, and hate. I want to be the kind of adult that 14-year-old me—growing up queer in Huron County in the 90s—would have looked up to. Someone who doesn’t flinch in the face of organized hate. Someone willing to risk criticism, embarrassment—even physical harm—in defence of community care.
And I want to be someone that 84-year-old me can look back on with pride. But more than anything, what drives me is knowing there are people actively targeting the most vulnerable members of our community. White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and neo-fascists are not exactly known for their subtlety. They’re explicit in their goals—and in the violent means they’re willing to use to achieve them.
In the presence of such forces, I believe active, clear, direct, ongoing, and unwavering non-violent resistance is not optional. It is a moral imperative.
rabble.ca: What is one goal you have in the next year?
PC: To see silence shattered. From my earliest days in activism, I’ve understood that people in power gravitate toward silence. Silence is comfortable. It’s evasive. It provides cover. It offers plausible deniability. It sidesteps media coverage—because there’s no “hook.” For a while. But over time, silence corrodes trust. It reveals cowardice. It signals a lack of moral clarity. I never imagined that so many local leaders—including a sitting provincial cabinet minister—would choose silence in the face of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and neo-fascist activity. And yet, here we are.
In the next year, I want that silence broken. Not with platitudes. Not with vague affirmations of inclusivity. With explicit, unequivocal rejection of white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and neo-fascism. I encourage people across Canada to apply a simple litmus test. Ask your elected representatives—at every level—if they’re willing to do the easiest thing in the world: Can you explicitly, unequivocally, and publicly denounce neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and neo-fascist ideologies? If they can’t, we all deserve to know why. Is it because they’re afraid of alienating part of their voting base? Is it because they’re not personally on the target list of organized hate groups—and so they don’t care? Is it because they secretly sympathize with these ideologies? If the answer to any of these is yes, then something has gone terribly wrong.
Appeasement is not an acceptable response to organized hate. If there’s only one lesson history has tried to teach us, it’s this: When Nazis show up, you speak out.
rabble.ca: What do you wish people knew about the organizing you do?
PC: I invite everyone to reflect on the list of people that Nazis, white supremacists, and fascists have explicitly targeted—throughout history and up to the present day: 2SLGBTQ+ people; artists, intellectuals, and academics; Black people; communists; conscientious objectors; freemasons; Indigenous people; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Jewish people; journalists and media workers; Muslims and other religious minorities; neurodivergent people; older adults; people of colour; people with disabilities and/or chronic illness; people experiencing homelessness and poverty; Polish people; political opponents; refugees and asylum seekers; Romani and Sinti people; Slavic people; social democrats; Soviet prisoners of war; trade unionists and labour organizers; women.
This is not a fringe list. This is most of us. We are in the majority. We can work together. We can bridge differences. We can banish hate. We can make silent politicians unelectable. We can make future generations proud.
Canada is unimaginably vast—but its rural and remote communities must never be weaponized as hiding grounds—or training grounds—for hate. That’s not who we are. That’s not who we’re becoming.
Huron County is a microcosm of dynamics and forces playing out on the global stage. What happens in Huron County matters. When we speak up and act up—with joy and care—we ensure that diversity, inclusion, compassion, and courage are not just protected, but cherished and celebrated. Everywhere.
Want to walk in solidarity with No Hate in Huron?
In August 2024, the track at Goderich District Collegiate Institute (GDCI) was desecrated in a disturbing act linked to white supremacist ideology. A group associated with neo-Nazi beliefs reportedly misused the track for combat-style drills and defaced the town’s cherished waterfront boardwalk with recruitment stickers promoting hate networks.
In response, the Goderich community has united in peaceful defiance, reaffirming its commitment to inclusion, dignity, and mutual respect. Residents have made it clear: hate has no place in their town.
On August 4, a public march will take place, beginning at the Kinsmen Centre and proceeding to the GDCI track and back.
- When: Monday, August 4
- Time: 11am-4pm
- Where: Kinsmen Centre, Goderick (185 Keays Street)
Learn more about this event and the organization on their website here.
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