In the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC)’s latest embrace with anti-immigration and racist ideology, three of their MPs met late last week with far-right German Member of European Parliament Christine Anderson.
Anderson is a member of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) or Alternative for Germany Party.
The AfD shop in anti-Islamic, anti-semitic, anti-immigration, Holocaust denying politics.
Despite this, three CPC MPs, Colin Carrie, Dean Allison and Leslyn Lewis, who has run twice for the CPC leadership, met with Anderson last week. They were photographed together and even sat down together for a meal.
In a statement from Pierre Poilievre shared by Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley, the CPC leader claimed that his MPs were not aware of Anderson’s extremist views.
“Christine Anderson’s views are vile and have no place in our politics,” the statement reads. “The MPs were not aware of this visiting Member of European Parliament’s opinions, and they regret meeting with her. Frankly, it would be better if Anderson never visited Canada in the first place. She and her racist, hateful views are not welcome here.”
In 2021, then CPC leader Erin O’Toole ejected MP Derek Sloan from the party after it was revealed he received an online donation of $131 from white nationalist Paul Fromm.
Getting a donation from a white nationalist in 2021 gets you booted from the party. But apparently meeting with one in 2023 will just get you a complete pass?
On Friday, Trudeau stated that the CPC owed Canadians an explanation, but what is there to explain?
Surrounded by the politics of hate
Anderson has characterized Muslim immigration as something that costs billions to the welfare state. She has marched with the Islamophobic organization Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident, and her party has accepted those with antisemitic views.
Poilievre’s claim that his MPs did not know about Anderson’s views seems laughable. Can we really believe that three MPs, and their staff, and the CPC party apparatus had no idea what Anderson and the AfD stand for?
I guess in their meeting with Anderson, which included a sit down meal, the topic of her politics never came up. I know politicians loathe talking politics after all.
Anderson has been on a tour of sorts in Canada. Prior to stopping in Ontario, she had already visited Alberta where she characterized democracy as an “illusion” in the context of public health measures. Furthermore, after her meeting with Lewis, Allison and Carrie, she went on to meet with far-right extremist group Diagolon.
Diagolon is opposed to immigration and fears the dilution of Euro-centric societies. Its leader Jeremy MacKenzie has been charged with harassing public health officials as well as weapons violations. During last summer’s CPC leadership election campaign, eventual winner Pierre Poilievre was photographed with MacKenzie. Later, Poilievre denounced MacKenzie and his far-right views, and did so again after MacKenzie made threats to sexually assault Poilievre’s wife.
Not that Poilievre is any stranger to the anti-feminist movement. In October of 2022, it was revealed that his leadership campaign team had been using a hidden tag on his YouTube videos to connect with misogynist men using the hashtag #MGTOW (Men Go Their Own Way).
READ MORE: Poilievre rejects responsibility for his toxic politics
Anyone could have seen this coming
The CPC has flirted with far-right extremism for a long time. Christine Anderson would probably agree with much of their proposed Barbaric Cultural Practices Act that was a centre piece of their 2015 federal election campaign. This past year, however, and this current leader seems to have moved the party from flirtation to full-on embrace of xenophobic and anti-trans ideology.
It feels almost poetic that this latest controversy comes the same month that we mark the one-year anniversary of the “Freedom” convoy occupation, which itself trucked (pun intended) in extremist and violent right-wing views.
Just last week, rabble shared an analysis of Justice Paul Rouleau’s inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act which dislodged the protest last February.
In it, Rouleau states “there were multiple reports of harassment, intimidation, and assaultive behaviour, to which law enforcement was often unable to respond.”
At the time however, Poilievre was more than happy to associate himself with that occupation and sang their praises.
To bring things full circle, the same week that Christine Anderson met with the three CPC MPs she was also photographed with Tamara Lich when she visited Alberta. Lich was one of the key organizers of the convoy occupation.
Months after the occupation ended, Poilievre continued to show his comfortable association with the extremists who had orchestrated that event for the sake of his own political gain.
On Canada Day weekend 2022, Poilievre marched alongside James Topp in Ottawa. Topp is another convoy occupation luminary who opposed COVID-19 mandates. At the time, community organizers warned that movements like the Freedom Convoy were pipelines into far-right extremist groups like Diagolon.
“This is a movement of far-right extremists using the vaccine issue as a recruitment pipeline.” said Brian Latour, a spokesperson for Community Solidarity Ottawa at the time. “Continuing actions by so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers and allies, even after their stated goals have been achieved, only confirms what we have known about them all along – that this is not about vaccines or mandates.”
The fact that three CPC MPs met with someone like Christine Anderson is not surprising or shocking. What is shocking is that Poilievre and his party believe that they can credibly denounce the Islamophobic, anti-semetic, anti-2SLGBTQIA+, anti-immigration politics that she represents.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
