As
Canadians get set to celebrate Canada Day tomorrow, we all need to demand an
honest assessment of the country’s political trajectory. Since the post‑9/11
era, Canada has been drifting steadily to the right, reshaping its laws,
institutions, and public discourse in ways that erode civil liberties, normalize
racism and Islamophobia, and legitimize far‑right political views. Many
Canadians, comforted by the belief that “it can’t happen here,” are
sleepwalking Canada towards a cliff and the rest of us are doing little or
nothing to stop it.
The post‑9/11
security climate marked a turning point. Under the banner of fighting
terrorism, Canada expanded surveillance, strengthened security agencies, and
introduced legislation that disproportionately targeted Muslims, Arabs, and
other racialized communities. Islamophobia
became embedded in policy and practice, with Muslim communities treated as suspect
and their institutions subjected to heightened scrutiny. This securitized
mindset has never fully receded, it has simply shifted targets and language.
Recent
commentary has documented how Islamophobia
and anti‑Palestinian racism have become entrenched at the highest levels of
Canadian politics. One analysis of the appointment of MP Anthony Housefather as
special advisor on antisemitism argues that his record of pushing
anti‑Palestinian narratives reflects a government willing to appease pro‑Israel
organizations while ignoring the surge in hate against Palestinians and
Muslims. This is not an isolated incident; it reflects a broader pattern in
which those who protest genocide are smeared, surveilled, and punished.
Since
October 7, 2023, this pattern has intensified. Palestinians and their allies
have been vilified as “terrorists” and “antisemitic” simply for opposing Israeli
state violence and pointing out that it is committing genocide in Gaza. Pro‑Palestinian
protesters have faced harassment, doxing, job loss, and political condemnation.
It can be safely said that Palestinians are “the
most persecuted people in the world today,” in light of the fact that Western
leaders—including Canada’s—have seemingly shed their humanity towards
Palestinians by treating their deaths at Israeli hands as acceptable collateral
damage. The refusal of both the Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney governments to intervene
to stop genocide, do nothing beyond issuing PR platitudes, even as polls show overwhelming Canadian
opposition to current Canadian policy, exposes the gap between democratic
rhetoric and actual practice.
This
widening gap is where Canada’s rightward drift becomes most visible. When hundreds
of thousands of Canadians march against the Gaza genocide and their leaders
respond by continuing arms sales, diplomatic cover, and launching smear
campaigns against protesters, democracy becomes a façade. A detailed analysis
of Canada’s complicity in the Gaza genocide argues that successive governments
have maintained military
cooperation with Israel despite clear evidence of genocidal acts, thereby breaching
both domestic and international legal obligations. This is not just foreign
policy failure; it is moral bankruptcy.
At the
same time, Canada’s right‑wing parties have moved further into territory that
can only be described as quasi‑fascist. The Conservative Party under Pierre
Poilievre has embraced rhetoric and talking points that mirror those of the
Republican Party under Donald Trump—attacks on “woke”
culture, demonization
of refugees and immigrants, hostility toward journalists and academics, and
a constant framing of political opponents as enemies of “real Canadians.” While
the specifics differ, the underlying strategy is familiar—weaponize resentment,
stoke cultural division, and present strongman politics as the solution to
perceived chaos.
The People’s Party
of Canada (PPC), led by Maxime Bernier, has played a crucial role in
legitimizing far‑right discourse even without major electoral success. A 2021
analysis of the PPC argues that the party has normalized
racist, xenophobic, and anti‑immigrant narratives, giving them a veneer of
political respectability. By railing against “globalists,” attacking
immigration, and flirting with conspiracy theories, the PPC has helped shift
the narrative—making previously fringe ideas part of mainstream debate. Even if
the PPC fails at the ballot box, its impact on political culture is undeniable.
This is
how far‑right politics advances, not only through winning elections, but
through changing what is considered acceptable to say in public. When parties
like the PPC push fascist talking points—about “invasions,” “replacement,” or
the supposed threat posed by racialized communities—they create space for
larger parties to adopt softer versions of the same narratives. Over time, the
centre of gravity moves rightward, and what once seemed extreme becomes
ordinary.
Meanwhile,
Canada’s media ecosystem has often amplified these shifts rather than resisting
them. Right‑wing commentators and outlets have demonized pro‑Palestinian
protesters, framed solidarity encampments as security threats, and echoed
government talking points about “extremism” and “hate” against Jews, even
though many Jews are part of the movement. Anti‑Palestinian racism and
Islamophobia are not only present in political institutions, they are
reproduced daily in Canada’s
news media ecosystem, through coverage and opinion columns. Multiple
published commentaries have argued that this media environment dehumanizes
Palestinians and legitimizes state violence against them.
The
convergence of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples, the escalating attacks
on residential school truth‑telling, and the vilification of pro‑Palestinian
demonstrators reveals a political environment where dissent is increasingly
criminalized and racialized communities are systematically targeted. The same
forces that once justified the dispossession and dehumanization of Indigenous
nations now rationalize contemporary efforts to suppress solidarity with
Palestinians. Residential school denialism and anti‑Indigenous propaganda have
become tools for undermining truth‑telling and defending the settler‑colonial
status quo, while politicians, right‑wing media, and pro‑Israel advocacy
networks deploy similar tactics to delegitimize pro‑Palestinian voices —
branding them extremists, security threats, or enemies of “Canadian values.” In
both cases, historical and ongoing state violence is obscured through
narratives that portray marginalized communities as dangerous or suspect, and
those who challenge official narratives as destabilizing forces. As a result,
protests against genocide and colonialism are met with police crackdowns,
university sanctions, employment terminations, and political condemnation,
reinforcing a broader pattern in which far‑right narratives seep into
mainstream discourse and the machinery of the state is mobilized to silence
those who resist it.
Canadians
often comfort themselves with the belief that “we’re not like the United States
or the United Kingdom” and that what’s happening to their politics can’t happen
here. But the trajectories are increasingly similar. In the US, the far right
has captured The Republican Party and reshaped national politics around
authoritarian impulses and racial resentment. In the UK, xenophobia and anti‑immigrant
hysteria have become central pillars of political discourse, with far‑right
groups exploiting economic instability and cultural anxiety. Canada is not
immune because it is simply at an earlier stage of the same process.
As
Canadians get set to mark Canada Day they must remember that a nation complicit
in genocide cannot credibly celebrate itself as a force for good. When Canada
continues to sell weapons to a state accused of genocide, refuses to support
international legal efforts to hold that state accountable, and punishes those
who protest its actions, it forfeits any claim to moral leadership. Silence is
not neutrality—it is complicity.
Canada is
at a crossroads. It can continue drifting down the path towards a right-wing, authoritarian
future, with the scapegoating of racialized peoples, and moral abdication, or
it can choose a different future. But that choice will not be made by
politicians alone. It will be made by Canadians who decide whether to accept
the drift or resist it.
Millions
of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day tomorrow and they are free to do so. But
if they celebrate without reflection, without reckoning, without pushing back
against the rightward political drift that has been happening for years, they
may find that the country they once celebrated no longer exists. And by then,
it may be too late to turn back from the cliff.
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