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Thursday, August 1, 2024

'Anti-Hate' group gets more $$ from Trudeau gov't

by George J. Dance 

The so-called "Canadian Anti-Hate Network" (CAHN) is back in the news – or would be, if Canadian media ever reported objectively on the group. In any case, this summer the CAHN received two new grants, totaling more than $600,000, from the federal Liberal government. In June, it received more than $400,000 from the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program of Heritage Canada:

Informing, Connecting, and Encouraging Anti-Hate Activities in Canada | Canadian Anti-Hate Network

June 18, 2024 - The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has received a $440,000 grant to help good neighbours find each other and organize against hate.... We are launching a new project, titled Informing, Connecting, and Encouraging Anti-Hate Activities In Canada, which has been made possible thanks to the support of Canadian Heritage and a grant from the Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives Program.  The CSMARI program provides funding for projects that increase capacity within communities to address racism and discrimination....

We will launch a communications campaign involving some traditional advertising and by working with content creators on newer social media platforms.... We will also hold townhalls to connect community members and organizations to exchange knowledge and organize against hate together.This project is funded for two years, ending on November 30, 2025, for a total of $440,000. We are looking for additional funding to add an additional team member and expand the communications campaign to blanket Canada....

Read more: https://www.antihate.ca/informing_connecting_and_encouraging_anti_hate_activities_in_canada

In July, CAHN  received a further $200,000 from Public Safety Canada: 

Canadian Anti-Hate Network Receives Funding From Public Safety Canada's Community Resilience Fund | Canadian Anti-Hate Network:

July 10, 2024 - "The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) will be hiring an established researcher to develop a framework to carry out studies on the far-right landscape in Canada.... The Creating an Ethical Framework for Research on Far-Right Organizing in Canada project is possible thanks to $200,000 in funding over two years under Public Safety Canada's Community Resilience Fund (CRF). Led by Public Safety's Canada Center for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, the CRF provides financial support to organizations working to improve Canada's understanding and capacity to prevent and counter violent extremism."

Read more: https://www.antihate.ca/canadian_anti_hate_network_receives_funding_from_public_safety_canada_s_community_resilience_fund

Who are these people? According to the official description on their website, CAHN is just a group opposed to "hate" in general: 

Who We Are | Canadian Anti-Hate Network:

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network is an independent, nonprofit organization made up of Canada’s leading experts and researchers on hate groups and hate crimes. Our Advisory Committee includes academics like Dr. Barbara Perry, court-recognized experts on hate crimes, lawyers with decades of experience with hate groups, people who stood up to the neo-Nazi Heritage Front in the 1990s, and leaders in communities that are being targeted by hate.

We have relationships with colleagues and organizations doing similar work internationally, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, and experts in deradicalisation.

Our mandate is to monitor, research, and counter hate groups by providing education and information on hate groups to the public, media, researchers, courts, law enforcement, and community groups.

https://www.antihate.ca/about

What's not to like? Aren't we all opposed to "hate" no matter the source? However, other articles on the website (including the following job posting) indicate that CAHN's actual mandate is somewhat different from that: 

Hiring: Researcher With Human Subject Research Ethics Background | Canadian Anti-Hate Network:

July 10, 2024 - About the Organization 

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network is an independent, non-partisan non-profit organization with a mandate to counter, monitor, and expose far-right and white supremacist movements, groups, and individuals with every legal, ethical, and reasonable tool at our disposal.  

Read more: https://www.antihate.ca/hiring_researcher_with_human_subject_research_ethics_background

In other words, the CAHN actually has two "mandates" - a public one, to monitor and research "hate groups" in general, and an internally-used one to counter the "far right" with any tool at their disposal. This dual mandate makes the CAHN sound similar to the U.S.-based Southern Poverty Law Centre – and, indeed, Wikipedia notes that CAHN "is modelled after and supported by the American Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)." The SPLC is a fundraising site which grifts quite successfully off leftist fears of what Hillary Clinton called the "vast right-wing conspiracy" While the SPLC may well do some good, that good is more than balanced off by the harm caused by two of its tendencies: 

(1) to counter, 'expose' and oppose any and all right-wing groups, regardless of aims and tactics, as "far right"; and 

(2) to completely ignore hateful and violent activity on the left.

The same for the CAHN;  while it may have certainly have done some good, by exposing some bad actors, it is principally known for three actions that reflect these same flaws and biases. 

(1a) The CAHN was the source for the story that the Freedom Convoy was a "far-right" movement that aimed to violently overthrown the Canadian government. This propaganda narrative undoubtedly influenced the Liberal government, preventing it from even talking to the Convoy protestors, thereby prolonging the protests; and ultimately resultomg in the unconstitutional overreach of the Emergencies Act. 

(1b) The CAHN was also the source of the story that a Nova Scotia shock-jock podcaster, Jeremy Mackenzie, was the head of a secret militia group, "Diagolon," that was plotting acts of terrorism. As a result of these allegations, Mackenzie was hit with a blizzard of charges, and spent literal months in prison, for charges that ultimately resulted in not eveb one conviction – what looks like a clear case of lawfare being waged against an innocent Canadian private citizen.    

(2a) On the other hand, CAHN was conspicuous by its absence in condemning the Soros-backed anti-Israel protests that have plagued Canada since October. This failure to condemn even the worst occupations, threats, genocidal chants, and even outright violence, was duly noted and condemned, and may have led to the resignation of CAHN's CEO, Bernie Farber. (Farber remains on CAHN's board, as "Founding Chair Emeritus.") 

There is, though, one major difference between SPLC and CAHN. While the former is simply takes advantage of private dupes who waste their money on it, CAHN also feeds out of the tax trough. They have received at least $500,000 from the federal government in the past, and have also applied (though not been accepted) for permanent funding. That makes them worth keeping an eye on in the future. I doubt that this will be the last time I shall write about them.                                                                       

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