The Canadian Anti-Hate Network supports Bill C-71 and measures to strengthen the bill to prevent access to firearms by members of hate groups which espouse racism and violence in Canada. They collaborate with academics who do the legwork to justify their absurd claims. For example, one academic claimed there are over 300 far-right extremist groups in Canada, then refused to provide a list.
00:00:00.000We support Bill C-71 and measures to strengthen the bill to prevent access to firearms by members of hate groups which espouse racism and violence.
00:00:09.600We now have over 300 active hate groups in Canada.
00:00:13.840This is Bernie Farber, the former chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
00:00:17.780They collaborate with academics who do the legwork to justify their absurd claims.
00:00:22.380For example, one academic claimed there are over 300 far-right extremist groups in Canada, then refused to provide the list or even the methodology of how they came up with this list.
00:00:35.640Am I on the list? Is a Facebook group that I'm a part of part of the list? We don't know.
00:00:41.220We now have over 300 active hate groups in Canada.
00:00:48.840At Cannes, we recommend that Bill C-71 be amended to add criteria to prevent individuals from receiving firearms licenses if they associate with extremist hate groups and therefore pose a serious risk to themselves and to others.
00:01:05.320Further, we support measures which make it possible in the interest of public safety for the chief firearms officer to take weapons out of the hands of individuals espousing overt racism and support for violence.
00:01:19.960Anti-Semitism, conspiracy, minimization and distortion, Holocaust denial, go hand-in-hand with far-right conspiracy and mass murder.
00:01:31.240COVID conspiracy theories, the Great Replacement conspiracy theories, they kill. They kill.
00:01:37.980And so we need to find law that works and that will root it out, in my view, right at its very core.
00:01:45.500From the point of view of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, we just really want to make it as difficult as possible for those who are involved in promoting hatred to have access to guns.
00:01:57.540And anything that puts those kinds of blockages in their way, I think, would be more than helpful.
00:02:02.460If you can find this footprint and determine that these people are involved in hateful activities, in promoting hatred, in gathering information that could lead to hateful activity, and they apply for a license for guns, potentially and possibly something could have been done.
00:02:21.720If we can put obstacles in the way of those who hate, those who have been very obvious about their hatred because they've left this footprint online, we might be able to do something to stop it.
00:02:34.520What your organization is proposing is indeed quite radical.
00:02:38.280And if I have understood you correctly, you seem to be suggesting that if someone associates with hate groups or espouses hate, that they should be subject to legal sanctions before they are even found guilty in a court of law.
00:02:53.680Let's sanction them right now because we think you are a hateful person.
00:02:58.220You have the wrong haircut, and that looks to us like you're a violent person.