Juno News - Inside Canada’s revolutionary left

00:00:00.000 Canada has no shortage of protests. We see frequently far-left movements on the streets

00:00:07.040 advocating to disrupt and dismantle, it seems, almost every week, sometimes multiple times in a

00:00:14.340 week. We even fund groups like Antifa through Canada Anti-Hate Network with our tax dollars.

00:00:22.100 Non-consensually, I might add, what I find curious is the legacy media and our police and security

00:00:30.380 services often just seem to give that a pass, despite the rhetoric about dismantling Western

00:00:37.540 civilization and support for subversive and, frankly, often violent action. My colleague Clayton

00:00:46.560 Demain has looked into some of these groups. He has spent time interviewing them, boots on the

00:00:52.620 ground, and he's even attended multiple of their meetings. So I thought it might be a good idea to

00:00:58.760 have him give us his, shall we say, lived experience of what these revolutionary groups want and why

00:01:06.600 little action is taken, while at the same time in America, they're busy designating the far-left

00:01:13.040 anarchist group Antifa as a terrorist organization. I'm Melanie Bennett. This is Disrupted.

00:01:22.760 Clayton, I'm so pleased to have you. Welcome to the show.

00:01:26.780 Thank you, Melanie.

00:01:28.340 You have done some pretty excellent reporting last year, boots on the ground,

00:01:32.000 and I wanted to have you on to talk about one piece in particular that grabbed my attention,

00:01:38.060 which was last month in December. You wrote about a temporary foreign worker group that got together

00:01:45.160 that wasn't exclusively run by Marxists, but did contain a Marxist element within it. And in your

00:01:53.460 article, you call them Marxist agitators, and they were essentially plotting to protest to have strikes

00:02:01.180 against some of these restrictions on temporary foreign workers, going as far as suggesting

00:02:05.840 that they should protest in front of Doug Ford's home, private home. I guess kind of mirroring some

00:02:13.020 similar protests at Anita Nan's offices last year, which caused a bit of an uproar. Now,

00:02:19.320 you attended this meeting in person to write the article. What was that like?

00:02:26.500 Yeah, absolutely. So it was in Brampton. It was at a Sikh temple. So actually, initially,

00:02:32.580 I thought it was in the temple. So I was prepared to take my shoes off and get barefoot. And I was like

00:02:39.760 a minute away from putting on a turban before I asked the person where the event was, and it was actually

00:02:47.760 around the corner. So anyway, when I got in there, it was interesting because the people standing at the door

00:02:56.640 had been joking about some of the other people I came in with, if they had their immigration papers,

00:03:03.820 like, oh, you better have your immigration papers. So it's almost like they're joking about potentially

00:03:09.480 there's an illegal immigrant walking in the door with them. So anyway, but the event was built as a town

00:03:16.500 hall. It was supposed to be designed to help people who might be having their visas expired or have

00:03:25.240 already had their visas expired. So in other words, an illegal immigrant. Now, the key thing was the 0.71

00:03:32.720 initiating problem was the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program. Doug Ford's government had canceled a bunch

00:03:42.200 of these nominations saying, we're not accepting any more. One of the reasons was mass fraud that they

00:03:50.900 were talking about. But you're right, like, there was a lot of Marxist groups there, a lot of, like,

00:03:57.440 Canadian groups, but also some people who have been protesting about immigration as immigrants themselves

00:04:05.760 for a while, exposed themselves as a very Marxist. But yeah, so I could get into some of those details

00:04:15.900 as well about some of the things that they said. Yeah, please. And also, did you see any union

00:04:22.700 representation there? Yeah, so it's funny that you mentioned the march to Doug Ford's home. I do want to

00:04:30.840 clarify. The group said, we haven't thought about that. So maybe, like, we'll think about that. It

00:04:36.280 wasn't like the entire group saying, let's all march down to Doug Ford's personal residence. But it was

00:04:42.580 actually a QP executive sits on the executive board of QP. And you could read the article to find out more

00:04:50.460 about that. But she said, well, just marching to the legislature won't do much. Like, he might not be

00:04:57.740 even there. They don't have to look out their windows. You won't be allowed inside. How to make

00:05:02.900 a real ruckus would be to go to his private residence. But yeah, there was also, there was

00:05:08.900 groups, the one that comes to mind is Migrant Ontario. They said, militant greetings was how 0.99

00:05:17.540 they opened up their talk. And they ended up leading the group in a chant of long-lived international

00:05:28.400 solidarity. And they put up the Marxist salute. And the gentleman there, he was from the Philippines.

00:05:35.820 And he said that Canada, the reason that Canada has so many immigrants and refugees is because of 1.00

00:05:42.540 the imperialist capitalist wars that Canada and countries like it wage in third world countries.

00:05:50.140 And it's interesting. Like, I don't know of any imperialist wars that Canada's waged as of late

00:05:55.820 or ever. And the area of Brampton, I mean, it's in Brampton. So like, we only have census data from

00:06:02.760 2021. I would wager that the population of Brampton is probably about 80% Indian now. We'll have to 1.00

00:06:09.960 wait till the census of 2026 to see. And most of that is Punjabi. So certainly, Canada hasn't 0.94

00:06:18.240 went to war against India. So that was quite interesting. There was also an individual there,

00:06:26.020 Bikram Kulawalia. And he's been protesting with, against expiring visas for years now in Canada.

00:06:36.140 He, he said that he was a professional protester. And he had said something similar saying that

00:06:44.740 we need a revolution in Canada. All different people have different ideas of how to wage that

00:06:51.040 revolution. He's talking, he also mentioned imperialism. And he said a lot of Marxist

00:06:56.180 talking points. You can tell he's a socialist. And it just raises a question of, you know,

00:07:02.340 should, should people who come to this country be advocating for revolution? And, you know,

00:07:10.120 a Marxist revolution is typically a violent one. So, and there was other groups too, like groups of

00:07:17.260 people who are likely born in Canada, who, you know, came in with the keffiyahs and a Palestinian 0.99

00:07:23.200 necklace, which just shows like the state of Israel, the borders of biblical Israel. But, you know,

00:07:30.620 there, there's, um, and they had said similar things. And of course you have the union,

00:07:35.960 the one union rep who made sure to say, I'm not here as officially as part of QP. Um, and then

00:07:42.700 proceeded to. Yeah. Well, as we know, uh, liberation movements and peace movements, they're not the same

00:07:49.560 thing. And you mentioned QP and although the person wasn't there on behalf of QP, you also covered

00:07:56.740 QP's action plan this year, the 2025 action plan that they put out that really read like a

00:08:01.720 internationalist Marxist, uh, manifesto. If you ask me like a revolutionary manifesto and in it,

00:08:07.340 they also talk about the redistribution of wealth. They talk about, um, you know, redistributing that to

00:08:13.560 the, to the quote unquote working class. Uh, I think they identified areas that needed to be,

00:08:19.200 uh, addressed climate change, trans rights, DEI, land acknowledgements,

00:08:24.200 and collaboration with the land back movement as, as you reported in your article.

00:08:28.340 And I thought this was particularly interesting. Now that you're talking about militant movements

00:08:32.580 and that language, uh, quote from your article, we're not just, this is QP in the action plan.

00:08:38.480 We're not just mobilizing for a single fight. We're building lasting power, member to member

00:08:44.300 engagement, and the capacity for militant action, mentioning the word militant three times

00:08:49.380 in the action plan, which sounded like an anti-Western revolutionary document, right? So

00:08:55.220 why do you think these sorts of things get a pass, uh, with our security and police services when,

00:09:04.000 if you recall, perhaps, uh, perhaps you don't recall, perhaps the audience does recall this,

00:09:08.000 but CSIS last year, the year before identified the parents' rights movement as, uh, of concern,

00:09:14.220 and they were monitoring parents and the parents' rights movements following the One Million March

00:09:18.320 for Children. So CSIS views the parents as potential extremists, but not these movements. Why do you,

00:09:25.140 why do you think that is? Well, yeah, I mean, there seems to be a blind spot, of course, from

00:09:32.000 Canada's intelligence agencies and, uh, security. Um, it's, I mean, it's ideologically driven.

00:09:39.220 It has to be, right? Um, they, they ignore things like Antifa violence. I mean, there was just eight

00:09:44.940 arrested in Toronto for attacking, um, Toronto police and, you know, masks, wearing masks and

00:09:54.060 assaulting them at a, it was an anti-immigration rally in, in Toronto. Um, you know, there's, there's

00:10:00.780 violence all across the country from Antifa. And they, these people in Toronto, by the way,

00:10:04.380 they were waving Antifa flags. There's no mistake. And these were declared Antifa, uh, you know,

00:10:11.380 people. Um, but yeah, you see, you see unions involved in all sorts of left-wing protests.

00:10:18.980 Uh, yourself and I went to, to a gay refugee, um, event and were kind of yelled at by, uh,

00:10:26.380 a socialist there. Um, but you know, like they, they, they seem to no longer be involved in

00:10:33.880 their original mandate, which was to protect workers from job insecurity and, and, you

00:10:39.900 know, unsafe workplaces. And they've gone full activist mode in, in Canada on a wide range

00:10:46.340 of things from like LGBT to environment to, to Palestine. And it's interesting because as,

00:10:53.380 you know, we're talking right now, there's an ongoing revolution in, in Iran, uh, or uprisings

00:11:00.100 for, I think it's the 16th night now, as we're recording this. And there's a very noticeable lack

00:11:07.780 of union presence at protests for the people of Iran who are being slaughtered by their, by their

00:11:14.180 government and are in a media blackout, right? So it's, it's very selective, the kinds of activism

00:11:20.980 that unions tend to do. And the fact that, um, you know, our, our national security agencies

00:11:28.020 aren't looking at radical Marxists who, you know, they state themselves that they want a violent

00:11:34.500 revolution in some cases, um, and, and a dictatorship. So it's essentially, they're advocating for the

00:11:40.340 complete destruction of Western society or the, like the, the current foundation of Canada.

00:11:46.260 So you would think that they would have an eye on, on that kind of thing.

00:11:49.380 Yeah. So speaking of, uh, this revolutionary intent, you've spoken to some of these, uh,

00:11:54.980 communists you went to this summer, you, I guess, infiltrated or attended some meetings from,

00:12:00.580 uh, the revolutionary communist party of Canada, which is a small party, you know, but I, this is what

00:12:05.460 I think is interesting about this particular event. Not only did you attend it and speak to these people,

00:12:09.060 and I want to hear, uh, your thoughts on that, but it was held at, so the revolutionary communist party

00:12:15.060 of Canada is not a student group at, uh, Toronto metropolitan university, but was renting space

00:12:20.980 on campus for their meetings. And this is what you attended. That didn't seem to cause any kind of,

00:12:29.140 pushback or protest or anything like that. But this fall, um, there was a Toronto metropolitan

00:12:36.660 university, Jewish student group. So the, the group was a student group from that university.

00:12:41.940 They rented space off campus, uh, and the pro Palestine fundamentalists, I guess we could say,

00:12:49.140 uh, raided that meeting. Uh, they had some Israelis, uh, for a talk at this particular meeting,

00:12:54.740 but they weren't even on campus and they got physically attacked. It was all over the news.

00:12:58.500 Uh, it was quite violent. Um, people were, uh, assaulted, right. They broke down the doors.

00:13:03.620 So the contrast between these two things is pretty staggering. Uh, but yeah, so tell me a little bit

00:13:08.260 more about talking to the revolutionary communists of Canada when you attended that meeting.

00:13:14.740 Yeah. Uh, so I actually learned about it from a pro like, so I went to the pride protest with our,

00:13:21.460 our colleague, Sue Ann Levy, and they were handing out flyers at these protests. And this is actually what

00:13:27.060 they do. This is why you see them so often at, at protests is they try to, um, you know, promote

00:13:35.220 their ideology or, or convince people who are upset about a specific issue, uh, that this issue is

00:13:40.900 because of capitalism or imperialism, and they should join forces with them in the, the, uh, you know,

00:13:46.740 the, the coming revolution. Um, so it was actually quite interesting. The event was more like they were

00:13:56.340 live action role playing as a government already, the way that they had, um, you, like if you asked

00:14:03.300 a question, someone would note down that they wanted to answer it, but you could only hear your

00:14:08.100 answer like 20 minutes later when it was, it was all no follow-ups. There was no, it wasn't like a

00:14:14.500 discussion. It was like, everyone was giving a talk. It was quite interesting. But what was more

00:14:19.460 interesting was they were, they were advocating for a violent Soviet style revolution and a Soviet, 0.57

00:14:25.780 Leninist, Marxist, um, dictatorship afterwards. So a dictatorship of the proletariat. Um, and the,

00:14:33.460 the talk was on, um, how communism can fight or how communists fight oppression. Um, which,

00:14:40.660 you know, some people reading the article pointed out is ironic considering communism has been one of the

00:14:47.380 worst, uh, forms of oppression that the world has ever seen. Um, but you know, there, there was talks

00:14:54.420 of, um, so anyways, so this group is actually only 700 nationwide, but they said they had thousands

00:15:00.820 of members internationally, which makes me think that, um, there, you know, this is an international,

00:15:06.420 national organization, which could be concerned for security. But hey, listen, even in the,

00:15:12.180 sorry to interrupt, but I needed to add, that's even happening with QP. If you look at the action

00:15:16.500 plan, I remember that they were talking about, uh, linking up with other unions across the world

00:15:22.340 to engage in similar actions. And I also thought, how is this not understood as foreign interference,

00:15:29.220 similar with the revolutionary communists? I mean, yeah, I mean, it could very well be,

00:15:34.580 um, and there is a funding structure, so they'll get, and, and I'll, I'll say like, there's a lot of

00:15:39.140 beautiful women who are leaders of this movement. So it's very easy for a young man to be,

00:15:46.260 you know, want to be like, you know, I, well, I could read all those books. I could,

00:15:50.260 I could relate to you. Um, and the, they only have to pay $50 a month, at least to join the party.

00:15:56.740 And I've been told that it scales up to even a hundred though. I can't confirm that. Um, but you

00:16:02.660 know, and, and so some of these members who are leadership are actually on a salary. Um, I've been

00:16:08.340 told by, uh, another, uh, person who I met very casually, um, through, through family. Uh, but

00:16:14.980 they also had gripes with, or they, they, they've, they've went in as a leftist, um, to go and join

00:16:21.380 this group. I actually went in and I told them that I was an anarchist who was communist curious.

00:16:27.060 Um, which, so I got a lot of really good answers because they were trying to convince me why I need

00:16:32.020 the authoritarianism of, of their, their form of socialism. Um, but yeah, like they, they sell

00:16:39.620 newspapers. Um, they, they hand out books that they sell as well. And one, and one of the things

00:16:45.300 that kept getting, when I was asking them, do you, do you want a violent revolution? Do you think

00:16:49.460 it's necessary? Um, they, they sent me to, uh, Vladimir Lenin's book called State and Revolution.

00:16:57.300 And so Vladimir Lenin has repeatedly talked about the necessity of, of, uh, politicide,

00:17:06.500 of class side, like, so killing all the wealthy people, killing all the people who are maybe a 0.87

00:17:10.980 little more right than the revolution needs, requires that in that moment. And also talks 0.98

00:17:17.060 about if you're afraid of a dictatorship, you've already betrayed the revolution. So there's no room

00:17:21.940 for anyone who has any gripes or concerns about the, the dictatorship that's forming, uh, post-revolution.

00:17:29.700 And this group, as you mentioned, isn't a, sorry, go ahead.

00:17:32.260 Oh, no, carry on, please.

00:17:34.260 Oh, I was going to say, as you mentioned, it's not a political party. They said that they would

00:17:37.940 join, they could join as a political party, but their real goal is to be a structure already in place

00:17:44.900 for the, um, for the revolution that they believe is coming. It's almost like a cult, right?

00:17:50.180 Like, yeah, it's like a forecoming. So we'll be the,

00:17:53.140 Before joining True North, I, I actually also went to a revolutionary communist party,

00:17:59.940 I guess, event, uh, to talk to them. And it was a similar thing, right? So they're not,

00:18:03.460 they told me that they're not interested in, uh, the party politics getting elected. They really

00:18:07.940 wanted the dictatorship of the proletariat, but they all seemed very young and, uh, you know, 0.97

00:18:12.340 willing to, at least they were willing to talk, unlike some of the, uh, leftist protest movements,

00:18:16.980 uh, that don't want to talk. So that was actually kind of interesting. Um, just to top off the show,

00:18:22.420 you mentioned Iran and I would like to talk about that because that is very much going on right now.

00:18:27.940 Uh, you have interviewed, you went to speak to, uh, people who were protesting last summer.

00:18:34.500 Uh, it was, I believe it was a 12 day, um, assault, uh, on the regime of Iran. So the Islamic regime of 0.97

00:18:43.460 Iran. Um, and you, so you went to talk to people there and it was, you ended up speaking to communists,

00:18:48.580 actually, who were upset that Trump had attacked Iran. And then you went again recently, just a few

00:18:55.140 days ago in a very different circumstance where Persians, uh, thousands, possibly of Persians

00:19:01.620 across, uh, the greater Toronto region have been supporting the revolution that's going on right

00:19:06.500 now, the people's revolution against the, uh, Islamic regime. Do you want to maybe tell us a little bit

00:19:11.780 about the con maybe the contrast between those two events? Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. And, and it was the,

00:19:18.420 the event I went to over the weekend was there was, there was hundreds of people, but, um, there was just a,

00:19:24.820 uh, protest at the U S consulate that was like maybe over 10,000. There was one in Richmond Hill

00:19:31.140 that was, that people reported 10,000 or even 40,000, although I haven't talked to anyone to

00:19:36.100 confirm those numbers. Um, but yeah, like it, so during the summer, it was the, the 12, uh, 12 day war

00:19:42.340 is now what it's being called, uh, where, you know, the U S struck, uh, struck some IRGC targets and

00:19:49.060 nuclear facilities in Iran. Um, and people, so I, I, it was actually an interesting day

00:19:55.380 because I went, there was a protest outside of the U S consulate that was anti U S intervention,

00:20:02.340 um, pro revolution. I could, we could say now, uh, you know, anti regime, uh, Persians, uh, Iranians 1.00

00:20:10.100 were there, uh, counter protesting that. And then there was another event that I went to the same day

00:20:15.140 that was more of a celebration of, of the strikes. Um, but yeah, you saw people who were carrying the

00:20:23.060 regime flag. Um, you know, so we have refugees here from Iran and I would say the majority of

00:20:29.780 them, at least in Toronto are anti regime because they fled there. Um, it's, it's maybe something of

00:20:37.140 concern that there are people who may be from Iran, um, who are holding pictures of Kemeni, uh, Kemeni,

00:20:45.300 uh, the dictator there, or, or, uh, the, the crab flag, the Islamic regime flag, because it's like,

00:20:52.500 well, why are you, why did, why are you potentially a refugee unless they came not as a refugee? Um,

00:20:58.340 but it's, it is an interesting, um, thing, but so you had people from the, like, I would say the majority

00:21:06.340 of Iranians celebrating these attacks saying, you know, the people of Iran don't have any weapons.

00:21:12.340 If, if intervention can happen from the US or Israel, which is probably the most likely place 0.91

00:21:17.860 it would come, um, the destabilization of the regime there brings a lot of Iranians hope. 0.97

00:21:25.220 And this is probably why we're seeing the uprisings right now of people because the regime looked so

00:21:30.980 weak. Um, so, and then, and then bring it back to this weekend, there was, um, they were, they were

00:21:39.380 urged, like, demanding it because Donald, uh, demanding US intervention, essentially,

00:21:43.620 we're begging for it, which is, is sad to see people shouldn't have to beg for their own lives,

00:21:48.340 perhaps. Um, but, uh, US President Donald Trump did threaten the regime saying, if you kill your

00:21:54.420 citizens, um, we will, we will act, you'll, you'll have hell to pay. And now we're seeing, um, you know, 0.80

00:22:02.740 days and days, uh, there's been reports that 1200, or, sorry, 12,000 Iranians have been killed by the

00:22:09.380 regime. And, you know, when, when Trump has promised to, to defend those people, uh, there's, there's almost

00:22:16.340 like, you know, they feel like they're, they're owed it, or maybe people wouldn't have protested so

00:22:21.220 hard if they didn't think help was coming. So it's, it's really sad. And, uh, it's really interesting

00:22:25.860 to, to hear from pro-freedom, pro-Shah, anti-regime Iranians, uh, who are living here. 0.58

00:22:32.580 Yeah. And there's been some clips about, uh, for, from, uh, your attendance with, uh, it was this past

00:22:39.620 weekend, right? Your attendance with the, the Iranian protests. So there are clips of that. Where can

00:22:44.420 people find those clips and where can they find you?

00:22:46.420 Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, well, I'm on X at Clay Demain, uh, D-E-M-A-I-N-E is my last name,

00:22:53.940 but, uh, all, all of our stuff at True North is published on JunoNews.com. Um, and our YouTube

00:23:00.180 channel, uh, our True North videos also get published on Juno News' YouTube channel. So

00:23:05.620 everyone should go check that out. There's a lot of reporting, not just from me, um, that is probably

00:23:10.740 worth keeping an eye on.

00:23:11.780 Yeah. And I would love to ask you, is there anything that I didn't ask that you would like

00:23:17.060 to share about your experiences, uh, intervening with communist movements?

00:23:24.820 Well, uh, well, what comes to mind actually is that, um, well, at, for one, at that Iran, 0.59

00:23:30.980 Iranian protest in the summer, the, the Marxists I talked to were saying, yeah, like we need to

00:23:36.180 polarize these demonstrations. I believe that's an exact quote. Um, when I, when I pressured them

00:23:41.700 on Iran, cause I said, well, isn't Iran, the, the Islamic regime in Iran, a imperialist force?

00:23:48.420 I mean, it has tendrils all throughout the Middle East funding Hamas, Hezbollah, uh, the Houthis

00:23:54.580 in Yemen. Um, and I was like, isn't that an imperialist force? And he said, no, it's a

00:23:59.380 third world country. There's no way that, and, uh, so he just said, so it's not, it's not about imperialism.

00:24:05.540 It's not about, you know, probably not about capitalism as much or, or people, places that

00:24:10.660 have free trade. China does free trade with the entire world. It's about, it's about Western 0.96

00:24:16.260 civilization that they really are after here. They hate it. I mean, they want an international

00:24:21.540 communist movement. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it's, there's a very specific

00:24:27.380 kind of, uh, thing that they don't like. And it's, it's, uh, the West.

00:24:31.940 So what I'm hearing throughout here is that when we hear about imperialism, anti-capitalism,

00:24:37.780 what, what you seem to be picking up on throughout all of the common thread throughout all of these

00:24:42.580 protests and meetings is what they really mean is anti-Western.

00:24:45.540 Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:49.220 Okay. Clayton, I'm so pleased that you're able to join me today and talk about some of the great

00:24:53.940 work that you've been doing, uh, boots on the ground and, uh, going to these meetings.

00:24:58.740 And so I would encourage everyone to follow Clayton and, uh, thanks for joining me on the show today.

00:25:04.100 Thanks for having me.

Juno News - January 16, 2026

Inside Canada’s revolutionary left

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript