Juno News - January 16, 2026Inside Canada’s revolutionary left
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Summary
In this episode of Disrupted, journalist Clayton Demain talks to Melanie Bennett about a recent article he wrote about a group of Marxist agitators who were planning a protest in front of Ontario s premier, Doug Ford's home.
Transcript
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Canada has no shortage of protests. We see frequently far-left movements on the streets
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advocating to disrupt and dismantle, it seems, almost every week, sometimes multiple times in a
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week. We even fund groups like Antifa through Canada Anti-Hate Network with our tax dollars.
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Non-consensually, I might add, what I find curious is the legacy media and our police and security
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services often just seem to give that a pass, despite the rhetoric about dismantling Western
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civilization and support for subversive and, frankly, often violent action. My colleague Clayton
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Demain has looked into some of these groups. He has spent time interviewing them, boots on the
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ground, and he's even attended multiple of their meetings. So I thought it might be a good idea to
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have him give us his, shall we say, lived experience of what these revolutionary groups want and why
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little action is taken, while at the same time in America, they're busy designating the far-left
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anarchist group Antifa as a terrorist organization. I'm Melanie Bennett. This is Disrupted.
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Clayton, I'm so pleased to have you. Welcome to the show.
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You have done some pretty excellent reporting last year, boots on the ground,
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and I wanted to have you on to talk about one piece in particular that grabbed my attention,
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which was last month in December. You wrote about a temporary foreign worker group that got together
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that wasn't exclusively run by Marxists, but did contain a Marxist element within it. And in your
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article, you call them Marxist agitators, and they were essentially plotting to protest to have strikes
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against some of these restrictions on temporary foreign workers, going as far as suggesting
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that they should protest in front of Doug Ford's home, private home. I guess kind of mirroring some
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similar protests at Anita Nan's offices last year, which caused a bit of an uproar. Now,
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you attended this meeting in person to write the article. What was that like?
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Yeah, absolutely. So it was in Brampton. It was at a Sikh temple. So actually, initially,
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I thought it was in the temple. So I was prepared to take my shoes off and get barefoot. And I was like
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a minute away from putting on a turban before I asked the person where the event was, and it was actually
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around the corner. So anyway, when I got in there, it was interesting because the people standing at the door
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had been joking about some of the other people I came in with, if they had their immigration papers,
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like, oh, you better have your immigration papers. So it's almost like they're joking about potentially
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there's an illegal immigrant walking in the door with them. So anyway, but the event was built as a town
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hall. It was supposed to be designed to help people who might be having their visas expired or have
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already had their visas expired. So in other words, an illegal immigrant. Now, the key thing was the
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initiating problem was the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program. Doug Ford's government had canceled a bunch
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of these nominations saying, we're not accepting any more. One of the reasons was mass fraud that they
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were talking about. But you're right, like, there was a lot of Marxist groups there, a lot of, like,
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Canadian groups, but also some people who have been protesting about immigration as immigrants themselves
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for a while, exposed themselves as a very Marxist. But yeah, so I could get into some of those details
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as well about some of the things that they said. Yeah, please. And also, did you see any union
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representation there? Yeah, so it's funny that you mentioned the march to Doug Ford's home. I do want to
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clarify. The group said, we haven't thought about that. So maybe, like, we'll think about that. It
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wasn't like the entire group saying, let's all march down to Doug Ford's personal residence. But it was
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actually a QP executive sits on the executive board of QP. And you could read the article to find out more
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about that. But she said, well, just marching to the legislature won't do much. Like, he might not be
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even there. They don't have to look out their windows. You won't be allowed inside. How to make
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a real ruckus would be to go to his private residence. But yeah, there was also, there was
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groups, the one that comes to mind is Migrant Ontario. They said, militant greetings was how
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they opened up their talk. And they ended up leading the group in a chant of long-lived international
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solidarity. And they put up the Marxist salute. And the gentleman there, he was from the Philippines.
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And he said that Canada, the reason that Canada has so many immigrants and refugees is because of
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the imperialist capitalist wars that Canada and countries like it wage in third world countries.
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And it's interesting. Like, I don't know of any imperialist wars that Canada's waged as of late
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or ever. And the area of Brampton, I mean, it's in Brampton. So like, we only have census data from
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2021. I would wager that the population of Brampton is probably about 80% Indian now. We'll have to
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wait till the census of 2026 to see. And most of that is Punjabi. So certainly, Canada hasn't
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went to war against India. So that was quite interesting. There was also an individual there,
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Bikram Kulawalia. And he's been protesting with, against expiring visas for years now in Canada.
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He, he said that he was a professional protester. And he had said something similar saying that
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we need a revolution in Canada. All different people have different ideas of how to wage that
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revolution. He's talking, he also mentioned imperialism. And he said a lot of Marxist
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talking points. You can tell he's a socialist. And it just raises a question of, you know,
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should, should people who come to this country be advocating for revolution? And, you know,
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a Marxist revolution is typically a violent one. So, and there was other groups too, like groups of
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people who are likely born in Canada, who, you know, came in with the keffiyahs and a Palestinian
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necklace, which just shows like the state of Israel, the borders of biblical Israel. But, you know,
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there, there's, um, and they had said similar things. And of course you have the union,
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the one union rep who made sure to say, I'm not here as officially as part of QP. Um, and then
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proceeded to. Yeah. Well, as we know, uh, liberation movements and peace movements, they're not the same
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thing. And you mentioned QP and although the person wasn't there on behalf of QP, you also covered
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QP's action plan this year, the 2025 action plan that they put out that really read like a
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internationalist Marxist, uh, manifesto. If you ask me like a revolutionary manifesto and in it,
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they also talk about the redistribution of wealth. They talk about, um, you know, redistributing that to
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the, to the quote unquote working class. Uh, I think they identified areas that needed to be,
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uh, addressed climate change, trans rights, DEI, land acknowledgements,
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and collaboration with the land back movement as, as you reported in your article.
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And I thought this was particularly interesting. Now that you're talking about militant movements
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and that language, uh, quote from your article, we're not just, this is QP in the action plan.
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We're not just mobilizing for a single fight. We're building lasting power, member to member
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engagement, and the capacity for militant action, mentioning the word militant three times
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in the action plan, which sounded like an anti-Western revolutionary document, right? So
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why do you think these sorts of things get a pass, uh, with our security and police services when,
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if you recall, perhaps, uh, perhaps you don't recall, perhaps the audience does recall this,
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but CSIS last year, the year before identified the parents' rights movement as, uh, of concern,
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and they were monitoring parents and the parents' rights movements following the One Million March
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for Children. So CSIS views the parents as potential extremists, but not these movements. Why do you,
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why do you think that is? Well, yeah, I mean, there seems to be a blind spot, of course, from
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Canada's intelligence agencies and, uh, security. Um, it's, I mean, it's ideologically driven.
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It has to be, right? Um, they, they ignore things like Antifa violence. I mean, there was just eight
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arrested in Toronto for attacking, um, Toronto police and, you know, masks, wearing masks and
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assaulting them at a, it was an anti-immigration rally in, in Toronto. Um, you know, there's, there's
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violence all across the country from Antifa. And they, these people in Toronto, by the way,
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they were waving Antifa flags. There's no mistake. And these were declared Antifa, uh, you know,
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people. Um, but yeah, you see, you see unions involved in all sorts of left-wing protests.
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Uh, yourself and I went to, to a gay refugee, um, event and were kind of yelled at by, uh,
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a socialist there. Um, but you know, like they, they, they seem to no longer be involved in
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their original mandate, which was to protect workers from job insecurity and, and, you
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know, unsafe workplaces. And they've gone full activist mode in, in Canada on a wide range
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of things from like LGBT to environment to, to Palestine. And it's interesting because as,
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you know, we're talking right now, there's an ongoing revolution in, in Iran, uh, or uprisings
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for, I think it's the 16th night now, as we're recording this. And there's a very noticeable lack
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of union presence at protests for the people of Iran who are being slaughtered by their, by their
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government and are in a media blackout, right? So it's, it's very selective, the kinds of activism
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that unions tend to do. And the fact that, um, you know, our, our national security agencies
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aren't looking at radical Marxists who, you know, they state themselves that they want a violent
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revolution in some cases, um, and, and a dictatorship. So it's essentially, they're advocating for the
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complete destruction of Western society or the, like the, the current foundation of Canada.
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So you would think that they would have an eye on, on that kind of thing.
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Yeah. So speaking of, uh, this revolutionary intent, you've spoken to some of these, uh,
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communists you went to this summer, you, I guess, infiltrated or attended some meetings from,
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uh, the revolutionary communist party of Canada, which is a small party, you know, but I, this is what
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I think is interesting about this particular event. Not only did you attend it and speak to these people,
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and I want to hear, uh, your thoughts on that, but it was held at, so the revolutionary communist party
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of Canada is not a student group at, uh, Toronto metropolitan university, but was renting space
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on campus for their meetings. And this is what you attended. That didn't seem to cause any kind of,
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pushback or protest or anything like that. But this fall, um, there was a Toronto metropolitan
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university, Jewish student group. So the, the group was a student group from that university.
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They rented space off campus, uh, and the pro Palestine fundamentalists, I guess we could say,
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uh, raided that meeting. Uh, they had some Israelis, uh, for a talk at this particular meeting,
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but they weren't even on campus and they got physically attacked. It was all over the news.
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Uh, it was quite violent. Um, people were, uh, assaulted, right. They broke down the doors.
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So the contrast between these two things is pretty staggering. Uh, but yeah, so tell me a little bit
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more about talking to the revolutionary communists of Canada when you attended that meeting.
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Yeah. Uh, so I actually learned about it from a pro like, so I went to the pride protest with our,
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our colleague, Sue Ann Levy, and they were handing out flyers at these protests. And this is actually what
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they do. This is why you see them so often at, at protests is they try to, um, you know, promote
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their ideology or, or convince people who are upset about a specific issue, uh, that this issue is
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because of capitalism or imperialism, and they should join forces with them in the, the, uh, you know,
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the, the coming revolution. Um, so it was actually quite interesting. The event was more like they were
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live action role playing as a government already, the way that they had, um, you, like if you asked
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a question, someone would note down that they wanted to answer it, but you could only hear your
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answer like 20 minutes later when it was, it was all no follow-ups. There was no, it wasn't like a
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discussion. It was like, everyone was giving a talk. It was quite interesting. But what was more
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interesting was they were, they were advocating for a violent Soviet style revolution and a Soviet,
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Leninist, Marxist, um, dictatorship afterwards. So a dictatorship of the proletariat. Um, and the,
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the talk was on, um, how communism can fight or how communists fight oppression. Um, which,
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you know, some people reading the article pointed out is ironic considering communism has been one of the
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worst, uh, forms of oppression that the world has ever seen. Um, but you know, there, there was talks
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of, um, so anyways, so this group is actually only 700 nationwide, but they said they had thousands
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of members internationally, which makes me think that, um, there, you know, this is an international,
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national organization, which could be concerned for security. But hey, listen, even in the,
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sorry to interrupt, but I needed to add, that's even happening with QP. If you look at the action
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plan, I remember that they were talking about, uh, linking up with other unions across the world
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to engage in similar actions. And I also thought, how is this not understood as foreign interference,
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similar with the revolutionary communists? I mean, yeah, I mean, it could very well be,
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um, and there is a funding structure, so they'll get, and, and I'll, I'll say like, there's a lot of
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beautiful women who are leaders of this movement. So it's very easy for a young man to be,
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you know, want to be like, you know, I, well, I could read all those books. I could,
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I could relate to you. Um, and the, they only have to pay $50 a month, at least to join the party.
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And I've been told that it scales up to even a hundred though. I can't confirm that. Um, but you
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know, and, and so some of these members who are leadership are actually on a salary. Um, I've been
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told by, uh, another, uh, person who I met very casually, um, through, through family. Uh, but
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they also had gripes with, or they, they, they've, they've went in as a leftist, um, to go and join
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this group. I actually went in and I told them that I was an anarchist who was communist curious.
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Um, which, so I got a lot of really good answers because they were trying to convince me why I need
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the authoritarianism of, of their, their form of socialism. Um, but yeah, like they, they sell
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newspapers. Um, they, they hand out books that they sell as well. And one, and one of the things
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that kept getting, when I was asking them, do you, do you want a violent revolution? Do you think
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it's necessary? Um, they, they sent me to, uh, Vladimir Lenin's book called State and Revolution.
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And so Vladimir Lenin has repeatedly talked about the necessity of, of, uh, politicide,
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of class side, like, so killing all the wealthy people, killing all the people who are maybe a
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little more right than the revolution needs, requires that in that moment. And also talks
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about if you're afraid of a dictatorship, you've already betrayed the revolution. So there's no room
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for anyone who has any gripes or concerns about the, the dictatorship that's forming, uh, post-revolution.
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And this group, as you mentioned, isn't a, sorry, go ahead.
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Oh, I was going to say, as you mentioned, it's not a political party. They said that they would
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join, they could join as a political party, but their real goal is to be a structure already in place
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for the, um, for the revolution that they believe is coming. It's almost like a cult, right?
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Like, yeah, it's like a forecoming. So we'll be the,
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Before joining True North, I, I actually also went to a revolutionary communist party,
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I guess, event, uh, to talk to them. And it was a similar thing, right? So they're not,
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they told me that they're not interested in, uh, the party politics getting elected. They really
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wanted the dictatorship of the proletariat, but they all seemed very young and, uh, you know,
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willing to, at least they were willing to talk, unlike some of the, uh, leftist protest movements,
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uh, that don't want to talk. So that was actually kind of interesting. Um, just to top off the show,
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you mentioned Iran and I would like to talk about that because that is very much going on right now.
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Uh, you have interviewed, you went to speak to, uh, people who were protesting last summer.
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Uh, it was, I believe it was a 12 day, um, assault, uh, on the regime of Iran. So the Islamic regime of
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Iran. Um, and you, so you went to talk to people there and it was, you ended up speaking to communists,
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actually, who were upset that Trump had attacked Iran. And then you went again recently, just a few
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days ago in a very different circumstance where Persians, uh, thousands, possibly of Persians
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across, uh, the greater Toronto region have been supporting the revolution that's going on right
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now, the people's revolution against the, uh, Islamic regime. Do you want to maybe tell us a little bit
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about the con maybe the contrast between those two events? Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. And, and it was the,
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the event I went to over the weekend was there was, there was hundreds of people, but, um, there was just a,
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uh, protest at the U S consulate that was like maybe over 10,000. There was one in Richmond Hill
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that was, that people reported 10,000 or even 40,000, although I haven't talked to anyone to
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confirm those numbers. Um, but yeah, like it, so during the summer, it was the, the 12, uh, 12 day war
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is now what it's being called, uh, where, you know, the U S struck, uh, struck some IRGC targets and
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nuclear facilities in Iran. Um, and people, so I, I, it was actually an interesting day
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because I went, there was a protest outside of the U S consulate that was anti U S intervention,
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um, pro revolution. I could, we could say now, uh, you know, anti regime, uh, Persians, uh, Iranians
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were there, uh, counter protesting that. And then there was another event that I went to the same day
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that was more of a celebration of, of the strikes. Um, but yeah, you saw people who were carrying the
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regime flag. Um, you know, so we have refugees here from Iran and I would say the majority of
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them, at least in Toronto are anti regime because they fled there. Um, it's, it's maybe something of
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concern that there are people who may be from Iran, um, who are holding pictures of Kemeni, uh, Kemeni,
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uh, the dictator there, or, or, uh, the, the crab flag, the Islamic regime flag, because it's like,
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well, why are you, why did, why are you potentially a refugee unless they came not as a refugee? Um,
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but it's, it is an interesting, um, thing, but so you had people from the, like, I would say the majority
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of Iranians celebrating these attacks saying, you know, the people of Iran don't have any weapons.
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If, if intervention can happen from the US or Israel, which is probably the most likely place
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it would come, um, the destabilization of the regime there brings a lot of Iranians hope.
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And this is probably why we're seeing the uprisings right now of people because the regime looked so
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weak. Um, so, and then, and then bring it back to this weekend, there was, um, they were, they were
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urged, like, demanding it because Donald, uh, demanding US intervention, essentially,
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we're begging for it, which is, is sad to see people shouldn't have to beg for their own lives,
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perhaps. Um, but, uh, US President Donald Trump did threaten the regime saying, if you kill your
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citizens, um, we will, we will act, you'll, you'll have hell to pay. And now we're seeing, um, you know,
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days and days, uh, there's been reports that 1200, or, sorry, 12,000 Iranians have been killed by the
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regime. And, you know, when, when Trump has promised to, to defend those people, uh, there's, there's almost
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like, you know, they feel like they're, they're owed it, or maybe people wouldn't have protested so
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hard if they didn't think help was coming. So it's, it's really sad. And, uh, it's really interesting
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to, to hear from pro-freedom, pro-Shah, anti-regime Iranians, uh, who are living here.
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Yeah. And there's been some clips about, uh, for, from, uh, your attendance with, uh, it was this past
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weekend, right? Your attendance with the, the Iranian protests. So there are clips of that. Where can
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people find those clips and where can they find you?
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Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, well, I'm on X at Clay Demain, uh, D-E-M-A-I-N-E is my last name,
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but, uh, all, all of our stuff at True North is published on JunoNews.com. Um, and our YouTube
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channel, uh, our True North videos also get published on Juno News' YouTube channel. So
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everyone should go check that out. There's a lot of reporting, not just from me, um, that is probably
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Yeah. And I would love to ask you, is there anything that I didn't ask that you would like
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to share about your experiences, uh, intervening with communist movements?
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Well, uh, well, what comes to mind actually is that, um, well, at, for one, at that Iran,
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Iranian protest in the summer, the, the Marxists I talked to were saying, yeah, like we need to
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polarize these demonstrations. I believe that's an exact quote. Um, when I, when I pressured them
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on Iran, cause I said, well, isn't Iran, the, the Islamic regime in Iran, a imperialist force?
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I mean, it has tendrils all throughout the Middle East funding Hamas, Hezbollah, uh, the Houthis
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in Yemen. Um, and I was like, isn't that an imperialist force? And he said, no, it's a
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third world country. There's no way that, and, uh, so he just said, so it's not, it's not about imperialism.
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It's not about, you know, probably not about capitalism as much or, or people, places that
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have free trade. China does free trade with the entire world. It's about, it's about Western
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civilization that they really are after here. They hate it. I mean, they want an international
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communist movement. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it's, there's a very specific
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kind of, uh, thing that they don't like. And it's, it's, uh, the West.
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So what I'm hearing throughout here is that when we hear about imperialism, anti-capitalism,
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what, what you seem to be picking up on throughout all of the common thread throughout all of these
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protests and meetings is what they really mean is anti-Western.
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Okay. Clayton, I'm so pleased that you're able to join me today and talk about some of the great
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work that you've been doing, uh, boots on the ground and, uh, going to these meetings.
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And so I would encourage everyone to follow Clayton and, uh, thanks for joining me on the show today.