Does Canada take the threat of far-right extremism seriously?

Despite the recent racist violence in the U.S., and an increase in right-wing extremistactivityhere in Canada, experts disagree about whether Ottawa should make such groupsa national security priority.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Canada's intelligence community has devoted much of its attention to preventing Islamistterrorism.

While right-wing extremism, including the activities of neo-Nazi and other racist groups, is monitored byCSISand theRCMP, it doesn't receive the same amount of resources as threats from ISIS oral-Qaeda.

Yet the outburst of deadly racist violence in Charlottesville,Va., last weekend is not without parallels in Canada. Recent estimates suggestthere are dozens of active white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups across the country.

They advocate everything from biological racism toanti-Semitismtoradical libertarianism. Members of groups suchas the Heritage Front, Freemen of the Land andBlood and Honour have been charged with dozens of crimes, including murder, attempted murder and assault.

Roughly 30 homicides in Canada since 1980have been linked to individualsespousing some formof extreme right-wing ideology.

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But the pattern of right-wing extremist violence in Canada is too inconsistent to merit being prioritized over the threat posed by Islamic extremists, according to two formermembers of the security establishment.

"I do think right-wing extremism is a national security problem, but we're not devoting the resources to it because we don't need to," said Phil Gurski, a former CSIS analyst who now runs a security consulting business.

"I have seen nothing to suggest that they pose an equally dangerous threat as that posed by Islamist extremism, which in and of itself is still a fairly minor threat in Canada."

Thelimited national security resources devoted to right-wing extremism is also based on a belief that such groups are fractious, ideologically incoherentandengage mainly in lower-level crime such as robbery or graffiti, said StephanieCarvin, a former national security adviser for the Canadian government.

"The violence that results [from right-wing extremist groups] tends to be dealt with more at the police level than the national security level," said Carvin, who teaches courses about security and terrorism at Carleton University in Ottawa.

"If you just look at the sheer number of cases of individuals who are foreign [jihadist] fighters, or potential foreign fighters or returnees, it still outweighs the potential actors on the far right."

A dangerous oversimplification?

As recently as January, just days before the deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque, a threat assessment based on input from Canada's intelligence and law enforcement agencies determined there was "no indication that right-wing extremists pose a threat to migrants."

CSIS's own website says the threat posed by the extreme righthas "not been a significant a problem in Canada in recent years. Those who hold such extremist views have tended to be isolated and ineffective figures."

But the Quebec City shooting, which police believe was carried out by an individual holding anti-immigrant views, raised questions about the accuracy of the security establishment's estimation of right-wing extremism.

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James Ellis, a Vancouver-based terrorism scholar affiliated with theCanadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS),said it'sa dangerousoversimplification to portray the majority of far-right groups in Canadaas too disorganized to pose a serious threat to national security.

"You're essentially taking your eye off the ball," said Ellis, who until recently maintained theCanadian Incident Database, which tracks acts of terrorism between 1960 and 2015.

"The data suggests that right-wing extremism is certainly on par if not exceeding the threat from Islamic terrorism cropping up within Canada itself."

The extremist threats division of Quebec's provincial police told a Senate committee in 2014 that the majority of its open files dealt with the "extreme right."In awidely circulated 2015 study, researchers estimated there were roughly 100 active white supremacist or neo-Nazi groups across the country.

"[Right-wing extremists] arebecoming ever bolder and quite comfortable in the public eye," co-author Barbara Perry told CBC News earlier this week.

"Even a year, or a year and a half ago, they were pretty much relegated to the online, social media forums."

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The proliferation of right-wing extremist groups in the U.S. should also give Canadian authorities pause, Ellis said. There is significant cross-border activity among these groups, who have been known to exchange weapons training and funding.

"It's just the same sort of things you would see with ISIS and al-Qaeda, but for some reason we just don't think it's a big deal,"he said.

Role of police

Ottawarecently created a nationalanti-radicalizationcentre, whichPublic Safety Minister RalphGoodale'soffice says will play an important role in the fight against extremism of all stripes.

"From the tragic mosque shooting inSainte-Foy, Quebec, to the interception of a potential bomber inStrathroy, Ontario, recent events have underlined that there is no single ideology or cause ofradicalizationto violence and that prevention must be an essential component of Canada's counterterrorism strategy," spokesperson ScottBardsleysaidin astatement Tuesday.

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But the reluctance of the Canadian intelligence community to devote significant resources to far-right extremismhas meant much of the onus for monitoring these groups has fallen to police forces.

And their efforts areuneven across the country.

Perry's 2015 study, co-authored with Ryan Scrivens,suggests the commitmentis particularly weak in many rural areas.

Even in urban centres, the study found, officers "tend to deny the presence and threat of activists in the community."

At hearings before the Senate's national security committee in 2014, Quebecprovincial described their proactive"broken windows" approach to policing extremism.

Rather than wait to gather enough evidence to prosecute extremists under terrorism sections of the Criminal Code, theSret du Qubec will pursuelesser charges, such as distributing hate literature, to prevent possible escalation and violence.

Montreal police established a dedicated hate crimes unit last year.Its officers will often visit with individuals they've spotted making questionable comments online.

Sgt.-Det. Stphane Roch, an investigator with the unit, boasted of the technique's success to the CBC earlier this year.

"We don't ever see that again from them because they realize they went too far."

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