Former NDP, Bloc MP takes leadership role in far right Quebec group La Meute

FormerMP Claude Patry is leading a local chapter ofQuebec's secretivefar right group, La Meute, a spokesman for the group says.

Patrywon theJonquire-Almariding as part of theNDP's"orange wave" in the 2011 election. He leftto join the BlocQubcoisin 2013. He only served one term, ending in 2015.

Patry posted a photo of himself with the La Meute wolf paw logo on his Facebook page earlier this week.

He declined an interview withCBC'sFrench-language network, Radio-Canada, about his connections to the controversial group.

La Meute spokesman SylvainBrouillette, who goes by the pseudonymSylvainMaikan, confirmed Patry's involvement in a post on the group's "secret"Facebook page Friday, to which aCBC journalisthas been granted access.

"Mr. Patryis the new leader of Clan 02 of La Meute," Brouillettewrote, calling him a "man of conviction."

"When we have more people like him, things will change quickly."

La Meute's local chapters are called clans and the group has plans to create 20 across Quebec.

La Meute co-founder Patrick Beaudry told CBC last year that clanleaders are tasked with building"networks of influence" with police and politicians. They also findplaces to meet and report back to the group's main leaders at weekly intervals.

"Their duty is to create alliances and also to get involved in politics at the local level," Beaudry said.

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Group aspires to political influence

Patry's former pressattach,MarioSimard, who spent four years with himin the House of Commons, was stunned when he saw the wolf paw onPatry'sFacebookpage.

"Personally, when I saw it,I worried about being associated with this,"Simardsaid.

La Meute or Wolf Pack was founded in the fall of 2015 as the first wave of 25,000 Syrian refugees were being welcomed into Canada.

Since then, the organizationhas attracted more than 43,000 people to a secret Facebook group.

In another recent post in that group, Brouillette claimedLa Meutenow has branches in France and Belgium and will soon have an anglophone branch in Canada.

The expansion means the group is now looking for office space, which it plans to finance by charging a membership fee, he said.

La Meute's leaders told CBC in December that they hope to become a kind of lobby group, warning Quebecersof what they believe is an encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in their society.

• Inside The Far Right In Quebec

Simard doubts the sincerity of La Meute's self-identification as a lobby group.

"I don't think their objective is to contribute to the public debate," he said, addingthat he thinks the group is openly racist.

Parti Qubcois MNA for Jonquire, Sylvain Gaudrault, said curtly thathis reaction to the news was "extreme condemnation."