No place for 'hate' or 'divisiveness': Politicians condemn white nationalist group's visit to northern Ontario

< warm> WARNING: This story contains worrisome contents, including racialist linguistic communication.

Politicians are condemning a white nationalist group’s visits to northern Ontario, saying their presence is not welcome — a sentiment echoed in some other communities where Second Sons Canada members have appeared in recent months.

“There is no place in Greater Sudbury for hate, white supremacist ideology, or attempts to scapegoat newcomers and immigrants for the challenges our community faces,” Mayor Paul Lefebvre said in a statement on social media last weekend.

The group has been commenting online and directly to some officials on local issues — including the opioid crisis and highway safety — in northern Ontario.

On its website, Second Sons calls itself a "Canadian men's nationalist club," established in 2024 and committed to defending a way of life it claims is under threat through political activism and fitness training.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network calls it a members-only organization for white men that's inspired by militant white nationalist groups in other countries.

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The Institute for Strategic Dialogue is an international think-tank dedicated to studying authoritarianism, hate and extremism. It describes the ideology of Second Sons Canada as rooted in conspiratorial claims that white populations are deliberately being replaced by non-white people “through a combination of immigration, procreation and policy decisions.”

While in Sudbury, members of the group did filming at sites including the Crosses for Change memorial at Paris and Brady streets that honours people who have died from drug overdoses, and the Energy Court homeless encampment.

According to a video posted to YouTube on May 31 that has since been removed, at least 10 men marched through the city, wearing matching black shirts bearing the group’s logo.

Most concealed their faces with white coverings during their site visits, which also included the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in downtown Sudbury. While at Crosses for Change, the group installed its own two-metre-high cross with the words “silent slaughter” written on it. The group's cross has since been removed. 

Members also posed for photographs outside a downtown parking garage covered in graffiti featuring the word “remigration” and stencilled images of Adolf Hitler. The graffiti has since been painted over.

While not referring specifically to Second Sons, Lefebvre's release, issued on the same weekend that Sudbury.com reported on the march, said “the opioid crisis is a tragedy that has touched far too many families.”

“Using that tragedy to spread division, fear and intolerance dishonours those we have lost and does nothing to help those who continue to struggle.”

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Remigration calls for the forced removal of immigrants, refugees and their descendants — including legal residents and citizens — based on race, ethnicity, culture, being perceived as “non-white” or a failure to “assimilate," according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Lefebvre said Greater Sudbury has long been shaped by newcomers from around the world and that diversity remains one of the city’s strengths.

“Our community will always be stronger than those who seek to divide it. We will continue to stand together against hatred and in support of a city where everyone is welcomed, respected and valued."

Sudbury NDP MPP Jaime West has also weighed in on the group’s visit. 

In a Monday afternoon news release, West said "what happened at the Crosses for Change memorial was hateful and deeply disrespectful to the families who placed those crosses in memory of loved ones lost to the overdose crisis.”

“There is no place in Sudbury for hate and divisiveness. This type of intimidation is not welcome anywhere in Ontario. Sudbury is strongest when we come together to support one another, not when people try to divide us with hate.” 

On Tuesday, Viviane Lapointe, Liberal MP for Sudbury, called out the group's visit to the memorial.

“What unfolded in our city is deplorable, offensive and to be condemned," Lapointe said. "There is no place for hateful division, racism, xenophobia or white nationalism in our communities.”

Second Sons Canada's previous public appearances include attending a rally last fall in Ontario's Niagara Region, where an executive with an anti-racism group said they heard from people who raised concerns about the group. Earlier this month, there was a demonstration in Halifax, where a member of the Nova Scotia Legislature accused such groups of seeking to divide people and undermine the values of inclusion and equality.

Second Sons Canada members were also in northern Ontario this winter, in Cochrane, where they attended a rally on safety concerns along Highway 11.

At one point, group members raised a sign using inflammatory language, blaming newly immigrated truck drivers for highway deaths.

Cochrane Mayor Peter Politis said he was initially unaware of who he was speaking to when a group member approached him during the event and secretly recorded their interaction.

Politis said he chose not to publicly comment about the incident at the time because he was concerned doing so could give the group additional attention and help spread its message.

“We were receiving a lot of different people and giving folks an opportunity to express their concerns while at the same time drawing awareness,” he said.

Politis said the conversation quickly shifted toward explanations for highway safety concerns that blamed new immigrant drivers.

“It became pretty clear to me that this was a hate individual that would be spreading hate."

Politis said the individual attempted to connect concerns about collisions and commercial driver training to immigration, something the mayor firmly rejects.

According to Politis, the group later used the footage in a way that made it appear he agreed with their views, which he said was not the case.

"The part that I was agreeing with was, yes, there are safety issues on the highway and there are a lot of new drivers that are on the highway as well too. That's basically the point that we got to.

"I just thanked them for the conversation, walked away. And of course, they took that and tried to use it as some type of leverage to draw more attention and awareness to their cause."

Organizers ultimately removed the group’s opportunity to address participants and continued with the rally, Politis said.

The experience was an "eye-opener" for the mayor of a town of roughly 6,000 residents.

"I'm a three-term mayor and quite comfortable speaking to a microphone, speaking in crowds," Politis said. "I don't usually mingle in the crowd looking to try to filter out a bad person to talk to versus a good one. I've never had that issue before."

Politis is concerned about the impact the group’s efforts may have on northern communities.

“They're amongst us now. They're living with us. There are people, some of our people, that are buying into that ideology."

He said addressing underlying frustrations in society is important, but warned that communities must not allow legitimate concerns to become vehicles for hatred.

“I think it’s best for us to recognize that we need to maintain the voice of reason."

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