The Proud Boys will be deemed an “ideologically motivated violent extremist group” along with three others: Atomwaffen Division, The Base and Russian Imperial Movement, the government said in a news release.
“Their violent actions and rhetoric are fueled by white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and misogyny, and unfortunately, often in combination of all of the above,” said Public Safety Minister Bill Blair at a news conference Wednesday.
Government officials say the move will help Canada freeze the groups’ financial assets and criminalize financing, training and recruitment for all such groups.
When asked about the new terrorist designation for the Proud Boys, Blair said that the events of January 6 on the US Capitol did initiate a “political response” in Canada, but that the decision was not political.
“And as disturbing and concerning as those images and those events were, they also provided law enforcement and our intelligence services with a trove of…