Question Period Note: Anti-Gender Movement

A CBC article reported that an ATIP’d Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) assessment found that extremists could inspire and encourage serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community

• This report is obviously very concerning and all Canadians deserve to feel safe to express themselves and their identities freely and without threats of violence.

• I want to reassure Canadians, especially those in the 2SLGBTQI+ community that the Government of Canada takes any threat of serious violence very seriously.

• This assessment is concerning, and I want to assure Canadians that CSIS is mandated to and does investigate and advise the Government of Canada on threats such as these.

• Unfortunately, as we saw in Waterloo just last year, violent rhetoric related to the anti-gender movement can have devastating real-world consequences.

• CSIS has been clear that exposure to anti-gender extremist rhetoric could inspire and encourage serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community

• This is why it is important that Canada takes a whole-of-society approach to ensuring inclusivity and acceptance, especially of our friends in the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

CBC has published an article on Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warnings that extremists could inspire and encourage violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community. The article follows the release of a document (obtained through an ATIP) that was drafted by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC). The document notes that ITAC was monitoring the potential for an attack at Pride celebrations, parades and nightclubs across the Canada last summer.

The article notes that CSIS assesses that the threat posed by the anti-gender movement is ongoing, and that violent actors may be inspired by the University of Waterloo attack to carry out their own extreme violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community. It stresses that although violent rhetoric does not always lead to violence, “the ecosystem of violent rhetoric within the anti-gender movement, compounded with other extreme worldviews, can lead to serious violence”.

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