The recent march of white supremacists in city of Charlottesville, Virginia again highlights the dangers of extreme movements of such hate groups who attack people based on their colour, religion and ethnicity. Such movements have no place in today’s multicultural societies in the U.S. or Canada. They attract groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and movement leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer. They align themselves with grotesque Nazi and KKK doctrines. Unfortunately, while President Trump condemned the bloody protests, he did not specifically criticize the white nationalist rally and its neo-Nazi slogans, blaming “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”
The KKK and other white supremacists movements have also existed in Canada since the 1800s, only to emerge more recently under other names, including the Western Guard and the Canadian National Socialist Party. Unfortunately, such groups recruit disenchanted young whites and prey on the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in parts of the United States and Canada. In the U.S., white supremacists appear to have been galvanized by promises of Donald Trump to “take our country back”. Many of the white nationalist protesters often carry campaign signs for Mr. Trump. Although Trump appears to condemn the violence associated with the movement, he seems to be reluctant to condemn such movements in stronger terms — perhaps out of a reluctance to upset those who have supported him publicly.
Experts note that while some white supremacists have engaged in random acts of violence, others have carried out targeted attacks on Muslims, Jews, people of colour, aboriginals and LGBTQ people. While security agencies acknowledge the presence of right-wing extremists, they don’t appear to be a high priority. Governments perceive such groups as being fragmented and primarily posing a threat to public order and not to national security. There is also a reluctance to interfere in their activities due to apparent concerns with violating their freedom of speech. Instead, the authorities simply react to specific incidents which may violate criminal , hate and civil rights laws.
Maybe it’s time that we not only condemn “white supremacists” associated historically with violence against citizens in both our countries. To say that they are just “pro-white, and not anti-anybody” is a farce. The basic premise of the movement is to promote hatred, exclusion and white supremacy. Their continuing affiliation with KKK and Nazi beliefs confirms their reliance on national extremism of the worst kind. It is time now that the governments of both countries seriously consider outlawing their existence, while protecting legitimate and peaceful freedom of expression. White supremacist movements have no place in today’s society, especially given their self-evident continuing and unacceptable promotion of hatred.
FROLITICKS 
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