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CALGARY—Why are there immigration questions for Alberta’s Oct. 19 referendum on separating from Canada? The answer is that immigration is the cornerstone of global far-right movements integrated into the Alberta separatist push. Immigration acts as a cognitive baseline and the connective tissue intended to argue separatism through a specific lens, and that lens is a fascist and racist one.
There are five questions posed on the ballot relating to immigration. They range from asking Albertans whether the provincial government should take control from federal authorities “for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration”; to introducing new legislation that mandates that “only Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially funded programs”; to charging a fee “to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta.”
It’s very Trumpy, but it’s also the thread that all far-right movements across the western world use. As the University of Alberta’s Parkland Instituteexplains: “It is an age-old strategy of blaming minorities for the social, political, and economic challenges facing society.” The report also highlights that these questions for the referendum “rely on problematic anti-immigrant tropes advanced by far-right movements globally and leveraged by the separatists here in Alberta.”
Alberta separatism is no longer just a Canadian issue; it has become an axiom of the architecture of global white supremacy and fascism, since those two are intricately linked. When speaking of the global far right, I am talking about a transnational lattice of media, political parties, technologies, and money whose goal is to elevate white, Christian men to power at the expense of everyone else through authoritarian rule. These actors move almost seamlessly through social frictions such as COVID-19 vaccines and transgender rights to reshape them into rhetorical anchors to further their goals. Those who were a part of the Yellow Vest faction, such as Tamara Lich, were also involved in the Freedom Convoy of 2022. Canadian Dimension buttresses this observation: “The Freedom Convoy and widespread anger over what many Albertans perceived as draconian COVID-19 restrictions further energized a separatist movement that has historically risen and fallen in waves during moments of political discontent. This time, however, the movement attracted the attention of the ultra-right.”
A Globe and Mail investigative report on separatist connections to the United States indicates that this referendum has gone international as part of the MAGA-fication of western liberal democracies. Leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project, Mitch Sylvestre and Jeffrey Rath, have hosted MAGA in Calgary where “Republican political operatives were on the ground in Alberta this year to assist the separatist campaign in its bid to leave Canada, while harbouring their own aspirations for the province to secede.”
Research from DisinfoWatch specifically names former U.S. President Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon and right-wing influencers Tucker Carlson and Tim Pool as those who have begun to normalize the idea of Canada becoming an underling of the U.S. On Twitter, Bannon’s War Room states: “Canada is in the vital national security interest of the United States. This is inextricably linked to Hemispheric Defense. Hemispheric Defense for the United States starts in Canada.” Naturally, Bannon goes on to use this country’s foreign-born population as a lynchpin for his argument, insinuating that Canada is a threat to the U.S. Bannon also founded The Movement, a Brussels-based operation that organizes far-right political parties in Europe.
As an aside, those separatists really aren’t sending their brightest. These guys think they will become independent by becoming the 51st state. What clownery. The U.S. would neither allow Alberta to become a sovereign nation, nor give it statehood. Instead, the province will end up like Puerto Rico—disenfranchised. Look how long the District of Columbia has tried to become a state, and it hasn’t happened yet.
The foreign interference angle of Alberta separatism is not limited to America. Pool, the aforementioned far-right influencer, was implicated in a U.S. Justice Department indictment alleging that a content creation company (thought to be Tenet Media, his employer) “had been provided with nearly $10-million from Russian state media employees to publish videos with messages in favour of Moscow’s interests and agenda, including over the war in Ukraine,” according to The Guardian. Pool claims he was duped. As highlighted by the NATO Association of Canada’s Katie Groh, “Tim Pool and Berry Johnson, both heavily associated with Tenet Media, have repeatedly promoted Alberta separatism and supported the idea of annexing the province into the United States.”
A lot of disinformation on separatism, however, is not state-sponsored; it is the result of a distorted profit motive that rewards outrage through clicks.
Silicon Valley has shown itself to be the funders of the far right. American Vice-President JD Vance “co-founded a Silicon Valley-backed donor organization to finance right-wing news stories, voter turnout operations and election polls with a goal of spreading U.S. President Donald Trump’s brand of nationalism,” as reported by Reuters. It is called Rockbridge Network—founded in 2019—and is backed by tech billionaire donor Peter Thiel, and political donor Rebekah Mercer, whose father bankrolled the ultra-conservative news site, Breitbart.
Elon Musk is also a major backer of far-right politics. The International Centre for Defence and Security’s publication on Silicon Valley and the far-right clearly states: “The financial support from radical libertarian tech billionaires and venture capitalists, like Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks, was a key driver of Trump’s return to office.” Musk created his own political action committee, spending approximately US$200-million to elect Trump. He has pivoted to Europe, hosting a livestream with “Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, weeks before the German federal elections.” Recently, the AfD, who also met with Canadian Conservative Party members in 2023, won an electoral victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Now Musk has turned his sights to Canada. He tweeted that Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan should separate from the country. Given his war chest, political interference proclivities, power, and influence, Canadians should take this as a threat, and Albertans should be careful with whom they get into bed.
Erica Ifill is host of the Bad+Bitchy podcast.
The Hill Times
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