A Labour Day weekend rally in Ontario’s Niagara region by a self-described “Canadian men’s nationalist” group is prompting concern about rising anti-immigrant sentiment and recruitment efforts of extremist groups.
Researchers who study extremism have compared Second Sons to white supremacist and neo-Nazi active clubs. Such clubs bring members together for fitness workouts, and some experts say it’s related to training for what members believe to be an upcoming race war.
Second Sons leader Jeremy MacKenzie is also the founder of Diagolon, an “extremist militia-like organization,” according to the RCMP.
On Aug. 31, Second Sons shared photos and videos on social media showing about 50 people marching, chanting and carrying flags through Queenston Heights Park in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., during the day, before stopping and posing before the 56-metre-tall monument honouring Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock.
Most of the people in those images are wearing matching white masks and black T-shirts, bearing the words “All thy sons” and “He who guards.” Videos show park-goers watching the groups from a distance.
“It is a kind of intimidation,” said Saleh Waziruddin, a Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (NRARA) executive member.
Waziruddin, who’s South Asian, said he did not witness the rally but has heard from people concerned about the group and that others like it are gaining traction in the area.
“Part of their ideology is that people like me are not part of this family or that we’re taking away the birthright of what they feel they’re entitled to as white people.”
On its website, Second Sons says it’s 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.
“Our birthright has been stolen from us as we are being pushed out of society, academics and the workforce, and replaced by foreigners without any roots or connections to the Canadian people,” the group says.
Waziruddin said the public rally and march on the long weekend was the first he’s heard of in the region.
But the group’s activities in southern Ontario have recently been traced, including by CBC News.
A CBC visual investigation recently found Second Sons and active club Nationalist-13 to be training in martial arts studios, gyms and parks in the Hamilton and Niagara area.
“Canadian nationalism is not just ‘back’, it’s unshakeably inevitable,” the Second Sons said on social media after the Labour Day weekend. “The spirit of rugged defiance is as Canadian as the Newfoundland Cod, the stone cobbled streets of old Quebec or the oil patch of the west. Or Major-General Isaac Brock.”
Brock — the namesake of the university in nearby St. Catharines — was an Upper Canada commander and administrator who died charging into battle against Americans in Queenston Heights during the War of 1812.
According to Niagara Parks, which manages the park and monument, Second Sons did not have a permit or permission to gather Aug. 31. Permits are issued for special events and big groups, it says on its website.
“Upon review, our understanding is that the rally remained peaceful, and no incidents were reported,” spokesperson Katy Wassenaar said in an email.
“We did not receive any complaints from the public. With that said, Niagara Parks and the Niagara Parks Police Service do not condone the actions of the Second Sons, nor the beliefs that the group represents.”
She added that the Niagara Parks Police Service works with Niagara Regional Police Service to track and monitor protests to ensure they’re peaceful and lawful.
In an email, Niagara-on-the-Lake spokesperson Marah Minor said, “The town does not tolerate any form of racism, hate or discrimination.”
CBC Hamilton reached out to Second Sons for comment but did not receive a response.
Waziruddin said it appears Second Sons is trying to be more visible and recruit new members. The day after the rally, the group posted it had received an “avalanche” of applications.
It’s “worrying that there could be more and more people,” Waziruddin said.
According to Waziruddin, Second Sons is not just a social activity group, but also part of a political movement.
With their white masks and matching outfits, the Second Sons members in Niagara-on-the-Lake dressed similarly to members of American white nationalist organization Patriot Front, which promotes the creation of a white-only state in the U.S., according to the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University. A member of the group also mentioned the Patriot Front in a livestream following the rally.
Second Sons also uses the Red Ensign flag — popular with white supremacists — and on Sept. 2, MacKenzie, the group’s founder, shared a video on the Telegram platform in which he makes a Nazi salute and grins for the camera while driving and playing music. “Joan Jett came on, and the mood came over me. What can I say?” he wrote in the post.
CBC Hamilton asked MacKenzie for comment on that via the Second Sons website but did not receive a response before publication.
A video of the Brock rally that Second Sons shared Saturday shows MacKenzie unmasked and speaking to members. In MacKenzie’s speech, he lionizes Brock and laments that Canada is being “pillaged, raped and burned.” At one point, the video pans to a group of men, all of whom appear to be brown, walking in the park as MacKenzie accuses politicians of not knowing what a Canadian really is.
In addition to the Queenston Heights videos, Second Sons shared an image of MacKenzie and a group of masked members standing together behind some sort of fighting ring.
CBC’s visual investigations unit identified the setting of the photo as the Caledonia Lions Community Centre in Caledonia, Ont. CBC Hamilton reached out to the Lions Club, which said it was not aware the group that rented the hall last weekend was affiliated with Second Sons.
“Had the true nature or group association been disclosed, the rental would not have been approved. We are disappointed the purpose of the booking was misrepresented and want to make it clear that we do not support or condone the promotion of extremist views,” the Caledonia Lions Club said in an email.
Second Sons’ website says the fitness focus is to ensure members are the best possible versions of themselves, and that hiding members’ identities is to preserve privacy and protect members from retribution by “state officials or their attack dogs.”
Waziruddin said anti-immigrant sentiments are often fuelled by false information and can lead to real, negative impacts for many people.
He said the idea that immigrants, temporary foreign workers and students are taking jobs from Canadians seems to have entered mainstream thinking and contributed to policy changes, such as limits on international students at Ontario post-secondary schools and proposed changes to Canada’s temporary foreign workers program.
Ameil Joseph, an associate professor in the faculty of social sciences at McMaster University, said policy changes like that can have negative repercussions on the people involved and contribute to further anti-immigrant sentiment, especially when those narratives go unchallenged.
Canadians can watch MacKenzie’s videos and see him criticizing immigration in a way that may sound similar to some politicians debating policy, Joseph said.
“And then [people] see a TikTok video with someone complaining about somebody who’s South Asian working at Tim Hortons,” Joseph said in an interview. “All of it bleeds together without the backdrop of everybody telling the ongoing story of these white nationalist groups who have been trying to organize for generations.”
Upon seeing images of the rally, Joseph said he thought about how much has changed since the public uproar when white supremacists marched on Charlottesville, Va. Comparatively, he said, the Niagara-on-the-Lake rally seems to have left people unphased, perhaps because they’re used to seeing such groups out in the open.
Second Sons’ choice of a backdrop for their rally in Niagara was designed to invoke the idea of Canadians banding together against “invaders,” Joseph said, and to appeal to patriotism as a way to attract recruits.
“It feels like they’re succeeding,” he said. “It’s absolutely terrifying.”
In the Hamilton area, Joseph said, community groups have banded together to counterprotest far-right groups and co-ordinate responses to their actions. He said he’d like to see more of that, coupled with more investment from local governments to aid in those efforts.
