In the face of the extremist threat, Canada’s future hinges on its ability to instill Canadian youth with Canadian values
By Richard Robertson, Special to National Post
Published Sep 04, 2025
In yet another sign that Canada’s social fabric is unravelling, Montreal police recently arrested a 17-year-old boy who’s alleged to have been planning a violent act in the name of the Islamic State.
Cyberspace has emerged as the frontline in the battle against extremist and radical ideologies that endanger Canada’s democracy. Canadian youth, a cohort of society that is especially vulnerable to such indoctrination, have become unwitting casualties in this fight.
B’nai Brith Canada has backed common-sense proposals to rein in the proliferation of extremist content on the internet. But the solution to this problem is offline.
Incidents such as the alleged terrorist plotter who was arrested in Montreal are becoming more common, even though successive governments have raised concerns about the rise of extremist ideologies among Canadian youth. This crisis has accelerated since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel ignited a firestorm of hate targeting Jews around the globe, including in Canada.
In December 2023, the RCMP warned of a growing trend of “terrorist use of the internet” in a press release announcing the arrest of an Ottawa teen on terrorism charges. Two months later, the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre cited the Israel-Hamas war as a source of religious and ideological tensions that could spill over into violence.
In September 2024, police apprehended an international student, a Pakistani national, who is alleged to have plotted to kill Jews in New York City. During 2024, terrorist threats such as these surged to an unprecedented level. The RCMP noted a 488 per cent increase in terrorism charges compared to the previous year.
Radicals from across the ideological spectrum have used the conflict in the Middle East to amplify their messaging, leveraging novel digital means to reach younger audiences. On the far right, groups such as the Maniac Murder Cult (MKY), a white supremacist network, have influenced Canadian youths to engage in real-world acts of hate.
Police in Manitoba, for instance, charged a teen linked to MKY with terror-related offences earlier this year. The accused allegedly engaged in a spate of depraved vandalism, which included spray-painting racist and antisemitic graffiti.
This alarming trend suggests that the extremist vitriol festering on the internet is seeping into the daily lives of Canadians. It is not relegated to individual, thwarted terrorist attacks. For months, radicalized youths have led and participated in rallies and university encampments across the country, which have often glorified terrorist groups and featured slogans exhorting violence.
Our society must take adequate steps to insulate impressionable Canadians from radical narratives that threaten Canadian values. Governments at all levels cannot divorce what is happening online from the recent terrorism-related threats and the rise in hate, division and incitement on our streets.
Legislation can and should be part of the solution. Any formal review of online harms policies must consider the evolving nature of digital radicalization. This should be paired with changes to the Criminal Code. When radical voices use online platforms to traffic in hate speech or incite violence, they must be held accountable, even if they attempt to justify what they say in the name of protected speech.
Lawmakers must also heed the warnings of Canada’s national security establishment, which has sought greater resources for agencies such as the RCMP and other institutions tasked with confronting the rise of domestic extremism.
Likewise, given the international scale of digital radicalization, Ottawa should amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to strengthen Canada’s capacity to properly vet those with a history of propagating extremist ideologies.
At the same time, the cultural and political dimensions of youth radicalization should not be discounted. As a society, we have a duty to protect the next generation of Canadians from malign influences. In the face of the extremist threat, Canada’s future hinges on its ability to instill Canadian values in Canadian youth.
National Post
Richard Robertson is director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada.