Canadian Antifa cells call for “attacks” & “anti-American riots” over Maduro arrest

A self-described “militant” Antifa cell based in Canada is openly calling for sabotage, attacks, and anti-American riots in response to the arrest of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

A self-described “militant” Antifa cell based in Canada is openly calling for sabotage, attacks, and anti-American riots in response to the arrest of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, raising renewed questions about why Canada continues to resist designating violent Antifa networks as terrorist organizations as the U.S. government has.

The call to violence appeared this week in an anonymous post attributed to L’Organisation révolutionnaire anarchiste, a Montreal-based anarchist group aligned with the broader Antifa movement. The call to violence was distributed to other websites that serve as organizing hubs for Antifa cells within Canada.

The post urges followers to carry out “direct action,” including “sabotage and attacks,” and to target American businesses operating in Montreal in retaliation for a U.S.-led operation that captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Antifa has had a persistent presence in Montreal for decades, often involving street violence and property destruction.

“There are two answers that are needed right now. The first, is direct action, the sabotage and attacks that put a wrench in the wheels of authoritarian machinery, done, ideally, in such a way so as to be coordinated or contagious, resonating and reproduced by others,” the post reads.

The group calls on supporters to “make the US ruling class regret this,” pointing to American fast-food chains, tech companies, warehouses, and weapons manufacturers as potential targets.

It praises recent anti-American riots in Mexico and the U.S. and vandalism of weapons factories in Europe, urging activists in Canada to replicate similar actions locally.

The post frames violence as a moral imperative, encouraging adherents not to “underestimate yourself” and to organize actions that would “strike blows” against what it describes as “authority” and “imperialism.”

“Montreal is filled with thousands of offices, store outlets, warehouses, and assembly lines for important American businesses headed by the US empire’s most influential capitalists. This includes fast food chains, tech industry, and weapons manufacturers,” writes the anonymous author.

“In the summer of 2025, Mexico city erupted into anti-American riots, destroying investments and symbols of American capitalism. In the UK, Palestine Action, has been entering weapons factories, smashing machinery, doing millions in damage. Across the world, normal people identify targets and act.”

The message follows a dramatic development in Venezuela, where American forces reportedly conducted air strikes and captured Maduro, long accused of overseeing a narco-state, repressing political opposition, and triggering a mass exodus of Venezuelan refugees.

While the operation has been celebrated by many Venezuelans as a long-overdue blow against a socialist dictatorship, extremist groups in the West have reacted with fury, portraying the arrest as “imperialist violence” and calling for retaliation.

Antifa networks operate through decentralized “cells” that encourage lone actors and small groups to carry out attacks without centralized direction, complicating law enforcement efforts and accountability.

The latest threat has renewed scrutiny of Ottawa’s reluctance to take a harder line. Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Gary Anandasangaree, has refused to say whether the federal government will follow the United States’ lead in officially designating violent Antifa cells as terrorist organizations.

Last year, the U.S. State Department designated four violent Antifa-linked groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Those include Germany’s “Antifa Ost,” the “Italian International Revolutionary Front,” and two Greece-based groups—“Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolution” and “Revolutionary Class Self Defence.”

“Anarchist militants have waged terror campaigns in the United States and Europe, conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western civilization through their brutal attacks,” the State Department said at the time.

By contrast, Public Safety Canada provided True North with a boilerplate response, stating that public safety is the government’s top priority and that groups can only be listed if there are reasonable grounds to believe they are committing or facilitating terrorist acts. The department confirmed that the minister has the authority to request such designations.

This is not the first time Ottawa has been pressed on the issue. In September, federal officials offered the same generic response when asked whether Canada would label Antifa a domestic terrorist organization—despite repeated incidents of politically motivated violence, vandalism, and intimidation linked to self-identified Antifa activists.