EXCLUSIVE: Liberals silent on funding for “anti-hate” group linked to Antifa in court

The Liberals won’t answer questions on whether it will continue to fund the Canadian Anti-Hate Network years after a Canadian court ruling stated that the activist group “did in fact assist Antifa."

Source: Facebook/Wikimedia Commons

The Liberal government won’t answer questions on whether it will continue to fund the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) years after a Canadian court ruling stated that the activist group “did in fact assist Antifa.”

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” in the U.S., listing over thirty instances of Antifa groups and other “radical left-wing extremists” carrying out violence in the country.

The designation by Trump was not carried out under statute or the formal process followed by the State Department, which has the power to designate Foreign Terrorist Organizations under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. Canada has not designated Antifa a terrorist group and the Ministry of Public Safety has not indicated it will be doing so.

In 2022, an Ottawa small claims court judge accepted evidence the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) “did in fact assist Antifa” and that the far-left extremist group “has been violent.” The ruling does not equate to a legal designation of CAHN as a terrorist or violent organization and the activist group denies any such ties.

A subsequent appeal of the ruling filed by CAHN board member Richard Warman in 2024 was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court. CAHN rejects any characterizations that link it to terrorism.

In the ruling, the court also accepted evidence that Warman, who launched the small claims action against journalists Jonathan Kay and Barbara Kay for alleged defamation, “has used litigation to silence or intimidate those he sees as his critics.”

Canadian Heritage granted CAHN a combined $708,400 for “containing and countering Canadian hate groups” and “encouraging anti-hate activities in Canada.” Meanwhile, Public Safety granted the self-described antifascist organization $200,000 to study “the far-right landscape” in Canada.

True North contacted both government agencies to inquire if they would continue to fund CAHN, given the U.S. executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist entity. Neither agency responded to True North’s request for comment.

When contacted, a CAHN spokesperson denied that the organization has ever supported “terrorism, violence or criminality.”

“CAHN does not and has never funded, aided, or endorsed terrorism, violence, or criminality. No evidence was presented that we ever had. Any suggestion that we have funded, aided, or endorsed terrorism, violence, or criminality is a lie and it is not what the ruling says,” said the spokesperson in an emailed statement.

When presented with parts of the court’s decision, which determined CAHN “did in fact assist Antifa and the movement has been violent,” CAHN responded, saying as an organization they were not part of board member Warman’s defamation suit. They added that if they had been, they would have “vigorously corrected Mr. Kay’s misrepresentations about antifascism and CAHN in his testimony.”

“He misrepresented what we published and we expressly deny his interpretations that we support violence. We believe in working towards a Canada that is a multicultural and pluralistic democracy free from racism and other forms of hatred,” CAHN said in the email. “That makes us an antifascist organization.”

The Ottawa small claims court decision listed several pieces of evidence that Jonathan Kay submitted, but many of these articles, published by CAHN, are no longer available.

In one piece of evidence, Kay referred to a Sept. 20, 2017, CAHN article by CEO Evan Balgord as “an apologist tract for Antifa.”

During the court proceedings, Kay referenced a 2017 CAHN article by Balgord, “describing the need for ‘physical disruption’ to get their message across.” In the court, Kay also referred to other CAHN articles describing “how to find local Antifa chapters and referred to an international Antifa defence fund.”

“Warman’s evidence was that he and CAHN were part of the Antifa movement;(co-founder of CAHN Bernie) Farber has praised (Antifa’s) muscular resistance; and Balgord referred to Antifa’s use of physical disruption,” the ruling said.

A spokesperson for CAHN told True North in an email that “Antifascism,” Antifa, is an “ideology” and not a group, yet denied that it has ever assisted Antifa.

“That would be like saying that True North has ‘in fact’ assisted the far-right, which ‘has been violent’. That’s just as true as the narrative you’re spinning,” said the spokesperson.

No court has ever linked True North to the far-right.

“By that logic you could say the exact same thing about any environmentalist group, any civil rights group – practically any group in any large social movement or ideology,” CAHN said in an email. “That misinterpretation of the outcome of the court case is an intellectually bereft way of looking at things and defamatory on purpose.”

In an article published and republished by CAHN titled “40 Ways to Fight the far right,” the organization links to several resources as recommended further reading, including Mark Bray’s Antifa, the Antifascist Handbook AND Stanislav Vysotsky’s American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism.

In Bray’s book, he explains that many “antifascists” believe that fascism is a product of capitalism, and “to be consistently antifascist is to be consistently anticapitalist.” Bray justifies Antifa violence by saying that “militant anti-fascism is a form of collective self-defence.” He glorifies Antifa for “stamping out” what they deem to be fascism by “any means necessary.”

One interview with an Antifa group member in the book quotes “You fight them by writing letters and making phone calls so you don’t have to fight them with fists. You fight them with fists so you don’t have to fight them with knives. You fight them with knives so you don’t have to fight them with guns. You fight them with guns so you don’t have to fight them with tanks.”

In CAHN’s Guide for Pride Defenders, which is sourced as further reading in “40 Ways to Fight the Far-Right,” the taxpayer-funded organization recommends that their followers use “loud music and whistles” loud enough that wielders of the sound devices should wear earplugs to protect their hearing, against what they call “hate protesters.”

“Calling the antifascist movement violent writ large is like calling pro-democracy movements, the civil rights movement, or the environmental movement violent writ large. Characterizations like that are gross over generalizations for complex social movements with many groups taking part,” CAHN said in the email.

“Kay may have had the brief opportunity to express his completely wrong opinions in court where they are protected as testimony. However, I reiterate that any suggestion that we have funded, aided, or endorsed terrorism, violence, or criminality is a lie, defamatory, and it is not what the ruling says.”