Planned anti-mass immigration protest draws ire of leftist activists

An anti-mass immigration protest calling for mass deportations of non-citizen criminals, illegal immigrants, terrorists, and fraudulent visa holders has drawn the ire of several Antifa activists.

An anti-mass immigration protest calling for mass deportations of non-citizen criminals, illegal immigrants, terrorists, and fraudulent visa holders has drawn the ire of several Antifa activists and leftist politicians.

The Canada First rally is set to take place on September 13th, 2025, at Christie Pits Park in Toronto, Ontario.

One of the official posters for the march, organized by Joe Anidjar, a five-year activist and founder of the “Canada First Movement,” reads “stop mass immigration; start mass deportations; remigration is necessary.”

The protest has garnered the support of U.K.-based activist Tommy Robinson and is planned on the same day as a U.K. patriot protest in London. Anidjar said the U.K. protest is expected to bring over a million people. He said the Toronto rally is not just about Canada but the entire Western world.

Anidjar told True North that the protest isn’t about making demands but to remind Canadians that it’s okay to discuss the need to roll back mass immigration.

“Mass immigration is a very controversial topic, but my stance is that it’s absolutely destroyed our country,” Anidjar told True North. “It’s affected so many different things in our country…anywhere from housing to the crime spike in our country to just the total lack of respect for our culture and identity.”

He said he hopes the protest will send a message that many Canadians think mass immigration has gone too far in terms of raw numbers, but also that many of the new immigrants do not want to assimilate and live according to Canada’s culture.

Canada took in 817,000 new immigrants in the first four months of 2025 when tallying up both permanent and non-permanent streams.

“People here have been so conditioned to, you know, almost be so virtuous to the death,” he said. “Immigrants built this country. But we also have to look at who we have here in our country. When you start bringing people who don’t share our values, there is going to be chaos, and that’s what we’re seeing in our streets.”

In a post on Facebook, former NDP MP Charlie Angus said the protest will bring “race haters” and is encouraging “everyone” to come out in defiance of the protest to “help preserve our history of inclusion and diversity.” He called on his supporters to “uphold the legacy” of the Christie Pits riots in 1933 when 10,000 people fought in the streets against “Swastika clubs” which were intimidating Toronto’s Jewish population.

Anidjar said choosing that location was coincidental as he didn’t even know about the history of the Christie Pits riots before organizing the event, and that he chose the site for its beauty and accessibility via Toronto’s transit.

In a post on X, Anidjar showcased some of the comments from leftist activists calling for violence against the anti-mass immigration rally, and said Angus’s calls for counter protesters to “uphold” the riots legacy could be an incitement to violence.

Toronto City Councillor Dianne Saxe similarly released a statement condemning the protest. In it, she asserted that the rally was a “hate demonstration.”

“This rally does not represent what we stand for as a city or as Canadians,” she said in the statement. “Rather, it’s reflective of an effort by its organizers to seek and gain undeserved notoriety through intimidation, puffery, and stoking division rooted in the belief that immigrants somehow struggle less, work less, or contribute less to our country.”

Anidjar denied that the protest had anything to do with race or even religion and that people from “all different types of races and religions” would be attending the event.

“Our great-grandfathers and grandfathers fought for our freedoms in this country. Right now, the way things are and the way major cities have become unrecognizable, they’d be rolling in their graves. They would be disgusted,” he said. “That’s exactly what this is about. Putting Canadians in the forefront, and making sure we take care of our people first before others.”

He noted the country has changed after 10 years of Liberal rule. Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed Mark Wiseman as an advisor who was instrumental in promoting the Century Initiative — a plan to increase Canada’s population to 100 million via immigration by the end of the century.

“It’s called being replaced here. And you could see that younger generational kids from Canada don’t have jobs because companies are greedy, and they like to bring in immigrants and pay them less money to do the job,” he said. “Look at Tim Hortons. It’s absolutely disgraceful. That’s not even a Canadian company anymore.”

He urged all participants to be prepared for antagonists and infiltrators, and to remain civil, peaceful, and respectful.

“If you’re going to be wearing masks or covering your face, you’re not with this movement; you’re not with us. I don’t care,” he said. “Don’t lower ourselves to their standards, because I know what I’m expecting, but I’m also expecting an overwhelming amount of people, Canadian patriots, to be there.”