Indigenous People and the Rise of the Right

Executive Summary

This essay by Riley Yesno examines the relationship between the rise of far-right politics in Canada and Indigenous people. It takes the Freedom Convoy occupation of Ottawa, which began on January 29, 2022 and at its peak drew over 15,000 participants from across Canada, as a starting point: a protest that began as opposition to COVID-19 restrictions and public health mandates but evolved into claims of standing up against government "manipulation" and "oppression," featuring hate symbols such as swastikas and confederate flags alongside demands that sitting politicians resign.

The essay argues Canada's implication in rising far-right politics predates the Freedom Convoy, and that communities targeted by the far-right, including Indigenous people, have long grappled with this harm. While the Canadian far-right promotes an ideology decidedly harmful to Indigenous people, the movement increasingly postures as embracing Indigenous people, as seen in images from the Convoy of Indigenous people performing pipe ceremonies with crowd members and trucks displaying "Every Child Matters" flags. The author reads this as a manipulation of Indigenous experiences with colonialism that the far-right deliberately evokes to legitimize its politics and bandwagon off the current political climate, arguing that standard anti-radicalization responses will not suffice and that progressive movements must instead work alongside Indigenous people to dismantle the settler-colonial status quo. The essay also considers instances of Indigenous bandwagoning with right-wing movements and the far-right's parallel claims to sovereignty.