What Misogyny and Alt-Right Discourse Have to do with Canada’s Mass Killings
Ten people are dead after 25 year-old Alek Minassian allegedly drove a rental van through a busy pedestrian thoroughfare in Toronto in April. Minassian surrendered to police shortly afterward. Though he brandished what appeared to be a gun and said he had a gun, the police officer confronting Minassian is being lauded for not shooting him.
Meanwhile, Alexandre Bissonnette, the shooter behind a 2017 mosque attack in Quebec City, appeared for sentencing in a Canadian court. Bissonnette was actively engaging with far-right wing American and Canadian personalities like Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones.
Both Minassian and Bissonnette are accused of expressing misogynist sentiments in right-wing corners of the internet. Most of Minassian’s victims were women, according to Toronto police. Neither Minassian nor Bissonnette are likely face terrorism charges. Canadian right-wing pundits insist Minassian, likely of Armenian ancestry, was not white, and is therefore terrorist.
Worldview’s Jerome McDonnell recently spoke with Jesse Brown, a Toronto-based journalist and media critic. He’s also publisher of the Canadaland podcast network and co-authored the book The Canadaland Guide to Canada — a humorous look at Canada’s dark side.
On the police officer’s decision not to shoot Alek Minassian:
Brown: The heroic actions of that police officer are getting a lot of justified praise. I will point out that he was doing his job as it is supposed to be done. We’re surprised that he didn’t do it incorrectly because so often that’s the case. In Canada, we’ve had a number of instances where police have shot and killed people who were not brandishing weapons or people with mental disabilities. It’s wonderful that this brave officer kept a cool head and that the suspect was taken without a shot fired, but that is how it’s supposed to be.
On the relationship between the online “incel” community and the attack:
Brown: At practically the same time as the attack, a Facebook post from his account identified himself as an “incel,” an involuntary celibate. This is an online community of misogynistic men who feel that they are denied sex by women. The 2014 Isla Vista massacre in the United States was done by Elliott Rogers, somebody who also identified as an incel.
Something between 80 to 95 percent of our information consumption, from what we read to the music we listen to, comes from the United States. The conversation in the US has become fascinating and entertaining and alarming, so people talk about that situation far more than our own domestic politics.
On Alexander Bissonette and the influence of America’s alt-right:
Brown: Alexander Bissonnette, a young man who walked into a Quebec City mosque who sit six people dead while they were peacefully praying. There’s no link between him and the incel movement, but he was a well-known troll online who was very active in anti-feminist posting and also was a Trump supporter, and he followed the American podcaster and columnist Ben Shapiro. He was also a fan of everyone from Tucker Carlson to Richard Spencer, the neo-Nazi. His Twitter likes and online history reads like a who’s who of the alt-right.
Bissonnette lived near Muslim neighbors who never caused him a problem in his life, but he lived in an alternate reality online based on this American media consumption that made him believe he was saving the lives of his family. He believed Ben Shapiro who told him that half of all Muslims are radicalized, and that by murdering as many of them as he could, he would be saving the lives of his own people. He lived in an absolute fantasy that purely came to him through his screen.
Ben Shapiro feels that he bears no responsibility whatsoever for what people do with the information he gives them. While I agree with the general point that we who communicate for a living in the media are not responsible for those who misinterpret what we say, Bissonnette did not understand Ben Shapiro. He did not hear Ben Shapiro wrong. When Ben Shapiro said 50 percent of Muslims were radicalized, he took that information to a murderous and logical conclusion. I don’t think that Ben Shapiro is responsible for those murders, but he shares responsibility for inciting them.
On Toronto’s mourning process:
Brown: Of course people are rattled and traumatized, but I think the better side of most people in the city has won out. Though some jumped to conclusions and perpetuated panic and divisiveness, most people did not. I’m a frequent critic of Canada in many ways, but I feel like our greater angels won out in this.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Click here to listen to the entire interview, which was adapted for the web by Anna Waters.
