Four far-left extremists were arrested in Hamilton, Ontario, Sunday after violent clashes broke out at a populist People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier [pictured, above] event.
The event, which was also hosted by U.S. political commentator Dave Rubin, saw around 100 Antifa extremists descend on the campus of Mohawk College in Hamilton, with clashes between Antifa and event attendees breaking out, the Hamilton Spectator reports.
According to broadcaster Global News, Hamilton police confirmed the arrests of four people for “breach of the peace,” noting, “the arrested parties were removed from the scene and later released unconditionally.”
Police also reported that no one had been injured as a result of the clashes.
A video from the event, showing far-left extremists shouting at an elderly woman with a walker, later went viral on social media. Rubin, who cohosted the event, also shared the video with the comment, “it was an incredible night. This, however, does qualify as no words…”
Bernier also commented on the footage, saying, “These Antifa protesters are a small minority of violent thugs. The most frightening is that their extremist, Far Left ideology is now tacitly supported by many in academia, the media, activist organizations, and politics. Our democracy is in danger.”
Prior to Sunday, Antifa and other far-left extremists had attempted to shut the event down, according to Rubin, who linked to an Op-Ed in the Hamilton Spectator written by “anti-hate” campaigner Evan Balgord.
Rubin took exception to Balgord’s comments that accused the self-described liberal as “a far-right YouTube personality and a significant part of a radicalization process ushering people into the neo-Nazi movement,” citing a recently published study.
Balgord is a member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network – a small left-wing “anti-hate” activist group similar to the UK’s far-left Goerge Soros-funded activist organization HOPE not Hate, which expressed excitement over the Canadian organization’s launch last year.
HOPE not Hate has also claimed to have aided Canadian lawyer Richard Warman with details to form a criminal complaint against several members and former members of Rebel Media, including Ezra Levant and Hamish Marshall, the current campaign manager for the Canadian Conservative Party.
According to Canadian broadcaster CBC, Warman is also a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
Maxime Bernier, a former Canadian Foreign Minister who broke with the Conservative Party last year to form his own party, has repeatedly denounced Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s multiculturalism policies, arguing that a “cult of diversity” is dividing Canadians.
Bernier has also struggled to gain access to the election leader’s debates, one of which had to be canceled because Trudeau refused to attend in light of the revelation that he has embraced “blackface” – the practice of wearing body paint to mock dark-skinned people – so many times that he could not remember them all.
The PPC leader is lagging behind his Conservative party challenger Richard Lehoux in his constituency of Beauce in Quebec, where current polls put him at 32.3 percent compared to the Tories at 36.3 percent.