NOUVELLE ALLIANCE, AN OLD SONG: WHAT’S BEHIND THE LEFT-RIGHT CONFUSIONISM OF THESE REACTIONARY YOUTH?

Over the course of 2022, Québec saw the rise of a new separatist, ultranationalist “political organization” that called itself Nouvelle Alliance (NA), a reference to the Alliance Laurentienne, a far-right association that existed from 1957 to 1963 under the leadership of author and reactionary activist Raymond Barbeau (1930–1992).[i]

Since its creation, NA has carried out a series of actions in Montréal and elsewhere in Québec (reverential commemorations, postering campaigns, banner drops, torchlight vigils, etc. directly reminiscent of the modus operandi favored in recent years by other far-right formations, such as the neo-fascist group Atalante Québec and the short-lived Front canadien-français (FCF). (See appendix for a non-exhaustive list of actions.) The founding members and key militants of Nouvelle Alliance are former members of the latter group, a faithful emulator of Québec’s fascist ultra-Catholic circles, which, of course, is no coincidence, whatever the main parties involved may say.

Last October, the independent media outlet Pivot.media published an excellent article on Nouvelle Alliance (which we strongly encourage you to read) exposing some of the contradictions that characterize the group.

One claim in particular in this article strikes us as both highly preposterous and worthy of closer study: that Nouvelle Alliance is “neither right nor left.” This assertion, as we shall see, has never really stood up to the test of facts, but a recent development precludes it altogether. On February 16, NA activists staged an action in front of the office of the federal minister of immigration, unfurling a banner deploring alleged “migratory subversion,” echoing a central far-right obsession, as well as the classic nationalist demand for “full power” over immigration. Four days later, they doubled down by posting a video denouncing “immigrationism”—a term coined by the far right in France and since taken up by the liberal right—migratory “submersion,” and population “replacement,” a veiled reference to the “great replacement” thesis, another far-right French fantasy.

It’s clear that, despite its claim to be “neither right nor left,” NA’s message in this sequence of actions draws on the vocabulary of the French far right, a vocabulary also in vogue in European and North American far-right circles. This “nationalist” frame of reference (in the euphemistic sense favoured by identitarian fascist and neo-Nazi movements) no doubt also explains the group’s popularity on social media with a large number of groups and individuals clearly identified with the far right.

The purpose of this article is to demystify once and for all the notion that this organization is politically neutral or inoffensive, to demonstrate that it is an integral part of the contemporary far right, to sensitize young pro-independence activists who, perhaps naively, might be drawn in by its rhetoric, and, above all, to alert the community to the danger it poses, in order to effectively block any attempt it might make to infiltrate progressive circles.

—> Who are the key Nouvelle Alliance militants?

///

 

Nouvelle Alliance until now

With the avowed aim of “taking the fight for independence to the streets,” Nouvelle Alliance presents itself as a kind of militant separatist vanguard and adopts a framework not dissimilar from the rituals of the historic far right, or even of contemporary neo-fascism. Its militants, almost exclusively young men—and this is no coincidence—seem intent on projecting a classic conservative appearance, combining traditional hypermasculine codes (tailored suits, well-groomed appearance, etc.) with an aesthetic adopted in part from radical right-wing movements (aviator coats adorned with the organization’s logo, torch-light vigils, pyrotechnical elements, etc.). They borrowed their oddly austere allure, their quasi-military posture, and their exaggeratedly serious, often catastrophizing tone from these precursors.

In addition to these ostentatious manifestations, it remains the case that NA’s main activists are direct descendants of the short-lived Front canadien-français, whose close ties to the Québec far right we’ve demonstrated through its proximity to the likes of Alexandre Cormier Denis and Philippe Plamondon (Nomos.tv, Horizon Québec actuel), Étienne Dumas (Mouvement tradition Québec) and the Fédération des Québécois de souche. In addition to Raymond Barbeau’s Alliance Laurentienne, NA also draws inspiration in a less transparent way from Paul Bouchard’s newspaper La Nation and the brothers Walter and Dostaler O’Leary’s Jeunesses patriotes, two other fascist-inspired “separatist” (or “corporatist”) precursors, and Robert Rumilly’s Centre d’information nationale (CIN), as well as regularly invoking the memory of the cleric Lionel Groulx, known for his reactionary stance and explicit antisemitism. Their militant inspirations also include less right-wing projects, such as the FLQ, the Chevaliers de l’Indépendance, Raymond Villeneuve’s Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec (MLNQ), and the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois (RRQ).

What’s more, a quick examination of their social media platforms (whether on Instagram or on Twitter/X) reveals a very large number of sympathizers (groups and individuals) identified with the far right, displaying, for example, symbols of fascism, European identitarian currents, ultranationalism or white nationalism, the alt-right, etc. You’d have to be pretty naive to believe that the convergence of all these elements is a matter of chance and coincidence.

One of NA’s most flamboyant members, Aurélien Nambride, is the proud Québec representative of the Rassemblement National (RN, formerly Front National), a party which, perhaps needless to say, was founded by former Nazis and which, despite all its efforts to “clean up” its image over the years, is forever rooted in the neo-fascist cultural and political universe. Nambride also makes no secret of his admiration for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, another formation firmly planted on the far right (see video clip below).

 

—> Who are the key Nouvelle Alliance militants?

 

Bullshit and Duplicty… Gaslighting As A Political Strategy

NA militants insist on repeating to anyone who will listen that they are “neither right nor left.”[iii] Why this red herring? It shouldn’t be that difficult for these young reactionaries to frankly acknowledge what they are, rather than pathetically skirting around it. It’s the purest hypocrisy for an organization to show its political orientation perfectly clearly, all the while denying it, and then to claim to want to bring together “left” and “right” nationalisms to achieve independence around a project to be defined at a later date. It’s important to recognize this, since the process itself seeks to make people believe that they have no ulterior motive, that they themselves are not putting forward a political vision to which they would eventually like to make “the country” conform.

In our opinion, this pageant is based on a deliberate and strategic confusion of political tendencies: a confusionist redefinition of the categories “left” and “right,” accompanied by systematic gaslighting (i.e., that what we see and perceive and what reason tells us is actually something else; we’ll have to take their word for it!), aimed at pushing the limit of acceptable political ideas (Overton window) in the independentist movement to the right.

This is essentially the same process systematically employed by the ideologue Mathieu Bock Côté on a much larger scale. In fact, it’s the whole thesis of his latest book,[iv] which seems to have been developed precisely to provide conceptual tools for the new generation of reactionary nationalists represented by the likes of Nouvelle Alliance. In it, for example, MBC repeats—as he does on all his platforms—that the far right is a “phantom” category conjured up by today’s dominant “diversitarian regime,” which he equates squarely with anti-fascism![v] The latter, explains MBC, invented the category “far right” back in the 1920s, not primarily to oppose the rise of fascism as such but to demonize all the enemies of communism by grouping them under the same label!

« On en arrive ici au cœur de la thèse du présent ouvrage : ce n’est pas “l’extrême droite”, entité politique fantomatique et catégorie indéfinissable, qui menace notre démocratie, mais bien plutôt l’usage que le régime diversitaire fait du concept d’extrême droite pour frapper d’interdit, censurer ou fasciser toute forme de dissidence. (…) Au fond des choses, on retrouve ici la logique de l’antifascisme, qui conditionne profondément l’imaginaire politique démocratique, et structure encore son rapport au conservatisme. L’histoire de l’antifascisme n’est pas d’abord l’histoire de la lutte contre le fascisme mais celle de l’assimilation au fascisme des adversaires du communisme, et même du socialisme. (…) L’antifascisme dès son apparition, a d’abord eu pour fonction de désigner ceux qui s’opposaient résolument au communisme non pas en affirmant qu’il allait trop loin, tout en reconnaissant la noblesse de ses idéaux, mais bien parce qu’ils le rejetaient fondamentalement. »
[This brings us to the heart of this book’s thesis: it’s not the “far right,” a phantom political entity and indefinable category, that threatens our democracy, but rather the diversitarian regime’s use of the concept of the far right to ban, censor, or present as fascist any form of dissent.[vi] . . . At the heart of the matter lies the logic of anti-fascism, which profoundly conditions democratic political imaginary, and continues to structures its relationship with conservatism. The history of anti-fascism is not primarily the history of the fight against fascism but of the assimilation of opponents of communism, and even socialism, under the rubric of fascism…  From the outset, the function of anti-fascism has been to categorize those who resolutely opposed communism, not by asserting that it went too far, while recognizing the nobility of its ideals, but because they fundamentally rejected it.[vii]]

Fascism was, first and foremost, defined by its opposition to communism, which preceded it by several decades and posed tangible threat to the capitalist order throughout the West! It’s only a short step from there to claiming that fascism only ever really existed in the eyes of its enemies, a step that MBC blithely takes, proceeding as if these political movements had not been the subject of vast fields of historical and sociological study for a century now and as if the contemporary resurgences of the far right—from the European New Right to the American alt-right, via neo-Nazi movements and radical right-wing parties—had no real substance and were merely the fruit of a delirious communist imagination!

While the label can indeed be used to circumscribe a political enemy, that is, first of all, an approach that MBC himself makes abundant use of (for example, he refers to his enemies as “wokes” or to Québec Solidaire as a “radical left” party to better undermine them), and which he, therefore, can’t use as a basis to criticize others. Second, it is absolutely dishonest to suggest that this is the sole reason the term is used. The far right is no more “undefinable” than it is a phantom. On the contrary, even if you’re not an expert sociologist or if you don’t limit yourself to radical left-wing sources, you can easily find reasonably accepted definitions. For the sake of argument, let’s just consult the Wikipedia entry for “far-right politics,” which is as legitimate a source as any, and which has numerous references for anyone wishing to delve deeper. MBC, who is himself one of the main purveyors of far-right ideas in some of the most consulted, listened to and watched private media in Québec, in addition to playing a considerable role in France as a stooge for far-right organization (the Rassemblent national and Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête party) on platforms controlled by the ultra-Catholic multi-billionaire Vincent Bolloré, would perhaps do better to brush up on his definitions rather than talking shit. Unless, of course, “the shit is the medium” that allows him to poison the well and systematically encourage the resurgence of the far right in the societies where he exerts his toxic influence. Always with stormy denial, of course.

Whatever the main parties involved may say, the more or less radical rejection of immigration is common to all far-right movements,[viii] as well as being a central element of discourse of almost all the groups and individuals mentioned in this article so far.[ix] It is, in any case, a pathological obsession for Mathieu Bock Côté, and clearly a major preoccupation of Nouvelle Alliance, as we shall see below.

We hypothesize that the Nouvelle Alliance activists are, in fact, a kind of “Bockcôtéian youth” who don’t say its name; they share the same confusionist denial, the same gaslighting, the same falsely liberal nationalism, and flash the same fascist petticoat from which protrudes with the same bourgeois trappings and the same retrograde coquetry. The main difference between them is the desire expressed by the young groupuscule to take nationalism (or the “struggle for independence”) to the streets, something you certainly can’t accuse MBC of.[x] Nouvelle Alliance is, so to speak, the inevitable embodiment of the ideas that Mathieu Bock-Côté (and others like him) have been propagating for the past fifteen years, but in a militant fashion, mixing ingredients already employed by more or less fascist formations like Atalante Québec, who themselves were inspired by similar initiatives in Europe (see CasaPound, Groupe Union Défense, etc.).

The key point here is that beneath its deceptively neutral rhetoric and despite the gaslighting that underpins the whole approach, NA is unquestionably an initiative at the far right of the political spectrum, whose immediate project is precisely to pull the Québec nationalist milieu to the right, notably through a strategy of entering traditional political organizations like the Parti Québécois and the Bloc Québécois. By calling itself “neither right nor left,” it is undoubtedly seeking in part to attract pro-independence activists with progressive leanings, but beyond an appeal to “left-wing nationalists,” the real intention of this cultivated confusion is to consolidate the right-wing bloc by fostering greater tolerance for elements of far-right nationalist discourse (notably on the question of immigration and demographic evolution) among the more classic conservative and liberal sectors. In reality, the aim is mutual tolerance between the traditional right and the far right and a cultural normalization of the latter more generally, which should ultimately translate into political transformation at institutional level.

In some respects, the right-wing pseudo-centrism of the current political regime already represents a synthesis of the dominant economic liberalism and the identitarian retreat advocated by groups like NA. The outrageous rivalry observed recently between the Coalition Avenir Québec and the Parti Québécois on various immigration-related issues (generally reduced to thresholds and “reception capacity”) suggests that the current context is particularly conducive to this drift.[xi]

 

And what is this so-called new alliance actually proposing?

NA says it wants to achieve independence as soon as possible before defining a democratic project for an independent Québec, instead of first defining a project and then achieving it democratically. In other words: let’s become independent today, and the process will itself take care of defining what that will mean in concrete terms. The kind of country these gentlemen aspire to create can be inferred from their influences, their parentage, the environment in which they operate and, last but not least, the positions the organization more or less openly espouses.

When it comes to immigration and the future composition of Québec society, the matter is settled. The identitarian nationalism advanced by Nouvelle Alliance explicitly asserts a right of priority and national superiority for Québec’s historic French-Canadian majority. From its recent paranoid video, which recycles the age-old nationalist demand for the repatriation of “full powers” over immigration, we understand that the group is, in fact, implicitly campaigning for a drastic reduction in immigration to preserve the demographic predominance of this historic majority. In the event that such a political organization, or another formation inspired by it, were to impose its program, it goes without saying that it would take drastic measures to restrict immigration generally, or even halt it altogether, with all the implied consequences.

[On January 25, Québec passed the nine million mark in population. Let’s be clear, this population increase is far from being a second baby boom. For too long, Canada has sought to achieve its post-national utopia through ever more intense immigration.

Despite assurances to the contrary from Ottawa, it is indeed the implementation of the “Century Initiative” plans that are before us: to make Canada a country of one hundred million inhabitants by 2100.

Canada’s political, economic, and media elites aim to move beyond the nation-state to become the first country without identitarian attachments.

While this is the primary aim of mass immigration, it conceals a second aim: to reduce our demographic weight and our political influence, in order to put an end to our national demands. This tactic is not new. It is directly inherited from the Durham Report: dilute an unsubmissive population by replacing it with another that will be loyal to the regime. A trick as old as the hills. A cold Machiavellian calculation. Don’t kid yourself: demographics make history. Our numbers are our strength.

What about Québec’s cultural future? What will become of the French-Canadian majority? If nothing is done to reverse the trend, there will be no turning back. We will become a minority in the land of our fathers, as a veritable submersion is taking place before our very eyes.

Our generation must have the courage to identify the reality that we see, constructively and without hatred, with the numbers to back up what we’re saying.

We do this from a sense of civic duty, but also to leave our children a place they can call home.

It’s not a question of condemning people who have recently arrived in Québec. What we are denouncing is immigrationism as a socioeconomic development model and those who use it as a political tool.

If we want full control over our borders and immigration policies, there’s only one solution: Québec independence now, while there’s still time.]

NA is part of the long history of recriminations against the federal government in matters of immigration and willingly adopts the conspiracy theory that an evil Canada is “flooding” Québec with “regime-loyal” immigrants to stifle the Québec people’s aspirations for political sovereignty. When an organization starts talking publicly about “submersion” and “migratory subversion,” it’s only makes sense to at least acknowledge its kinship with far-right movements.

On the socioeconomic front, whatever NA militants may think, there are absolutely irreconcilable differences between “left” and “right” visions and an infinite number of possible nuances in between. It goes without saying that before placing one’s trust in a marginal collection of nationalist gentlemen with their hair combed on the side, we’d like to know where they really stand when it comes to the production and distribution of wealth, economic relations, social solidarity and safeguards, labour relations, and so on. Beyond the clichés about evil English bankers, there’s nothing to suggest that NA envisions a post-capitalist future for an independent Québec, and if its socioeconomic approach is based from the outset on class collaboration to achieve independence, it’s a safe bet that its version of a sovereign Québec is one where class relations will remain intact.

In terms of decolonization, NA says nothing about the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, and even less about its precedence over Québec sovereignty. No social project in North America can proceed without in-depth reflection on decolonization, the restitution of territory, the reconciliation of peoples, and the authentic healing of generational trauma. Québec nationalist movements—generally quick to portray Québec as a victim rather than an agent of colonialism—have more often than not shown contempt for Aboriginal claims or, at best, symbolic considerations rarely matched by concrete action. In our view, addressing decolonization is an absolute priority, not a secondary issue.

On the ecological question, a similar vagueness prevails. NA’s vision of an ecological future for Québec, if they have one, could easily be used as a pretext to refocus the anti-immigration concerns of the far right and ecofascist currents.

In terms of gender equity, Nouvelle Alliance also offers reason for concern. Women are largely absent from their actions (apart from in token form for photos), and those known to be linked to the organization display far-right positions (see below). This gender imbalance undoubtedly has to do with the group’s off-putting presentation but also perhaps with the additional reproductive pressure placed on the women of the majority population, the compulsion for “demographic rearmament,” which is an obvious corollary of identitarian withdrawal and anti-immigration rhetoric.

These are just a few of the essential considerations that need to be addressed in depth before we start talking about an independence project, not after. All the more so if those who today present themselves as the separatist vanguard already display reactionary tendencies bordering on ethnic withdrawal and rejection of diversity.

Who are the main Nouvelle Alliance militants?

Montréal Chapter

The Montréal chapter was the first to be created and is the largest if photos of the various actions and events are anything to go by.

François Gervais
https://www.facebook.com/033w552222
https://instagram.com/f.e.gervais

François Gervais first appeared on our radar when he showed up with his friend Suleyman Ennakhili at the big climate protest on September 27, 2019, waving a Carillon Sacré-Coeur flag (sacred emblem of reactionary nationalism). Both were then members of the now-defunct Front canadien-français (FCF). Young Gervais also signed the “Manifeste contre le dogmatisme universitaire” [Manifesto against University Dogmatism] as a student of History and Civilization at Cégep Lionel-Groulx. We suspect that he was the one putting up FCF stickers in Sainte-Thérése at the time.

If his signature on this April 2021 open letter is anything to go by, he was, at that time, the “youth representative” for Mirabel of the Comité national des jeunes du Parti Québécois (CNJPQ).

From a simple member of the FCF, we’ve seen him grow in stature and influence. Since the days of the FCF, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Indeed, François Gervais can be considered the main architect of Nouvelle Alliance. In any case, he is its “president,” spokesman and main public figure. Present at most activities, he seems to imagine himself as the great helmsman leading his men to immortal glory. The core of the organization revolves around his band of North Shore friends, some of whom he met in his native Pointe-Calumet area, others from his Cégep Lionel-Groulx days in Sainte-Thérèse, and later from the brown fringe of the sovereigntist movement. Today, he is said to be studying at the Université de Montréal and still living with his mom and dad in the Pointe-Calumet area.

Anecdotally, but of interest given the theatrical nature of his character and his project, Gervais has a background as a child actor. Indeed, it’s sometimes difficult to concentrate on NA’s political message without being completely distracted by their cosplay of retrograde self-important big-man masculinity. The main question we have about Gervais, however, remains: What could “little Loïc” have done to his vocal cords to make this stentorian voice fit into this pipsqueak frame? What do you think?

 

 

Suleyman Ennakhili
https://www.facebook.com/lagaffe.gean
https://www.instagram.com/patriote.actuel/

Another former Front canadien-français member, he hails from Pointe-Calumet and is often seen in the company of François Gervais. He studied at Lionel-Groulx CEGEP until at least April 2023.

In 2020, we wrote about him: “Besides participating in FCF actions, we’ve seen him sporting the Carillon-Sacré Coeur on two occasions: at the Islamophobic Vague bleue demonstration in Montréal on May 4, 2019 (ironically, standing behind the national-populists’ pro-secularism banner) and at the mass climate march on September 27, 2019. Originally from Pointe-Calumet, he may well be behind the appearance of FCF stickers at Saint-Joseph-du-Lac.”

 

Jean-Philippe Desjardins Warren
https://www.facebook.com/harfanglaurentien
https://www.instagram.com/penseeslaurentiennes/
https://www.instagram.com/harfang_bleu/
https://www.facebook.com/penseeslaurentiennes/

An alumnus of the FCF, he was one of François Gervais’s small band behind the Nouvelle Alliance project.

In 2020, we wrote: “Longueuil resident and history student at UQAM, this relative of Jason McNicoll Leblanc is no stranger to us. A former member of the punk scene, he spent some time in Montréal’s underground scene while studying at the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal. Earlier this year, he signed the ‘Manifeste contre le dogmatisme universitaire’ [Manifesto against University Dogmatism] before taking part in FCF actions. He is also said to be involved with the Youth Council of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste. He has since written a brochure on patriots for Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval.”

Since then, the picture has become even darker. Jean-Philippe is now the most far-right member of Nouvelle Alliance. Take, for example, this photo of him wearing a t-shirt from the ultraconservative Académia Christiana (currently being forcibly dissolved by the French government).

He lives on Montréal’s South Shore. At the time of writing, he is still pursuing a master’s in history at UQAM. He probably administers “Pensées Laurentiennes” Facebook and Instagram accounts.

 

 

Zachary Ouimet
https://www.facebook.com/zachary.ouimet.75
https://www.instagram.com/zach_ouimet/

A loyal follower of François Gervais, he can often be seen at Nouvelle Alliance events.

 

 

Elliot Labrie Laplante
https://www.facebook.com/elliot.labrielaplante
https://www.instagram.com/elliot_l.l/

Another FCF veteran and François Gervais follower. He comes from Sainte-Thérèse and would have studied at Lionel-Groulx. He is not particularly courageous in his encounters with anti-racist activists.

 

 

Jeremy Racicot
https://www.instagram.com/j.racicot07/
https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.racicot.5

Also a former member of the FCF, he studies at Université de Montréal.

 

Left-wing recruits

JF Carrier
https://www.facebook.com/naila.chidiac
https://www.instagram.com/carrier.jf/

One of the “left-wing” recruits, he’s also the only member (well) over thirty. JF is a member of the folk group Makinaw. We confess to having trouble understanding what he’s doing here. Likely attracted by the nationalist zeal of these young activists, he seems to be in the throes of cognitive dissonance, since on a Saturday he can be spotted at an anti-fascist punk show by the band Les Sheriffs, and the next day, seen demonstrating against “migratory submersion” with the little racists of Nouvelle Alliance. He lives in Beloeil.

 

Émile Coderre
https://www.facebook.com/emile.coderre
https://instagram.com/fourchette_de_bishou

Émile Coderre is originally from Saint-Germain-de-Grantham, near Drummondville. In 2014, he entered Cégep de Drummondville in Accounting and Management and got involved with his student association (AGECD) in 2015, after running for the Green Party of Canada in the Drummond riding in the federal election that year. He also became involved with ASSÉ, on the Comité Régional Anti-Montréalocentrisme for a few months, attending various national meetings of the association. In 2016, he became a member of the SITT-IWW and was present at the creation of the Drummondville branch of the IWW in 2017. From 2016 to 2019, Émile took part in a wide range of anti-fascist, trade union, and left-wing demonstrations and events.

From the very beginning of his involvement with AGECD, some of his behaviour were problematic (reimbursement fraud, anti-union behaviour towards the association’s employee, lack of respect and consideration, and controlling behaviour toward his romantic partners and women in general), which created distance between him and most of his comrades at the time. In 2019, he was reported for sexual assault, harassment, and rape by at least two people. This development marked a turning point. Then, in 2022, we learned that he had gravitated to Nouvelle Alliance, with whom he appeared in public several times thereafter. He is currently involved with the Parti Québécois in the Centre-du-Québec region. In March 2024, he took part in the PQ’s sovereigntist karaoke in the Johnson riding, along with the very vocal François Gervais, at Drummondville’s La Sainte-Paix bar (https://www.facebook.com/reel/418171334059616).

Last we heard, he still lives in Drummondville.

 

Audrey Gariepy

A former member of the Libertad anarchist collective at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, she now rejects feminism and “modernity.” Beginning in 2021, she began making street art with a royalist and Duplessis-type flavor. Her sticker with anti-fascist flags marked with the text “Maîtres chez nous” [masters in our own house] is a good example of her already somewhat disjointed discourse at the time.

Increasingly, she has opposed feminism for depriving women of free choice (to raise children, for example), whereas it is retrograde Duplessis-type policies that actually seek to deprive women of rights and freedom of choice (to raise children or not or to have access to abortion, for example). Her turn to the far right continues, with a clear affinity for racist and transphobic groups such as the Collectif Némésis in France.

She is often the only woman in the Nouvelle Alliance entourage at their events.

 

Sherbrooke chapter

 

Étienne Amyot
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.barrast.9
https://www.instagram.com/ebamtvt/

Leader and public face of the Sherbrooke chapter, founded in February 2023.

 

 

Aymerik Laroche
https://www.facebook.com/aymerik.laroche
https://www.instagram.com/aymer_vlql1967/
https://twitter.com/aymeriklaroche?lang=fr

Appears to be living in Sherbrooke at present. Works at Centre d’aspirateur M&R.

 

 

Aurélien Nambride
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004930606082
https://www.instagram.com/aurelien.nambride/

Nambride, originally from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, is in charge of Rassemblement National (FN) Jeunesse-Canada. He is currently studying at the Université de Sherbrooke. He openly supports far-right political parties in Europe, such as the AfD (Alternative for Germany), a party notorious for its racism, xenophobia, and multiple links with neo-Nazism.

Nambride created controversy by attending the Parti Québécois youth convention, where he presented himself as a representative of Rassemblement National Canada. Nevertheless, he said he was “pleasantly surprised by the sympathy and welcome of party members. Some of them are personal friends.” His image even appeared on the Parti Québécois National Youth Committee’s Instagram. The PQ doesn’t seem to have taken note of the many calls to disassociate themselves from Nambride.

 

On peut voir Nambride à son plus transparent dans les captures d’écran ci-dessous, où il déborde de joie en raison du score de l’AfD aux dernières élections régionales. Un parti de gens « prêts à défendre cette Europe des nations face à l’immigration ».

 

 Québec City chapter

Alexis Gauthier
https://www.instagram.com/goath13r/
https://www.facebook.com/alexis.gauthier.988

A student at Université Laval from Gaspé who recently arrived in Québec City, he does not have a far-right background and, to his credit, seems to have recently distanced himself from the group. He posted photos of the Québec City chapter’s founding event on his IG. (The event took place at the Café au temps perdu on Myrand Avenue).

 

Émile Boudreau
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004657415506

A member of Nouvelle Alliance, this Québec City resident is also a member of the PQ. He is active in the CNJPQ and is a member of the Équipe Mener la charge, which is running for the PQ youth council.

He is twenty-three and has a bachelor’s degree in Applied Political Science. He was a youth representative on the Parti Québécois executive in the Montarville riding, then served as president of the PQ student association at the Université de Sherbrooke for two years. He also worked for Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval in his constituency office, and currently works for the Bloc Québécois. He’s running for the position of advisor to the CNJPQ, because he thinks it’s high time the youth wing led the charge in rebuilding a great sovereigntist coalition that runs from left to right. As the PQ has risen in the polls, Émile seems to have taken distance from Nouvelle Alliance, perhaps in the hope of a career with the PQ.

 

Morgane Gauvin
https://www.facebook.com/ida.marie.de.lantagnac

Her alias “Ida marie de Lantagnac” has been familiar to us since the founding of Montréal Antifasciste in 2017. In 2018, she made a name for herself in the orbit of the antisemitic duo DMS. She is beginning a master’s degree, after completing a bachelor’s in Historical Sciences and Heritage Studies. She is a teaching assistant in Heritage Studies at Université Laval.

C’est avant tout une militante du clavier, qui fricote avec Nouvelle Alliance, dont elle prétend être l’une des fondatrices. Elle a participé à une action de graffitis stencils à Québec avec NA (photo sur son IG). Fait à noter, elle fréquente un certain Pierre Courcol, militant identitaire français qui s’est impliqué au Rassemblement National et au sein de la Cocarde étudiante.

 

Conclusion

Whatever its militants may say, this so-called Nouvelle Alliance is a frontal attack on immigrant populations, people with immigrant background, refugees, asylum seekers and their families, and all those in Québec who hold an inclusive and egalitarian vision of coexistence.

We can’t in good conscience let this organization infiltrate our spaces with its toxic rhetoric, and we need to be particularly vigilant about its attempts to recruit in higher education establishments. It has already begun organizing leafleting sessions at the Université de Montréal and has been increasing its visibility by putting up posters and stickers around the university and elsewhere in Montréal, Québec City, and other localities.

It’s high time the anti-fascist community stood up to this new reactionary alliance.

 

 

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Appendix

Voici une liste non exhaustive des actions du groupe jusqu’à présent, en ordre chronologique :

• March 26, 2022—the group is founded in Montréal.
• May 21, 2022—wreath-laying at the Monument aux patriotes, group photo, and participation in the march for Bill 101.
• August 20, 2022—alteration of Town of Mount Royal “STOP” signs with “ARRÊT” stickers. This action created initial public awareness of the organization, as it generated a lot of Instagram interaction and several newspaper articles, as well as an interview on QUB radio.
• October 15, 2022—“Je suis séparatiste” banner drop on the Décarie Expressway.
• November 26, 2022—rally/march in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu in honour of the Patriotes.
• January 21, 2023—gathering at Nelson Column to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Québec flag.
• January 24, 2023—postering campaign in Montréal in honour of Samuel de Champlain.
• February 15, 2023—symbolic “hanging” of five effigies near the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to commemorate the execution of Patriotes on February 15, 1839.
• February 25, 2023—founding of the Sherbrooke chapter.
• March 30, 2023—leafleting action at the Université de Sherbrooke.
• April 23, 2023—hanging of a “Gouverner ou disparaître” [govern of disappear] banner, accompanied with Québec flags and smoke bombs, on McGill University’s Pollack Concert Hall in the middle of the day.
• April 27, 2023—leafleting action at Université de Sherbrooke.
• May 2–3, 2023—tags in Québec City and Montréal (the one in Québec City leads to a three-team “tag war” involving NA, Québec Antifasciste, and Patriotes antifascistes).
• May 22, 2023—National Patriots’ Day demonstration.
• July 1, 2023—hanging of a “Frontière international–Québec libre” [international border—free Québec] banner on the bridge linking Gatineau and Ottawa. Banners hung in Montréal, Québec City, and Sherbrooke.
• July 12, 2023—“Arrêt” stickers affixed to “STOP” signs and “Bill 101” stickers posted in Lennoxville. This action generates a feature in the far-right magazine Causeur.
• July 24, 2023—hanging of a “5 siècles de haut” banner on the Jacques-Cartier cross in Gaspé, to celebrate the 489th anniversary of colonization. (Quickly taken down by our comrades in the Brume noire network).
• July 30, 2023—Québec City chapter founded.
• August 2023—several members, including Aurélien Nambride, attend the biennial convention of the Parti Québécois national youth committee. NA’s presence irritates many PQ members but is tolerated.
• August 22, 2023—postering campaign in memory of Louis Hébert, Québec’s first settler, with the slogan “Maîtres chez nous” [masters in our own house].
• September 10, 2023—tribute to Montcalm, with torches and Québec flags. Their most “fascist”-coded action to date.
• September 23, 2023—Nouvelle Alliance makes an appearance at the big Front Commun union demonstration. (They get a bit roughed up and removed from the demonstration by anti-fascist comrades).
• September 30, 2023—“Le français ma culture, l’anglais la rupture” [French my culture, English a disruption] banner hung at Cégep Garneau in Québec City.
• November 25, 2023—march to celebrate the Patriotes’ victory in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu.
• November 30, 2023—leafletting action at Université de Montréal.
• December 10, 2023—participation in a march organized by the SSJB in tribute of the Patriotes in Saint-Eustache.
• January 21, 2024—Québec flag attached to Nelson Column to celebrate the seventy-sixth anniversary of the Québec flag.
• February 16, 2024—demonstration and unfurling of a “Subversion migratoire” [migratory subversion] banner outside the office of Canadian minister of immigration Marc Miller.
• February 20, 2024—a video deploring the “dangers of immigration” to Québec is posted online (see transcript above).
• March 18, 2024—“Projection politique” in Québec City; luminous projection of various pro-independence messages.
• April 24, 2024—conference entitled “S’armer d’impatience” [arm yourself with impatience] at Le Livre Voyageur bookstore in Montréal, supporting the Chevaliers de l’indépendance and the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois (RRQ).
• May 20, 2024 (planned)— Journée nationale des patriotes [National Patriots’ Day] march from the Dollard des Ormeaux statue in Parc Lafontaine to Carré Saint-Louis to join the SSJB’s annual event.

 

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[i]               Barbeau and the Alliance Laurentienne cultivated a sympathy for fascist movements, maintained a correspondence with the neo-Nazi Adrien Arcand, and included members of the latter’s political party, the PUNC. Barbeau founded “Clubs Laurentie” throughout the province, published the magazine Laurentie, and aspired to turn Québec into the Republic of Laurentie. https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/mensaf/2003-v3-n2-mensaf01359/1024646ar.pdf

[ii]               See appendix A, above.

[iii]              This posture is widespread among contemporary fascists, including the main thinker of the French New Right, Alain De Benoist, who would have us believe that the left-right duality is a thing of the past!

[iv]              Mathieu Bock-Côté, Le Totalitarisme sans le goulag, Les Presses de la Cité, 2023.

[v]               Here, MBC conflates socially progressive liberal positions with the revolutionary and internationalist values of the radical left, as if the latter had some influence today on the dominant political, economic and cultural institutions. It’s another form of sophistry that’s very common among far-right ideologues.

[vi]              Ibid. p 35.

[vii]             Ibid. p 71.

[viii]             During the presidential election campaign, the leader of the Reconquête party, Eric Zemmour, promised “zéro immigration” and MBC lamented that this politician should be associated with the “far right”!

[ix]              With the possible exception of the RRQ, which made no explicit mention of this in its manifesto (2008), a fact criticized by the Fédération des Québécois de souche at the time.

[x]              MBC regularly denounces identitarian goons, and, in return, Atalante boneheads have criticized him for being an armchair identitarian! At an MBC event in Québec City, Atalante distributed a flyer that read “La renaissance identitaire se fait par l’action et NON dans des dîners de galas!” [identitarian renaissance is a matter of action, NOT gala dinners!]. On Facebook, the group posted this comment on the occasion of the event: “Mathieu Bock-Côté, sociologue et essayiste, qui pleurniche régulièrement sur la déchéance identitaire au Québec, mais qui est aussi le premier à cracher sur les initiatives qui répondent à l’appel, a eu droit à de cordiales salutations de la part de nos militants, que monsieur qualifiait dernièrement de : “bizarroïdes”, “folkloriques”, “caricaturaux” et “pelés”. […] Nous n’avons qu’un message à lancer! La renaissance identitaire se fait par l’action et NON dans des dîners de gala! Pourtant, c’est dommage, nous qui vous apprécions bien, M. Bock-Côté.” [Mathieu Bock-Côté, sociologist and essayist, who regularly whines about the loss of identity in Québec, but who is also the first to spit on initiatives that answer the call, received cordial greetings from our militants, whom he recently described as: “bizarre,” “folkloric,” “caricatures,” and “flakes”. . . . We have only one message to send! Identitarian renaissance is a matter of action, NOT gala dinners! It’s a shame, though, because we like you, Mr. Bock-Côté.] See Isabelle Porter, “L’extrême droite de Québec sort de l’ombre,” Le Devoir, February 2, 2017; and  https://montreal-antifasciste.info/en/2018/12/19/unmasking-atalante/.

[xi]              Last February, for example, François Legault announced his intention to challenge at the Supreme Court access to CPEs for asylum-seeking youth, relying on “common sense” that is basically a manifestation of the national preference theorized by the French far right. The same week, the CAQ government claimed that Québec’s identity is threatened by asylum seekers, and François Legault continues to call (unsuccessfully) for the repatriation of all immigration powers. The PQ, for its part, demands a moratorium on temporary immigration, publicly raises the spectre of Québec’s demise, and spouts rhetoric eerily similar to that of Nouvelle Alliance on the need for the left and right to unite around the essentials to achieve independence as soon as possible. Both parties are now in favor of a referendum on immigration, a risky initiative that would inevitably further divide Québec society and increase the marginalization of the migrant populations at the heart of this conflict.

 

 

BONUS TRACK, JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT, LOL