Pierre Poilievre Meets with Far-Right Extremist Group at Nova Scotia-New Brunswick Border

Canada’s leader of the official opposition pulled over on the side of a highway Tuesday evening and paid a surprise visit to a group of far-right extremists who have staged protests at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick border for the last three years.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was seen posing for selfies and giving pep talks to members of the group, which subscribes to a range of fringe conspiracies and extreme views, in livestream videos posted on social media.

The group has been camped out at the border for the last month purportedly to protest the carbon tax, however, the group is led by the same people who have been protesting at the interprovincial border since 2021 — originally to oppose public health orders.

Poilievre can be seen in the livestream video touring the group’s camp site, which consists of several vehicles draped in upside down maple leafs and “f*ck Trudeau” flags.

Source: T. Everett

Poilievre and his security detail entered one trailer where a number of the group’s members have been sleeping and eating food. The side of the trailer displays the signatures of far-right influencers associated with the Freedom Convoy and more recent anti-LGBTQ+ protests.

One man named “Dean” is seen opening the trunk of his car to show Poilievre a bundle of blankets and pillows where he sleeps each night.

“You close the trunk?” Poilievre asks. “How do you close the trunk when you’re in there?”

“I put the seat down,” Dean tells Poilievre.

“Oh, I see,” Poilievre replies.

Dean later asks Poilievre if he will pose for a photo next to his car draped in “f*ck Trudeau’ flags, but Poilievre suggests they “stand in front of something else.”

Source: T. Everett (Facebook)

Poilievre’s office did not respond to questions from PressProgress seeking to clarify how the leader of the opposition ended up at an extremist group’s camp site at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick border.

Poilievre posed for photos in Borden-Carleton, PEI on Tuesday and has another event scheduled in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on Wednesday.

In a livestream video, Poilievre tells the group he was driving from Prince Edward Island to Nova Scotia when he spotted the group on the side of the highway and asked his chauffeur to pull-over so he could get out and “say hello.”

“We were just going down the highway and we heard about you guys on the news,” Poilievre says. “We saw you, so I told the team to pull-over to say hello.”

One of the group’s leaders criticizes the “negative” attention the group has been receiving from the media, prompting Poilievre to reassure them that they enjoy wide support.

The person Poilievre was speaking with is Thomas Everett of Amherst, Nova Scotia, who has been a lead organizer of the protests at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick border since 2021.

“We started a Facebook group called ‘Support Open the NS/NB Border’,” Everett recalled in a 2021 video posted to YouTube. “We’ve been protesting weekly, every Sunday usually, sometimes on Saturdays, despite being served two injunctions by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.”

Everett’s spouse, Tasha, was named as the lead event organizer of the anti-public health order border blockades in court documents when the Province of Nova Scotia sought an injunction against the group.

Everett’s social media account shows he has frequently interacted with convoy figures, including Gordon Barry, the leader of the so-called “Save the Children Convoy,” a group that is driven by a confusing mix of far-right conspiracies and sovereign citizen beliefs which allegedly plotted to arrest politicians and police last year.

Barry has openly called for jailing politicians and replacing the government in speeches at the “Save the Children Convoy’s base camp, located in a farm field outside Ottawa.

The border protest organizer’s social media accounts also show he has served local police with lawsuits and posted a pseudolegal notice on the door of his home putting police, bylaw and public health officers “on notice” that they will be arrested if they enter his property.

Source: T. Everett (Facebook)

While the group purports to be concerned about the price of carbon, social media postings by Everett and other members of the group make clear that their understanding of carbon taxes is part of a broader system of conspiratorial beliefs about the UN and World Economic Forum.

Everett and other members of the group have also repeatedly posted content about “chemtrails” and unfounded claims that the government is deploying weather modification technology.

Source: Facebook

The group also appears to endorse more extreme far-right views.

One livestream image shows Poilievre standing next to the symbol of “Diagolon,” an online community revolving around a group of far-right extremist influencers which the Emergencies Act Inquiry noted law enforcement viewed as a “potentially dangerous organization.”.

In 2022, Poilievre sparked controversy after ignoring calls to disavow the support of the online extremist community when he himself took a photo with one of the lead influencers of “Diagolon,” an individual flagged as a threat by national security officials in a counterterrorism report.

A month later, the RCMP launched a criminal investigation after the same influencer later threatened to sexually assault Poilievre’s wife, Anaida Poilievre.

Some members of the group at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick have also shared photos of themselves at events with “Diagolon” influencers.

Sebastian Skamski, the Conservative leader’s spokesperson, did not respond to questions from PressProgress inquiring why Poilievre would associate with people who endorse this group.

Source: G. Daigle