Canada rights organisations urge PM to dismantle far-right groups

Canadian anti-racism and civil liberties organisations have urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to establish a national action plan to dismantle 300 far-right and white supremacist groups operating in Canada. The open letter, published on Monday by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and signed by Amnesty International and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) among others, follows the murder of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis outside of a Toronto mosque on September 12. Police say Zafis, the caretaker of the mosque, was sitting in a chair when a suspect walked up to him and stabbed him in the neck. Guilherme (William) von Neutegem, 34, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The mosque has called for the killing to be investigated as a hate crime and the Toronto police were considering such a move, according to Canadian media reports. CAHN said von Neutegem’s social media accounts appear to show that he is connected to racist and Nazi-inspired occult movements. “This attack did not happen in isolation. This attack is one in a long series of a chain of horrifying attacks on racialised communities in Canada,” the letter said. “Canadians, whether from Indigenous, Black, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Christian or other faith and racialised communities have faced attacks on our homes, our places of worship, and our congregants at the hands of white supremacist organisations. “We are calling on the federal government to establish a national action plan on dismantling white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups … ” style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">