Members of Canada’s parliament have agreed to call on the federal Liberal government to formally designate the Proud Boys a terrorist entity.
The motion, introduced by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh passed with unanimous consent in the House of Commons on Monday.
The motion calls upon the government to “use all available tools to address the proliferation of white supremacists and hate groups starting with the immediately designating the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity.”
The NDP has for weeks been calling on Trudeau and the Liberals to “immediately ban and designate the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.”
The move comes after thousands of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, leaving dozens injured and five people, including one police officer, dead.
Members of the Proud Boys were reportedly present during the riot.
The federal government said it is considering designating the group as a terrorist entity.
“As Minister Blair has said, we strongly denounce ‘ideologically motivated extremists including groups like the Proud Boys, white supremacists, anti-Semitics, Islamaphobic and misogynist groups,’” Mary-Liz Power, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told Global News earlier this month. “Intolerance and hate have no place in our society.”
Power said national security and law enforcement agencies are “very actively engaged in monitoring the activities of these groups, and gathering the evidence required to support a determination of listing as a Terrorist Organization.”
Now that the motion has passed, the federal government would need to formally add them to the long list of terrorist entities.
If the Proud Boys are designated as a terrorist entity, the group would be joining a long list of other organizations including the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Islamic State.
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