2023-06 Halifax Hate Rally

Rally against the "The Gender Agenda BBQ & Rally" which was organized by Action4Canada, the PPC, People's Party of Canada, and Save Canada.

Action 4 Canada is a Christian fundamentalist group. They are opposed to legal abortion, against legal recreational cannabis, deny climate change, and promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. The group has been in the news this year for their attempts to have books banned from schools for portraying queer characters, including books that contain no sexual content.

Save Canada is a Christian Nationalist organization which primarily aims to recruit young people. They are closely tied to white nationalist Jeremy Mackenzie (of Diagolon), who has appeared regularly in “Save Canada”-branded clothing. They have also collaborated in demonstrations with the racist “White Lives Matter” group, and members of the defunct neo-Nazi Canadian Nationalist Party. Their activities have included demonstrations at high schools in Ontario targeting transgender teenagers, and participation in rallies opposing legal abortion.1

There is an article about the pushback against the hate rally in Wayves, here.

On June 5, 2023, there was a posting that the BBQ & Rally had gone ahead at the Austenville Owls Club in Dartmouth2 however this may have been confused with one of the groups' AGMs the day before.

On June 30, 2023, AndrewQuon? posted to Facebook:

Calling all folks who care about gender expansiveness, bodily autonomy, and queer safety in public spaces (ie. parks)...

THIS SUNDAY JUNE 4th 1-3PM, please come out to Sullivan's Pond in downtown Dartmouth with some friends to hang out with your own picnic and music instruments to DROWN OUT HATE SPEECH which will be happening in the form of a BBQ and rally being put on by the fascist entities known as Action4Canada, PPC, and Save Canada. This CANNOT be an organized protest (EDIT: YES IT CAN - see notes below), but you can show up on your own as you see fit.

Here's what I've confirmed:

• This event did go through official HRM channels and does have a permit to use the powered bandstand for their speech and BBQ.
• A woman does have the bandstand booked for her own event (likely a wedding) just prior to the BBQ/rally, so it's important not to impede on her booking if you show up early.
• In talking with the permits contact at HRM, gathering to block the event from happening could result in fines due to us not having a permit and interfering with their permitted event, so it's important to just show up by yourself (EDIT: don't go alone - see comment below) , or with a small group of friends to have your own independent picnic and jam session close by the bandstand. EDIT: Sam Austin has made it clear that we have a fundamental right to protest, and therefore organize, and HRM would not ticket for such a thing. He will talk to the director of HRM permits to educate their employees to not relay inaccurate information.
• If there's enough people with musical instruments, I'm sure the speech can be drowned out even with space between folks and the event!
• Claudia Chender (MLA) and Sam Austin (District 5 councilor) are both aware of the situation, and the police have been made aware of the event. If you aren't familiar with the PPC's just-announced anti-trans policies, you can read about them here.

Gender Affirming Care Nova Scotia Gender issued a statement strongly recommending against any kind of counter protest/

There are a couple posters from the organizers of the hate event here.