National Citizens Alliance Alliance Nationale des Citoyens | |
|---|---|
| Former federal political party | |
 | |
| Abbreviation | NCA |
| Founder | Stephen Garvey |
| Founded | November 18, 2014 (2014-11-18) |
| Dissolved | February 28, 2023 (2023-02-28) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheNational Citizens Alliance[a] (French:Alliance Nationale des Citoyens) was a minor federal political party inCanada, registered withElections Canada from 2014 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2023. It was founded and led byperennial candidate Stephen Garvey, a proponent offar-right conspiracy theories. The party was described asalt-right,white nationalist, andIslamophobic.
The party was led by Stephen Garvey, a perennial candidate and advocate of far-right conspiracy theories. He believes in theGreat Replacement conspiracy theory and has asserted there is a deliberate plot to demographically replace European Canadians in Canada.[1][2] He was an associate of the anti-immigration group Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI) before publicly cutting ties with the group in June 2017.[3][4][5][6] He was the lead organizer of a March 2017 protest in Calgary againstMotion 103 (M-103), a non-binding resolution in the federalHouse of Commons which condemnedIslamophobia and all other forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.[7][8][9] Garvey dismisses the existence of Islamophobia as "complete nonsense ... created in the 1990s by theMuslim Brotherhood for the sole reason to silence criticism on Islam."[10]
Garvey was the spokesperson for a May 2017 protest inRed Deer, Alberta, which claimed that Syrian refugee students at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School were given more lenient punishments for participating in a fight than other students.[11] The allegations were false, as school officials and local police confirmed all eight students received the same punishment of suspension for one week.[12]
In June 2017, Garvey led a protest by his party against theCalgary City Council after it revoked the special event permit for the party's "Say No to Hate and Racism Festival", which the city council viewed as "anti-Muslim and Islamophobic" and other observers characterized as "anti-Islam".[5][13] Garvey and other party members attempted to hold another protest later that month but were disrupted byanti-fascist counter-protesters.[6]
In August 2019, Garvey was charged with offences under theCriminal Code andCanada Elections Act for providing false information to theChief Electoral Officer of Canada and circumventing election contribution limits.[14]
In September 2019, Garvey published a video of himself followingOntario MPPGurratan Singh aroundMuslimFest inMississauga and demanding to know if Singh supportedpolitical Islam.[15] Garvey was later escorted out of the event by security. Singh denounced the encounter as racist, while other politicians, including then prime ministerJustin Trudeau and federal opposition leaderAndrew Scheer, released statements condemning racism and discrimination in response to the video.[16]
The NCA was variously described asfar-right,[17][18][19][20]alt-right,[7][21]right-wing populist,[22]national conservative,[23]white nationalist,[24]anti-immigration,[3][17] andIslamophobic.[8][15] The party, however, asserted that it was "neither left nor right" because it adopted policies from both sides of thepolitical spectrum.[25]
The NCA described itself as "nationalist, pro-Canadian andanti-globalist".[26] The party's platform proposed amending theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to include the preservation ovpf "European-Canadian heritage".[27] As such, it supported the preservation ofQuebecois culture; however, it opposedQuebec independence and instead advocated for greater cooperation between the federal government and Quebec provincial government.[28] The party opposedmulticulturalism in Canada and proposed repealing theCanadian Multiculturalism Act.[29] It voiced opposition to the idea of apost-national state in particular.[30]
The NCA proposed reducingimmigration to Canada, arguing that the immigration was too high for proper screening and vetting. The party also proposed restricting or halting immigration from countries with "strong terrorist activities" or countries that, in the party's view, do not shareCanadian values. In addition, the party advocated for the deportation of allrefugee claimants who entered Canada through the United States as part of theSafe Third Country Agreement between the two countries.[31]
The NCA wassocially conservative. It proposed a ban on abortions after the first trimester (three months) of pregnancy.[32] It advocated the prohibition of "schools and any other relevant organizations / institutions from exposing children to indoctrination [on]sexual identity".[33] The party supported gun rights and described thefirearms regulation in Canada as excessive and ineffective.[34]
The party proposed stricter penalties foranimal cruelty and redefiningbestiality under the criminal code,[35] which prohibits thesexual penetration of animals by humans but not the other way around.[36]
Garvey is known for his outspoken support of far-right conspiracy theories, and in turn the party's platform reflected his beliefs. The NCA supported theGreat Replacement conspiracy theory and asserted there was a plot between "globalists" and "cultural Marxists" to replace European Canadians with "Third World immigrants".[1]Muslims andSikhs in particular were frequent targets of the party's anti-immigration rhetoric.[15] In early 2021, the NCA released a statement denouncing its coverage onWikipedia, claiming that "communists and Marxists" had been paid bymainstream media to spread misinformation about the party on the site.[37]
The NCA also supported variousanti-science conspiracy theories. It supported thechemtrail conspiracy theory and asserted the chemicals released were being used todeflect sunlight.[38] The party claimed that5G radio waves caused adverse health effects and 5G technology was being used by the federal government formass surveillance.[39] The partydid not accept thescientific consensus on climate change and dismissed it as "globalistalarmism".[40]
The party was first registered withElections Canada in August 2015 under the name Democratic Advancement Party of Canada (DAPC). As the DAPC, it fielded four candidates in the2015 federal election.[41] Garvey ran inCalgary Skyview and received 1.5% of the vote, Fahed Khalid received 0.17% of the vote inBow River, Max Veress received 0.33% of the vote inCalgary Forest Lawn, and Faizan Butt received 0.34% of the vote inCalgary Nose Hill. No candidate was elected.[42]
In January 2017, the DAPC renamed itself the National Advancement Party of Canada (NAPC). It ran two candidates under the new name in the Calgary by-elections of April 2017: Garvey was the candidate inCalgary Heritage (79 votes, 0.3%) and Kulbir Singh Chawla was the candidate inCalgary Midnapore (81 votes, 0.3%).[43] The NAPC voluntarily deregistered itself on December 31, 2017.[44]
Garvey reregistered the party in January 2019 under its third and final name, the National Citizens Alliance (NCA). The NCA four candidates in the2019 federal election and received 510 votes overall.[45] It voluntarily deregistered itself once again on February 28, 2023.[46]
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | Position | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Stephen Garvey | 1,187 | 0.01 | 0 / 338 |  | 15th | No seats |
| 2019 | Stephen Garvey | 510 | 0.00 | 0 / 338 | |  19th | No seats |
| 2021 | Stephen Garvey | 476 | 0.00 | 0 / 338 | | 19th | No seats |
Garvey warns that 'sustained immigration' is causing the replacement of white Canadians with 'Third World' immigrants. But in speaking withSaltWire, Garvey categorically denied being a white supremacist and blamed his reputation as such on a 'cultural Marxist' smear campaign.
Stephen Garvey, a member of the anti-immigration group Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, said the intent of the protest was to raise awareness about the need to protect 'Canadian culture' in schools.
Garvey suggests his event was punished because of his previous association with the World Wide [sic] Coalition Against Islam through their shared opposition to Sharia Law.
'This whole thing of Islamophobia is complete nonsense, as far as we are concerned,' Garvey said. 'It was created in the 1990s by the Muslim Brotherhood for the sole reason to silence criticism on Islam.'
School officials and the RCMP said four Canadian students and four Syrian students who had been involved in a fight had all been suspended for a week from school.
The far-right, anti-immigration group, which is a federally registered party, had originally planned to hold an event at Branch 69 of the Royal Canadian Legion on Friday which was later cancelled.
The mayor of Saint John was among those who showed up to protest, when members of a far-right political party showed up at City Hall on Friday.
The National Citizens Alliance (NCA), a far-right group based in Calgary, Alta., held a "Canadians First Rally" and were quickly surrounded by counterprotestors.
Dozens of tourists took photographs of the far-right participants, many waving Canadian and Quebec flags.
We support Canadian nationalism over globalism. We are pro-Canadian, anti-globalists.
Garvey's policies are decidedly anti-immigrant, and he speaks extensively about the need to preserve Canada's 'European heritage'. His platform calls for a change of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to include the preservation of European-Canadian heritage.
