Some pipeline protests in Alberta are being derailed by hate groups: researcher

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – There has been a growing movement in the prairies with protests over a lack of pipelines in this country, but with those rallies comes a dangerous element. Extremist groups have been spotted at Yellow Vest movements across Western Canada.

A massive protest is expected to move all the way to Ottawa next month.

This is not just about pipeline protests, which Brad Galloway with the Organization for the Prevention of Violence, considers a legitimate idea to debate.

The other topics being brought up at some of these rallies, like immigration and the UN Migration Pact (which is both voluntary and non-binding), are some of the topics that attract white nationalist groups to these protests according to Galloway.

“The far-right often refers to this migrant crisis as ‘the destruction of the white race’ and things like this. It often becomes a prominent debate within these groups.”

Gallaway argues it’s hard to sway people’s minds when groups like The Soldiers of Odin or Blood and Honour are standing beside you.

“It’s hard to have a legitimate protest against things like a pipeline or these things that people should have a right to voice their opinion about and then this stuff gets overtaken by a far-right group that is looking for a platform.”

He believes one of the solutions for organizers of these rallies is to try and stick to one topic, in this case, pipelines.

“It really sort of takes the emphasis off of what they are trying to get accomplished by the protests and gives a platform to these other types of protesters.”

Some of those organizers we’ve spoken to have said they are trying to distance themselves from the Yellow Vest movement, and some of the other topics in order to keep attention on just pipelines.

The Yellow Vest movement started in France as a reaction to rising fuel costs, the cost of living, and a perceived overburden of tax revenue driven from the working class.

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