A researcher in “critical far-right studies” and “countering violent extremism” has produced a study “explicitly focused” on such issues as pertains to southern Alberta. Dr. Amy Mack has traced “far-right extremism” in southern Alberta back to the Coutts border blockade, a group of locals who refused to comply with COVID-19 mandates in 2022 during the time of the Ottawa Freedom Convoy made attempts to block/slow down the border to the US nearby Coutts. She also worked to categorize Christians who do not believe in gay marriage or who opposed the COVID-19 mandates as “extreme.”Mack in her study “explicitly focused on rural southern Alberta,” specifically in the area of Coutts, and the convergence of right wing thinking with online radicalization, she told the Taber Times. Mack, who hails from Claresholm in southern Alberta but is currently located in Norway working for the Centre for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo, has a background in “digital ethnographic research of white supremacist movements in Canada in online spaces” and “cultural anthropology.” She currently serves as co-director of Research at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies. Further, the University of Lethbridge Alumni Association named Mack the 2023 Young Alumni of the Year. “If we want to prevent or counter extremism and radicalization in Canada, we need to understand the socio-political and economic conditions that make these processes more likely, and rural spaces have historically been a big part of this conversation,” said Mack. Despite her extensive background in the field of “far-right extremism” and multiple awards and grants, Mack can still not quite define what in fact “extremism” is. “As soon as you come up with a concrete definition, you find that many things that appear to be extremist in nature are outside of it. Then, when you expand the definition to include those things, you find that the definition is so broad it becomes useless,” said the researcher. “But if I had to give something that approximates a definition, I would say it’s beliefs and actions that significantly stray from the mainstream understanding of social norms.” “Who defines mainstream? What I consider normal and acceptable might be ‘extremely’ different than what my grandmother does, right? Similarly, what is considered a social norm changes over time. Many things that were extreme a century ago—say women voting or gay marriage—are generally considered normal,” Mack philosophized. “I see a lot in my work, is the “mainstreaming” of what were extreme right views even a decade ago. So, it works both ways.” One example Mack offers on the encroaching of “extreme” values into “mainstream” thinking are Bible-believing Christians who have conflicting “points of convergence” in what she calls religion and extremism. “A space which has normalized … the idea that maybe women shouldn’t have reproductive freedoms or that we shouldn’t have gay marriage, might be more inclined towards extremist movements that espouse similar messaging. It’s about the points of convergence (…) historically, the far-right has upheld conservative interpretations of Christianity to guide their thoughts on women and queer rights,” Mack asserted. “We have a few denominations locally who have been quite vocal in their opposition to vaccinations. This absolutely contributed to the protests against the COVID 19 mandates as well as the stories we tell about those who are on trial. Are they ideologically motivated violent extremists, as the Crown is arguing, or are they martyrs who stood up to government overreach that contradicts the will of God? Who you trust influences which story you believe, and despite the moves towards secularism, many people in southern Alberta still get their politics from the pulpit.”
A researcher in “critical far-right studies” and “countering violent extremism” has produced a study “explicitly focused” on such issues as pertains to southern Alberta. Dr. Amy Mack has traced “far-right extremism” in southern Alberta back to the Coutts border blockade, a group of locals who refused to comply with COVID-19 mandates in 2022 during the time of the Ottawa Freedom Convoy made attempts to block/slow down the border to the US nearby Coutts. She also worked to categorize Christians who do not believe in gay marriage or who opposed the COVID-19 mandates as “extreme.”Mack in her study “explicitly focused on rural southern Alberta,” specifically in the area of Coutts, and the convergence of right wing thinking with online radicalization, she told the Taber Times. Mack, who hails from Claresholm in southern Alberta but is currently located in Norway working for the Centre for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo, has a background in “digital ethnographic research of white supremacist movements in Canada in online spaces” and “cultural anthropology.” She currently serves as co-director of Research at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies. Further, the University of Lethbridge Alumni Association named Mack the 2023 Young Alumni of the Year. “If we want to prevent or counter extremism and radicalization in Canada, we need to understand the socio-political and economic conditions that make these processes more likely, and rural spaces have historically been a big part of this conversation,” said Mack. Despite her extensive background in the field of “far-right extremism” and multiple awards and grants, Mack can still not quite define what in fact “extremism” is. “As soon as you come up with a concrete definition, you find that many things that appear to be extremist in nature are outside of it. Then, when you expand the definition to include those things, you find that the definition is so broad it becomes useless,” said the researcher. “But if I had to give something that approximates a definition, I would say it’s beliefs and actions that significantly stray from the mainstream understanding of social norms.” “Who defines mainstream? What I consider normal and acceptable might be ‘extremely’ different than what my grandmother does, right? Similarly, what is considered a social norm changes over time. Many things that were extreme a century ago—say women voting or gay marriage—are generally considered normal,” Mack philosophized. “I see a lot in my work, is the “mainstreaming” of what were extreme right views even a decade ago. So, it works both ways.” One example Mack offers on the encroaching of “extreme” values into “mainstream” thinking are Bible-believing Christians who have conflicting “points of convergence” in what she calls religion and extremism. “A space which has normalized … the idea that maybe women shouldn’t have reproductive freedoms or that we shouldn’t have gay marriage, might be more inclined towards extremist movements that espouse similar messaging. It’s about the points of convergence (…) historically, the far-right has upheld conservative interpretations of Christianity to guide their thoughts on women and queer rights,” Mack asserted. “We have a few denominations locally who have been quite vocal in their opposition to vaccinations. This absolutely contributed to the protests against the COVID 19 mandates as well as the stories we tell about those who are on trial. Are they ideologically motivated violent extremists, as the Crown is arguing, or are they martyrs who stood up to government overreach that contradicts the will of God? Who you trust influences which story you believe, and despite the moves towards secularism, many people in southern Alberta still get their politics from the pulpit.”
