Anti-women far-right mass murder in Canada

This 24 April 2018 video from the USA says about itself:

“Incel” Terrorists, Or “I Can’t Get Laid” Terrorists, Now A Thing

Reports from Canada say the suspect in the Toronto van attack made a reference to “Incel Rebellion” on Facebook. But what exactly is an “incel“?

Alek Minassian, 25, appeared in court on Tuesday, a day after a rental van struck pedestrians in the city, killing 10 and injuring 15.

Facebook confirmed to the BBC that Minassian was the author of a post which read in part: “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!” The post also contained a reference to the message board 4chan.

“Incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate” and in particular refers to online groups of men who feel that they can’t enter into sexual relationships. The attitudes of men who visit the boards vary widely, but online they frequently vent anger against sexually prolific men (“Chads”) and women (“Stacys”). More generally, incel forums often include rants aimed at feminism and women.

Read more here.

‘Raw hatred’: why the ‘incel’ movement targets and terrorises women. The man accused of carrying out the Toronto van attack has alleged links to ‘involuntary celibate’ online communities. The language they use may be absurd, but the threat they pose could be deadly: here.

By Toula Drimonis in Canada:

Toronto van attack

April 26, 2018 9:15 am

The Deadly History of Gender Violence in Canada

By now, most of North America has heard about Alek Minassian’s killing spree in Toronto on Tuesday, when he deliberately plowed his rented van into a crowd of pedestrians and killed ten people, most of whom were women. Police are still investigating the horrific attack, but much evidence points to the 25-year-old being motivated by misogynistic beliefs — held by “incels,” short for involuntary celibate, an online subculture of angry, sexually frustrated men who blame women for their lack of a sex life. Minassian is currently in police custody awaiting trial.

Since the horrific attack, many have expressed shock and dismay at the fact that something like this could happen in Canada — a relatively nonviolent country that experiences almost none of the gun violence the U.S. routinely does. And yet, not only can it happen, it has happened time and again. In fact, Canada has a long history of gender-based mass killings; three of its worst mass murders committed in the last 30 years have been motivated by hatred of women.

In 1989, Marc Lépine walked into a classroom at Montreal’s École Polytechnique armed with a rifle and a hunting knife, separated the male and female engineering students, and, after declaring that “feminism had ruined his life,” opened fire on the latter. By the time he turned the gun on himself, a total of 14 women had died and another ten women and four men had been injured. The murders left the entire country reeling with disbelief.

In 1996, Marc Chahal walked up to the home of his estranged wife’s family in Vernon, British Columbia, as relatives gathered for a wedding, and opened fire — killing the bride-to-be, his wife, and seven other family members. Chahal, who had been physically abusive to his wife during their marriage and had repeatedly threatened her since their separation, promptly returned to his motel room and killed himself.

There have been others.

By Roger Jordan in Canada:

Assailant charged with murder following Toronto van attack

27 April 2018

Twenty-five year-old Alek Minassian, who ran over pedestrians in Toronto’s north end Monday afternoon killing 10 people and causing panic and mayhem, has been charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.

Minassian is accused of mounting the sidewalk with a rented white van multiple times, so as to deliberately target pedestrians on a busy, more than kilometer-long section of Yonge Street, Toronto’s principal thoroughfare. …

While many things remain to be determined about Minassian’s psychological makeup, as well as the specific trigger for his violent outburst, attempts to explain Monday’s attack by focusing solely on Minassian’s state of mind are wide off the mark. The fact that Minassian decided to unleash such brutal violence on his victims, none of whom he knew personally, is bound up with and, in the final analysis, a product of malignant tendencies within an increasingly dysfunctional Canadian society.

Violence, anxiety and fear increasingly pervade Canadian society.

Last Monday’s violent outburst occurred under conditions in which Canada, in alliance with US imperialism, has been engaged in virtually uninterrupted imperialist wars of aggression for the past quarter-century, that is the entirety of Minassian’s life. Canadian authorities have hailed the use of ruthless and murderous violence as necessary and salutary during military interventions in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Somalia.

These wars have not only affected the civilians and soldiers directly caught up in them, but have profoundly influenced social and political life. Violent militarist propaganda on the news media and in political discourse has become a fact of daily life. It was, after all, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper who celebrated Canada’s reputed battlefield prowess, by trumpeting Canada as a “warrior nation.”

Minassian was himself attracted to the Canadian Armed Forces. He entered the Canadian military last August, only to request a discharge in October after less than two weeks of basic training. A fellow recruit told CBC he was repeatedly disciplined for failing to understand or properly follow orders.

Murderous violence, especially mass shootings, have not attained the same level in Canada as in the US, but violent outbursts directed at persons unknown to the attacker are becoming more frequent. …

In January 2017, a youth in Quebec City, who was a xenophobic Quebec nationalist and admirer of Donald Trump and France’s National Front, opened fire in a Quebec City mosque, killing six worshippers. In October, a Somali refugee, apparently driven to desperation by his plight, drove a van at high speed through downtown Edmonton, injuring five people. Notwithstanding media efforts to hype up the incident as an act of Islamist terrorism, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif ended up facing no terrorism charges and instead will stand trial on five counts of attempted murder.

Before Minassian’s identity was released Monday, far-right media outlets as well as several journalists employed by the so-called mainstream media eagerly sought to portray the attack as an act of Islamist terrorism. CBC reporter Natasha Fatah tweeted at 2:36 PM Monday afternoon, “#BREAKING Witness to truck ramming into pedestrians tells local Toronto TV station that the driver looked wide-eyed, angry and Middle Eastern.” Candice Malcolm, a columnist with the right-wing Toronto Sun, joined in, claiming that in terms of methods, the attack was inspired by ISIS. Sun editor Anthony Furey wrote, “Please stop telling angry Torontonians to not call this assault on our great city a terror attack. Yes, there are still facts unknown, but this vehicular ramming fits the bill of what terror groups repeatedly called for in Canada. And people are rightfully mad.”

Mr Furey then did not know yet that murder suspect Minassian was neither Muslim nor black. So, not fitting into the ‘terrorism’ category of Mr Furey; and of Donald Trump, according to whom white Christian people, especially white supremacists, are not terrorists.

These right-wing forces, together with far-right sites like Rebel Media and Infowars which pushed the same line, were clearly hoping to exploit the narrative of an Islamist terror attack to advance their own political agenda before the bodies had even been removed from the street.

The day after the attack, the official opposition Conservative Party pressed parliament to adopt a motion urging the Trudeau government to prevent migrants fleeing the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant witch hunt from entering Canada. Should the government fail to protect “our borders,” Canadians will “rapidly” withdraw their “social license for immigration”, vowed Tory opposition critic Michelle Rempel.

Like the other imperialist powers, Canada is riven by unprecedented levels of social inequality that are provoking explosive social tensions. In the Toronto area, homelessness has risen sharply, amid a property bubble that has driven housing costs through the roof. And tens of thousands of traditional industrial jobs have been replaced by precarious, temporary and/or part-time employment.

These developments, rooted in the crisis of the capitalist system, are having a devastating impact on the lives of working people already struggling to make ends meet. Under such conditions, it is not at all surprising that a psychologically unstable and isolated individual like Minassian snapped and sought a violent way out of his predicament.

This is even more so given the prominence of reactionary, right-wing political forces, which channel the social anger and frustration of the most demoralized and backward sections of the population in an anti-social and misanthropic direction.

Evidence has emerged that strongly suggests Minassian’s murderous rampage was fueled by right-wing political conceptions, specifically those of the so-called “incel” or involuntary celibate movement. The incel movement, which rages against women for denying men sexual relations and excluding them from social life, is associated with alt-right and right-wing extremist groups.

Immediately prior to launching his attack, Minassian published a Facebook post in which he declared that the “incel rebellion has already begun”, and praised Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old California man who killed six people in 2014 before taking his own life. Prior to his attack, Rodger posted a 140-page manifesto online vowing to wage war on women.

Although all the victims of Monday’s attack have yet to be officially identified, Toronto police have confirmed that the casualties were predominantly women. Anne Marie D’amico, who worked for an investment organization and also engaged in volunteer work, and Dorothy Sewell, an 80-year-old grandmother, have been identified as victims by family and friends. It has also been reported that a single mother of a seven-year-old boy was killed after completing her first day at a new job working at a school cafeteria. Reflecting Toronto’s multi-cultural population, reports indicate two South Korean nationals and a Jordanian man were also among the dead.

Whatever may yet come to light regarding Minassian’s specific motivation for ploughing through pedestrians with a van last Monday, the growing symptoms of societal breakdown expressed in all areas of social and political life guarantees that it is only a matter of time before a similar horrific incident takes place.

The incel rebellion — how involuntary celibates are dangerous in their desires: here.

Read this New Yorker piece on why Incels aren’t really looking for sex — they’re looking for absolute male supremacy.

INSIDE INCELS’ ‘LOOKSMAXING’ OBSESSION Thousands of “involuntarily celibate” men in online forums are consumed by misogynist entitlement and a skin-deep quest for self-improvement. We go inside incels “looksmaxing” obsession: penis stretching, skull implants and rage. [HuffPost]

The rise of the men’s rights movement. Women are right to be fearful of the growing popularity of online misogynists like Daryush Valizadeh and Jordan Peterson, says MAEVE MACKINNON.

‘MEN’S RIGHTS LAWYER’ EYED IN SHOOTING OF N.J. JUDGE’S FAMILY A self-described “anti-feminist” lawyer found dead in the Catskills of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound is the prime suspect in the shooting of a federal judge’s family in New Jersey, the FBI said. Roy Den Hollander, who received media attention including appearances on Fox News and Comedy Central for lawsuits challenging perceived infringements of “men’s rights,” was found dead in Sullivan County, New York. [AP]