Canada attends Trump summit targeting left-wing extremism

Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting.

OTTAWA — The Carney government has sent a senior official from Canada’s embassy in Washington, to a Trump administration summit trying to rally allies behind a new U.S. campaign targeting left-wing groups it claims are a top terrorism threat. Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office confirmed Thursday, though it’s not being represented by Ottawa’s top diplomat. The meeting comes as U.S. President Donald Trump shifts the United States’ counterterrorism focus to zero in on left-wing violence, raising concerns about politicization from experts who say there is no evidence the threat is at the level being claimed.

Railing against anti-capitalists, anti-imperialists, anarchists and communists in his opening remarks, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the western world’s post 9/11 counterterrorism strategies needed to shift to focus more on left-wing violence. “For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot, a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left. Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy,” Rubio told attendees at the meeting he called “unprecedented.”

“This is a distinctive and unique evil. It has always been driven by a hatred, above all else, a hatred for civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and the cowardly against the strong and the good.

It is perpetrated by those who cannot build, who cannot create, who cannot achieve great things, and take their revenge upon the world for their own inadequacy by seeking to destroy those who can. This is what radical leftism is.” The Star has requested an explanation for Canada’s attendance.

All G7 countries are represented at the meeting, according to a list of attendees shared by a State Department spokesperson. Canadian officials had previously declined to confirm their attendance or answer questions about the U.S. shift in counterterrorism strategy. Meanwhile, neither the Canadian Security Intelligence Service nor the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have commented on the meeting or offered their perspective on the U.S.’ claims about rising left-wing terrorism.

CSIS did not outline the issue as a top threat in its latest annual report. More to come.