In February 2022, the “Freedom Convoy” laid siege to Parliament Hill, bringing the nation’s capital to a standstill. The media were caught up in the frenzy, the latest example of ideological extremists’ efforts to exploit moments of widespread and justified economic and social fear and frustration to draw people into darker politics.

The Freedom Convoy: Transporting the Dark Politics of the Far Right across Canada unpacks these efforts in the Canadian landscape, tracing the Convoy’s history to pinpoint the conditions that fomented the movement. These conditions were years in the making: declining life expectancy and economic prospects, deterioration of trust in state institutions and scientific authority, pandemic fatigue and frustration, and mass social media and fundraising platforms that allowed disparate groups to come together.

This book unpacks the collapse of the policing system and the failure of intelligence services, and all levels of government under the weight of the occupation of Ottawa and blockades at multiple border crossings across the country, interrupting trade and causing billions of dollars of economic disruption. What these security failures reveal is a system dominated by personalities and petty interests that had puttered along in ordinary times, but utterly seized through Canada’s first genuine national, political, and security crisis in a generation.

Understanding the drivers of social polarization and political extremism — including the sins of the state — this book lays out a roadmap for bringing the disaffected back into the democratic fold.

Michael Kempa is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa as well as a freelance journalist. His writing has appeared in the National Post, the Toronto Star, CBC, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus. Kempa is a frequent commentator and guest on television and radio, speaking on security, policing, and politics. He lives in Kanata, Ontario.

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