Anti-feminist ideology ‘increasingly relevant’ to national security: CSIS

Officials with Canada's security and intelligence agency told MPs the ideology 'can function as an enabling factor along pathways to violent extremism' but is not itself a threat.

Senior officials at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) say anti-feminist ideology is becoming “increasingly relevant” to Canada’s national security landscape and may lead to radicalization and violent extremism, but added that the ideology alone does not yet rise to the level of a security threat.

The comments came during testimony last week to the House of Commons standing committee on the status of women, which is conducting a study on the anti-feminism movement that has sprung up in some online circles and advocates for regressive roles for women in society and relationships.

In a rare move, the two witnesses were only identified by their first names and titles, which committee chair and Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu said was meant to “protect their identity.”

Multiple committee members commented that it was “very weird” and “a little uncomfortable” to address Jean-Pierre, the director-general for counterterrorism at CSIS, and Luc, the director-general of assessments at the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC), by their first names, given their senior positions.

Both witnesses appeared by videoconference, but only Luc appeared on camera.

“Anti-feminist ideology is increasingly relevant to Canada’s national security landscape” in the context of broader gender-based violent extremism, Luc said.

He added that ideology by itself — including the expression of controversial beliefs — does not constitute a national security threat in the eyes of the ITAC, whose mandate includes setting Canada’s terrorism threat level.

“However, our assessments indicate that in certain contexts, anti-feminist ideology can function as an enabling factor along pathways to violent extremism,” Luc continued. “These narratives can provide grievance frameworks that legitimize hostility toward women and gender equality, and elements of them are consistent with those observed in ideologically motivated violent extremism.”