CSIS warns that the 'anti-gender movement' poses a threat of 'extreme violence'

Canada's intelligence agency is warning that extremists could "inspire and encourage" serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community — a threat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says almost certainly will continue over the coming year.

CSIS's comments come as provincial policies on gender-affirming surgeries and pronoun preferences are being hotly debated across the country.

"CSIS assesses that the violent threat posed by the anti-gender movement is almost certain to continue over the coming year and that violent actors may be inspired by the University of Waterloo attack to carry out their own extreme violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community or against other targets they view as representing the gender ideology 'agenda,'" said CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam in an email to CBC News.

A former University of Waterloo student accused of unleashing on a gender-studies class with a knife last summer — sending an associate professor and two students to hospital — now faces 11 terrorism charges.

Balsam said that while violent rhetoric does not always lead to violence, "the ecosystem of violent rhetoric within the anti-gender movement, compounded with other extreme worldviews, can lead to serious violence."

"CSIS assesses that exposure to groups and individuals espousing anti-gender extremist rhetoric could inspire and encourage serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community, or against those who are viewed as supporters of pro-gender ideology policies and events," he said.

Balsam was commenting on a document drafted by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) and obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.

ITAC, made up of intelligence authorities, is set up to keep tabs on threat actors' intentions and capabilities and to review classified and open-source information to estimate the likelihood of a terrorist attack in Canada. 

According to the document, the centre was monitoring the potential for an attack or violent assaults at Pride celebrations, parades and nightclubs across the country last summer. Sections of the document have been redacted. 

"Trans and drag communities in Canada have been the target of several online threats and real-world intimidation tactics in recent months," says the document.

"Anti-2SLGBTQl+ narratives remain a common theme in violent rhetoric espoused by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Freedom Movement, and networks such as Diagolon and QAnon."

ITAC went on to say that those who embrace religiously-motivated violent extremism in Canada continue "to view members of the 2SLGBTQl community as desirable targets."

Alessandro Iachelli, executive director of Fierté Canada Pride, said the warnings are "disheartening" but not surprising. The group acts as the national association of Canadian Pride organizations.

"There is not a day that goes by that I don't open my computer screen or my television to see something that attacks our community," he said.