The Canadian political establishment rushed to eulogize American fascist activist Charlie Kirk, a Trump ally, in the hours after his assassination on September 10 at a Utah university campus. From Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew and Quebec CAQ Premier François Legault, politicians across all parties joined together in mourning Kirk and whitewashing his fascist politics.

The embrace of Kirk reached a high point Monday when the Canadian parliament gave the far-right provocateur a standing ovation. After Conservative MP Rachel Thomas enjoined the House of Commons to “join our hearts with Charlie’s family” and proclaimed Kirk an advocate for “faith, family, and freedom,” MPs applauded in approval.

The political establishment’s beatification of Kirk has emboldened far-right elements in Canada to go on the offensive, targeting anyone who dares to criticize Kirk’s racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and white supremacist politics with blacklists, threats, and calls for reprisals.

The Trump administration in the US has seized on Kirk’s killing to escalate its drive to establish a presidential dictatorship, casting his murder as the responsibility of the “left” and vowing to eradicate the “enemy within” through state repression and violence. Kirk is now being elevated as a martyr and icon to push American and world politics even further to the right.

The Democrats, clinging to their bankrupt mantra that “there is no place for political violence in America,” have met this campaign with cowardice and complicity, denouncing purported violence from “both sides.” They are terrified of nothing so much as unleashing mass working class opposition to Trump and the oligarchs who stand behind him.

Carney was among the first international leaders to follow Washington’s lead in eulogizing Kirk. On X he declared, “I am appalled by the murder of Charlie Kirk. There is no justification for political violence and every act of it threatens democracy. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and loved ones.” Carney’s tweet conspicuously ignored Kirk’s record as a central player in Trump’s MAGA movement and his incitement of bigotry. Carney also had nothing to say about Kirk’s support for Trump’s efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship, including as an active participant in the January 6, 2021 coup plot and advocate for those convicted for their role in storming the Capitol. 

From a Liberal government that has been entirely silent amid the ongoing trade war on Trump’s coup efforts and fascist agitation against immigrants, the message was unmistakable: Ottawa is eager to reach an accommodation with Trump and American imperialism. In so far as it has any differences with the would-be dictator, they revolve entirely over securing the Canadian ruling class’s predatory interests, not upholding democratic rights.

Pierre Poilievre issued two statements praising Kirk, presenting him as a defender of free expression and a martyr for “simply expressing his views.” The Conservative leader is himself a far-right demagogue, having come to lead the party on the back of the fascist-instigated “Freedom Convoy,” which menacingly occupied downtown Ottawa in 2022 to press for the overturn of all remaining anti-COVID mitigation measures. Earlier this year, Poilievre was interviewed by Jordan Peterson, a political fellow traveler of Kirk.

Meanwhile Kinew, speaking for the NDP, condemned the killing as a “very disturbing thing” and declared there is “no place for violence” in “our democracy.”

In reality, as the World Socialist Web Site has previously noted, “violence” has become as American as apple pie. Washington has killed millions and displaced millions more in over three decades of uninterrupted wars of aggression around the world, most of which were endorsed by the Canadian bourgeoisie. Currently, the twin North American imperialist powers are backing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians to the hilt.

Not one of the eulogies to Kirk even hinted at the fascist character of his politics. The same Canadian establishment that gives a standing ovation to a Nazi war criminal, and smears opponents of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as “antisemites” now insists that a leading far-right operative be honored as a victim of intolerance.

This whitewashing has served as a green light for Canada’s far right to go on the offensive. 

Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine was forced to apologize after sharing an Instagram post that correctly described Kirk as a “racist, xenophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic” figure who “stood for nothing but hate.” Fontaine’s groveling retraction, demanded by Kinew himself, declared that “political debate is achieved with words and discussion.” The message was clear: telling the truth about a fascist is impermissible.

At the University of Toronto, Professor Ruth Marshall was suspended and publicly vilified after comments she made in response to posts dismissing evidence of Israel’s genocide in Gaza were deliberately misrepresented as a celebration of Kirk’s killing. The right-wing Toronto Sun splashed the lie across its front page, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford denounced her as “disgusting.”  

Independent journalist Rachel Gilmore was denounced by Tory MP Andrew Scheer, Poilievre’s lieutenant in the House of Commons, as “twisted” and full of “so much hate” for warning that Kirk’s killing could spur further right-wing violence. “Terrified to think of how far-right fans of Kirk, aching for more violence, could very well turn this into an even more radicalizing moment,” Gilmore wrote on X. For this she was placed at the top of an online blacklist titled “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” and subjected to rape and death threats.

These cases are not isolated. They reveal the political purpose of the campaign unleashed in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination: to terrorize opponents of the far right into silence and to push political life decisively further to the right. Any criticism of Kirk’s fascist politics is forbidden and branded as complicity in murder. 

Invocations of Kirk’s purported defense of “free speech” are a grotesque fraud. Kirk agitated for the repeal of the civil rights legislation that ended legal segregation, the banning of critical race theory and gender studies, the persecution of immigrants and Muslims, and the crushing of left-wing dissent. His “freedom” was the freedom to build a movement for dictatorship. Meanwhile, those who speak out against fascism, imperialist war, or social inequality are smeared as purveyors of “hate” and threatened with professional ruin or worse.

The Canadian ruling elite is adopting authoritarian methods of rule for the same reasons as Trump. It confronts rising working class opposition through strikes and mass protests. It is preparing for war abroad and austerity at home. Carney’s pledge of “austerity and investment” translates into ruthless cuts to social spending paired with massive increases in military budgets. The glorification of Kirk and the blacklisting of his critics are part of creating the political climate necessary to impose these unpopular policies.

Canadian democracy is in shambles. Strikes are outlawed. The growing presence of fascists in the armed forces is downplayed. The government backs fascist forces in Ukraine while suppressing anti-genocide protests at home. 

Carney’s Liberals, bound tightly to the Democrats in Washington, are determined to avoid any conflict with Trump, while Poilievre’s Conservatives openly ally themselves with him. The NDP, by disciplining Fontaine and demanding her silence, has again exposed itself as a loyal prop of Canadian imperialism. Across the spectrum there is fundamental unity: the far right and fascism must be accommodated, legitimized, and normalized as an indispensable instrument for defending capitalism.

The ruling class has already delivered its marching orders. The Globe and Mail, the traditional voice of Canada’s financial elite, has praised Carney’s initial rightward policy shifts. But it has also signalled that if he fails to break decisively with “Trudeau’s legacy” in his first budget this fall, Canadian capital will rapidly move to install Poilievre and his Conservatives.

Behind the ruling elite’s mourning of Kirk is the threat of an outright far-right government should Carney hesitate in delivering austerity, militarism, and authoritarian measures.

Workers and youth must draw the sharpest conclusions. The official eulogizing of Kirk and the witch-hunt against his critics are not aberrations but part of the violent realignment of bourgeois politics to the right, driven by the crisis of capitalism and Ottawa’s determination to secure its share of the spoils in a rapidly escalating third world war. The Canadian ruling class is following the path of its American counterpart, accommodating Trump while implementing huge swathes of his socio-economic program and increasingly resorting to state repression. 

The fight against fascism requires the independent political mobilization of the international working class on a socialist program, directed against the capitalist system that breeds fascism, inequality, and war. Workers and young people in Canada and beyond must take up the fight to build a mass socialist movement to defend democratic rights and oppose imperialist war.