The growing white nationalist “active club” movement poses a risk for “extreme violence” in Canada, according to an internal Public Safety Canada brief obtained by CBC News.

The report appears to reveal, for the first time, that the federal department that oversees the RCMP is addressing this movement directly. In previous reporting, the RCMP would not specifically comment on the rapid rise of active clubs — white nationalist groups that operate under the guise of getting fit through training and combat sports.  

Of the more than 200 known active club chapters globally, a “disproportionate” number, more than 30, operate in Canada, according to the report. Second Sons Canada — a similar far-right group — has more than 15 chapters.

These fascist fight clubs have increasingly moved from online forums to real-world training and public demonstrations.

“White nationalism is the biggest threat it’s ever been,” said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, who calls these groups the biggest ideologically motivated extremist threat in Canada. 

“The report … should galvanize this government to act,” he said. “The government and law enforcement haven’t really done anything significant to stop it.”

In 2023, RCMP arrested three Canadians for their activities related to neo-Nazi groups like Atomwaffen Division, which has been linked to five killings in the U.S. in recent years. It was disbanded in Canada after Public Safety Canada listed the group as a terrorist organization in 2021. Those three people were also “involved with organizing, leading, or developing propaganda for Active Clubs,” according to the report.

The report also notes the connections between active clubs and networks with documented records of serious violence, including the notorious skinhead gang known as the Vinland Hammerskins. In 1993, three Canadians affiliated with the Hammerskins were found guilty of murdering a Black man in Texas.

Most of the references to violence in the report were perpetrated by active clubs abroad, including: that in November 2025, two Swedish active club members were sentenced for racially motivated assaults, while an Australian member of an active club was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in helping organize dozens of racially motivated riots and attacks.

In July 2025, CBC’s visual investigations unit identified where active clubs — like Nationalist-13 out of southern Ontario and Second Sons — were training in parks, community centres and martial arts studios, leading to the expulsion of members from various businesses. 

CBC’s reporting is cited in the brief, including a story — done with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network — that identified mixed martial arts gym owners, active club members and Second Son members who attended a neo-Nazi conference in Vancouver last summer.

The report says such groups are known to radicalize members toward what’s known, in law enforcement and security circles, as “ideologically motivated violent extremism” which rationalizes violence against Jewish, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ people. And yet, it adds, the threat from active clubs is “difficult to accurately assess” because they don’t publicly advocate for terrorism or use of deadly force.

Yet a CBC News analysis of hundreds of transcripts from Second Sons Canada podcasts and livestreams revealed how the group called for violence, including the execution of Canadian politicians. Experts have previously said the language, in many cases, constitutes hate speech. 

“[This report] is a signal to policing services … policymakers and researchers that these groups are an active public-safety concern that needs integrated operational response and attention,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, an associate professor of religion at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and an expert in extremism.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network says the best way to disrupt these groups would be to label them as terrorist organizations.

“Some people believe terrorist designations should not be sought out, period … they have that belief because they think that the process in which Canada designates a group is flawed,” said Balgord.

“I believe that designating [specific groups as terrorist entities] is justified and it would be effective in disrupting white nationalism in Canada significantly.”

Public Safety Canada said the report is shared with all levels of government and law enforcement, and was prepared by the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence.