Patrick Corvyn, No Hate in Huron (January 27, 2026)
January 27, 2026 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day one year ago, No Hate in Huron submitted an open letter to local elected officials announcing the end of our active campaign urging them to issue a statement explicitly and unequivocally denouncing neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies. After 175 days of silence and deflection, they had made their position unmistakable.
Today marks 540 days, or roughly 18 months, since we first brought the issue forward to elected officials in Huron County. Our local elected officials still have never even acknowledged the international neo-Nazi meetup that occurred in Goderich in August 2024. The number of new initiatives they have introduced since then to impede and dismantle hate networks remains at a very steady and very conspicuous zero.
While dumping this complex responsibility onto the grassroots level, local officials have also ignored and treated with suspicion those of us who have been working non-stop through nonviolent good faith means to build lasting pathways to peace. Their silence, inaction, and poor faith remain utterly incomprehensible to us.
Neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks are explicit in their objectives and strategies. They seek the creation of an all White ethnostate and are willing to commit violence to achieve this. They do commit violence.
When elected officials choose to ignore, or refuse to explicitly acknowledge the presence of neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks within our communities, they send a clear message to those of us on the margins. Regardless of how neutral or good-natured their tone and intent, they signal that violence against us is a risk they are willing to take.
Broad statements opposing hate are a good start, but they are highly susceptible to bad faith reinterpretation. They are easily co-opted by those with social and political privilege to bolster deceptive claims of perpetual victimhood, and are frequently hijacked to lend legitimacy to discredited racist conspiracies such as the “Great Replacement Theory.”
Vague platitudes do nothing to satisfy the perpetually aggrieved. Nor do they offer any prospect of hope to those living in legitimate fear. Non-specific and non-binding commitments to “working together” with “civic society organizations” such as No Hate in Huron mean nothing when they are immediately abandoned by a municipality at the first available opportunity and the first whiff of complexity.
Those of us with marginalized identities are only too painfully aware that if the current threat was only slightly altered, the response from local elected officials would be dramatically different. Imagine if instead of the very real looming threat of brutal violence perpetrated against minorities there was instead a mere whisper of an imagined risk to the prestige and wealth of the dominant culture. Local officials would be relentless in their counter-attack.
Politicians would trip over themselves as self-professed champions of law and order. They would vow merciless vengeance upon the never-to-be-defined “woke mob” (which increasingly seems to refer simply to people of good conscience). Their calendars would overflow with press conferences. Awards for Upstanding Citizenry would be dispensed like candy in return for blind obedience.
But that is not our current reality. Our current reality is that far right extremism is on the rise across North America and is present in Huron County. We are confronted with active neo-Nazi cells from across Ontario, Quebec and Michigan who have demonstrated a keen interest in Goderich. They have conducted combat training exercises at our high school track. They have plastered recruitment stickers along our boardwalk.
These are members of organizations that actively circulate material idolizing Adolf Hitler. When neo-Nazis aren’t busy denying the Holocaust, they are actively fostering plans to revive it. And yet even still, Huron County’s local officials have offered nothing substantive in response.
There is a wide range of policies and activities that local governments could undertake to effectively oppose neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks. None of these strategies are possible, however, when officials refuse to even acknowledge the specific threat in the first place. They appear to have taken up permanent residence behind the starting line. Nobody benefits when ego eclipses public safety. The greatest burden, as ever, falls upon the most vulnerable.
At No Hate in Huron, we embrace the ethos “Joy is Resistance.” This saying means different things to different people but in general it captures the belief that actively opposing hate doesn’t need to be painful or militant. It can be liberating, meaningful and joyous. Even in the face of dangerous and malevolent forces, even in a climate of political abandonment, we remain strong and united. We are proud about who we are and what we stand for. We are woven together in a fabric of shared friendship, laughter, music, good food, camaraderie, and care.
In this current context, “Joy is Resistance” is very different from “Focus on the Positive.” When elected leaders tell us to “Focus on the Positive,” and to “Ignore the Squeaky Wheel,” they send the message that our deeply serious concerns are invalid. “Ignore the Squeaky Wheel” pretends that denial is a solution. It is not.
Neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks already operate in secrecy. They do not require our attention for their growth. They do become highly vulnerable, however, when our attention is directed with clarity toward their neutralization and disruption.
We are not allergic to reality. “Good Vibes Only,” “Ignore the Squeaky Wheel,” and “Focus on the Positive” in this context ask us to embrace wilful ignorance at a time when maturity, bravery, and understanding are most profoundly needed. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist networks are not “squeaky wheels.” They are large international affiliations that commit cowardly and brutal acts of violence against the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our communities. They pledge loyalty to Adolf Hitler and to one of the most profound evils ever unleashed upon humanity. Their actions and their beliefs are reprehensible and should be explicitly condemned at every opportunity. Looking into the darkness does not require us to become the darkness.
There is a familiar and specious claim that somehow any public acknowledgment whatsoever of neo-Nazi and white supremacist activity rewards hate networks with free publicity. Many have offered a tortured logic that somehow by publicly opposing Nazis we do their marketing for them. No Hate in Huron believes this argument is dangerously lacking in nuance. We also believe it forms a convenient shield for political cowardice, silence, and inaction. It reverse-engineers a justification for the preferred status quo approach of doing nothing.
The reality is that the horses left the barn years ago. There was a time when neo-Nazi networks were sufficiently disparate and disorganized, where they could be safely ignored. Those days are long gone. We suggest that in the current landscape it is precisely through the complicit silence of elected officials that neo-Nazi networks are most vigorously emboldened.
In the Huron County context, our Conservative MPP (and provincial Minister of Rural Affairs) Lisa Thompson, along with Conservative MP Ben Lobb, and the successive Huron County Wardens Glen McNeil and Jamie Heffer have chosen a firmly entrenched silence. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists can rest easy knowing they are unlikely to face any interference, impediment, or resistance from Huron County politicians whatsoever. Meanwhile these very same politicians will have the shameless hypocritical gall to portray themselves as champions of public safety whenever it suits their agenda.
It is surprising that not a single conservative politician in Huron County has made any proactive effort to delineate their party from the extreme right in the current context. In August 2024, when a homemade billboard appeared on Highway 21 implying support for both the Conservative party and a recognized neo-Nazi hate network, local Conservatives made zero effort to distance themselves from the inferred connection. They instead weakly painted themselves as champions of free speech while unironically hiding in silence.
In the 18 months since then these self-styled free speech heroes have had infinite opportunities to exercise their own freedom of expression. And yet they have ignored petitions and correspondence, repeatedly refused media interviews, and cynically skipped candidates’ debates. At any point in the last 18 months they could have typed up a short statement denouncing neo-Nazi ideology. They could have instantly quelled the growing suspicions of where their true sympathies and allegiances lie. Instead, they have chosen silence. They have issued no statements on the topic. They have offered not a syllable of comfort to those living in fear of neo-Nazi violence.
No Hate in Huron is non-partisan. We do not confine our scrutiny to the political right. We believe that progressive political identities are not fashion accessories. They are historic legacies demanding great responsibility. We are painfully aware that there are elected officials in Huron County who self-identify as progressives and yet have revealed they too are incapable of explicitly denouncing neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies.
We believe this stance is incompatible with a progressive political identity. We believe they have failed the most basic shibboleth, the minimum standard, of the proud traditions of social justice they claim to walk in.
In this environment, it is well worth clearing space to let the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sing loud:
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will […] We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963
In the wake of the Second World War, we told ourselves that we would never again take the wait-and-see approach. We would never tolerate, excuse, or underestimate Nazism again. We would stamp it out upon germination, not wait until it formed a dark forest threatening to consume us and those we love. Huron County’s officials have deserted the watch our ancestors entrusted to us. Lest We Forget has decayed into Let Us Forget.
Since its inception, No Hate in Huron has always made a very clear distinction between hateful ideologies and the individuals who perpetuate them. Our resistance has always been squarely focused against neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs. We recognize that individuals recruited into hate movements are rarely plucked from peaceful environments of connection, understanding, stability, meaning, and care. Hate movements thrive where isolation and disconnection abound. This is why strengthening community is so central to No Hate in Huron’s approach.
People can and do leave hate movements. Many have gone on to become powerful advocates against these ideologies and have built extraordinary networks that help others to exit. The pathway of successful deradicalization is marked not through shame, not through counter-violence, not through harassment. Meeting cruelty with cruelty solves nothing. Successful deradicalization starts with compassion. It starts with individuals and organizations acting in good faith. It starts with kindness.
No Hate in Huron understands that there are many individuals stuck within hate networks who wish to leave but cannot see a way out. They understandably doubt they will ever be accepted back into the broader community and they fear retribution from their current networks if they try. No Hate in Huron also understands that human realities are messy and that simplistic narratives of redemption through deradicalization are not realistic in all cases. Nevertheless we ardently believe that good faith attempts are of vital historic importance.
To this end, No Hate in Huron has begun working with our allies to explore pathways to deradicalization and restorative justice for individuals within Huron County who are currently involved in neo-Nazi and white supremacist hate networks.
No Hate in Huron has lost trust in our elected officials to provide leadership against organized hate in Huron County. Our provincial and federal representatives have delivered nothing beyond a weak, one-word response at one all-candidates meeting and a single email and sound bite, both defending a landowner’s right to publicly advertise the name of an international neo-Nazi hate network. Those choices speak volumes. We do not believe in coercing officials to make statements that are contrary to their conscience or their nature. We will not facilitate moral fraudulence.
We look instead to our allies, friends, and siblings in this struggle. Now is the time for us to join with a common voice in denouncing neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies so future generations will know that we took a united stand. As people of conscience, we refuse to abandon the most vulnerable among us.
Many have made clear their comfort matters more than our safety. For us, silence and inaction are unbearable.
No Hate in Huron invites aligned organizations and associations within Huron County to join us in our Statements of Unity and Shared Commitments to Peace. Please join in this symbolic act of solidarity so that our present communities and future generations may know that we stood together united against violence.
Statements of Unity and Shared Commitments to Peace
- We are proud to call Huron County home.
- We celebrate and cherish diversity, inclusion, compassion, and courage.
- We reject neutrality when confronted with violent ideologies in our community. Neutrality empowers those who commit harm while abandoning those who are targeted by their violence.
- We unequivocally and explicitly denounce Nazi, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and white supremacist ideologies in all their original and modern forms, without hesitation.
- May future generations know that we did so proudly.
- We peacefully refuse to aid or abet Nazi, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and white supremacist movements.
- We will not knowingly provide venues, goods, services, funding, logistical support, or institutional affiliation by which Nazi, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and white supremacist networks may gather, recruit, train, march, rally, disseminate propaganda, or otherwise plan or conduct hate activity.
- If we learn we have inadvertently provided support to Nazi, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and white supremacist networks, we will take reasonable steps to withdraw it promptly.
- While honouring the limits of our capacity, we commit to ongoing learning and knowledge-sharing, recognizing that Nazi, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and white supremacist networks strategically engage in frequent and deceptive rebranding.
- We will not engage in vigilantism or harassment.
- We honour our collective responsibility to model ethical behaviour and leadership to young people in our community.
- With patient compassion and clear boundaries, we welcome those genuinely seeking to leave hate movements so that they may walk the path of deradicalization toward accountability, peace and nonviolence.
- We strive for a Huron County in which all people are free to pursue joyous lives of peace without fear of harassment, cruelty, or violence.
Please reach out if you would like to learn more about our Statements of Unity and Shared Commitments to Peace or to become a signatory.