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Proud Boys Canada Dissolves Itself, Months After Terrorist Designation

Canadian chapter of right-wing group posts defiant final statement on Telegram.

Proud Boys Canada has dissolved itself, leaving a defiant final post on Telegram that said it wasn’t a terrorist organization. In February, Ottawa said the group posed an active security threat and played a “pivotal role” in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in January by pro-Trump rioters. Canada’s parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal government to designate the right-wing Proud Boys as a terrorist group. “The truth is, we were never terrorists or a white-supremacy group,” the statement posted by the administrator of the official Proud Boys channel on Telegram said. “We are electricians, carpenters, financial advisers, mechanics, etc. More than that, we are fathers, brothers, uncles and sons.” The Canadian and U.S. chapters of the group have always been closely linked; the group’s founder, media personality and entrepreneur Gavin McInnes, is a Canadian who lives in the U.S. The group was established as an organization protesting against political correctness and perceived constraints on masculinity. Several members of the Proud Boys have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.