November 15, 2024

Canadian Active Clubs and White Nationalist Groups on Telegram

Recent racially-motivated killings have raised concern about Canadian “Active Clubs” and other white nationalist groups.

TLDR

Canadian “Active Clubs” and white nationalist groups use Telegram (and to a lesser extent, alt-tech platforms like Gab) to communicate.
Open Measures researchers studied three of these groups’ online activities. They found that all three were encouraging members to pursue combat training while promoting racist, antisemitic, and nationalist ideologies.
Some of these groups have organized and attended in-person events with their US-based counterparts as well.

Background

According to a Canadian Senate report, Canada had more targeted killings of Muslims in 2023 than any other G7 country.¹ These recent instances of racially-motivated violence have led to concern about the activities of right-wing extremist and white nationalist groups organizing in Canada, some of which are “Active Clubs.” Researchers at Open Measures previously investigated the proliferation of Active Club cells in the United States.

Founded by American white supremacist Robert Rundo, Active Clubs are decentralized, white nationalist cells currently operating in dozens of countries. These clubs encourage members to bond through participation in combat sports, though watchdog groups such as the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) suggest this may be a way to prepare members for racial violence.² Since 2021, dozens of Active Club cells have emerged worldwide, particularly in Europe and North America (among other white nationalist cells doing similar activities under different names).

Open Measures researchers identified numerous Canada-based Active Clubs and white nationalist groups on Telegram. For the sake of clarity, “Active Clubs” refers to groups that explicitly use that title and brand. “Fight clubs” refers to other combat-centric, white nationalist groups.

*Members of the Ontario-based group Nationalist-13 pose for a picture at the gym. Photos shared in Active Club channels often obfuscate the faces of their members.*

Canadian Active Clubs are highly active on Telegram, though they can also be found on Gab and X (formerly Twitter). Telegram is a messaging app that allows both peer-to-peer and group messaging. The platform also has “channels”. These function somewhat like group chats, allowing many members to join and read content which only admins can post. Gab is an alt-tech microblogging platform that has gained popularity as an alternative to similar but mainstream platforms like X/Twitter.

Analysis

Open Measures researchers identified numerous Canadian white nationalist groups on Telegram but narrowed in on groups that emphasized physical fitness training in their messages. Prolific and noteworthy among these were:

Nationalist-13 (channelusername:Nationalist13)
Frontenac Active Club (channelusername:FrontenacAC)
Toronto Fitness Club (channelusername:TorontoAthletics)

For consistency below, these groups will be referred to exclusively by their channel titles.

Channel Username	Channel Title	Geographic Region	Estimated Number of Subscribers
Nationalist13	Nationalist-13	Southern/southwest Ontario	Over 2,300
FrontenacAC	Frontenac Active Club	Montreal	Over 900
TorontoAthletics	Toronto Fitness Club	Toronto	Over 440

Though not included in the table above, researchers also estimated in-person attendance at these groups’ events by counting how many members appeared in posted meetup photos. While each channel has hundreds of members, Open Measures estimates that few of these members attend in-person activities. After reviewing photos from the past few months, each channel seemed to have fewer than 20 members at any given in-person event.

The Canadian Active Clubs’ behavior was similar to US-based clubs previously reported by Open Measures researchers. Group messages discussed workouts and fitness routines (often involving sparring) while emphasizing the communal benefits of membership. For instance, an Oct. 22, 2024, Telegram post in the Toronto Fitness Club channel included the following (emphasis added) [sic]:

Over the weekend, some of the finest quality men of honour and conviction in this country blessed us with their time and talent yet again. A glorious sun shone down on these men as they trained, taught, and learned, not just boxing and fitness, but community and disciplined service to folk and nation.

We also welcomed two new members into our growing community of brothers and comrades. It felt natural having them with us because it IS natural for men of character to find one another and forge their tribe.

There was no fire to light our way so we lit our own, and we are lighting the way forward as the pioneers and pathfinders of a new era for our struggle in Canada. We need more men of honour and virtue in this struggle, now more than ever. If you are that man, if you have the will and courage to put your time and talent into the advancement of our folk, then you know where you can find us.

Get vetted, find your tribe, train.

*Image that accompanies the above post. Members of the Toronto Fitness Club pose with the flag of Ontario in the center.*

On average, these three channels posted 17 (Toronto Fitness Club), 16 (Nationalist-13), and 5.5 (Frontenac Active Club) times per month from January to October 2024.

*Posts per month for the three Canadian Active Club Telegram channels profiled, from January to October 2024.*

In prior research, Open Measures found American Active Clubs tended to forward old, existing content across groups. While Canadian clubs did this as well, the majority of the posts in these channels were original.

Seven of the 12 posts in the Toronto Fitness Club channel in October 2024 were forwarded from other Telegram channels (approximately 58%). The US-based Great Lakes Active Club (channelusername:greatlakesactiveclub), however, published 92 posts during that time—of these, 81 were forwarded content (approximately 88%). Information about forwarding activity was gathered from Open Measures’ Telegram dataset using the [fwdfrom.channel_post] field.

Network Graph

Not surprisingly, Canadian Active Clubs overlapped with other white nationalist groups in Canada. Researchers mapped these connections using Open Measures’ Network Graph tool.

Researchers added Toronto Fitness Club, Nationalist-13, and Frontenac Active Club into Network Graph and used the “Add Related Nodes” feature to see where content was shared. To refine the results, researchers only included Telegram channels connected to at least two of the channels profiled. The resulting graph shows a web of right-wing, largely Canada-centric content. The US-based Great Lakes Active Club’s channel was connected to all three Canadian club channels as well.

***Network Graph showing the connections between Telegram channels. Note that the Great Lakes Active Club, based in the US, has connections to all three Canadian clubs.***

Interactions with US Groups

Researchers found a fair amount of interactions and meetups between US and Canadian Active Clubs. For example, Canadian members attended Frontier ‘24, an event billed as “the premiere combat sports tournament in the American Nationalist scene,” which likely took place in California in August 2024. The Montreal-based Frontenac Active Club also later shared a post implying attendance, writing that one of their members had “claimed victory on American soil.”

*Frontenac Active Club shares a post celebrating the success of one of their members in the Frontier ‘24 tournament, using it to push recruitment.*

Researchers also found multiple cases of American members attending events organized by Canadian clubs, as shown by an Oct. 21, 2024, post by the Ontario-based channel Nationalist-13 (emphasis added) [sic]:

This weekend the Nationalist 13 community took part in a historically important event for modern Canadian Nationalism.

Members [of Nationalist-13] traveled to Windsor, Ontario where we connected with the Windsor branch of our community. We were joined by members of Great Lakes Active Club and the Michigan chapter of Patriot Front.

We went on a hike, got some decent sparring in, then went for food and drinks. There was much laughter and many plans for the future were discussed.

We are extremely grateful to Windsor members for hosting us, and our American Folk in PF and GLAC for making the trip to bond and network with us. We grow stronger through the unity of our Folk.

*Image accompanying the above post showing 15 men in attendance.*

Links Shared

Among the three Canadian Active Clubs investigated in this piece, Nationalist-13 shared the most links among its members. Using the Link Counter tool, researchers found that in the one-year period from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, the group shared 75 links.

The external links shared were primarily to group members’ social media accounts on other sites (in this case, X/Twitter and Gab), demonstrating that these groups are likely active on a variety of both mainstream and alt-tech platforms.

Conclusion

Open Measures researchers uncovered dozens of Canadian right-wing extremist and white nationalist Telegram channels, narrowing the data to channels discussing both physical training and white nationalism. The results included both Active Club-branded groups and similar but unbranded “fight clubs.” These groups are all actively recruiting new members and regularly interact with white nationalists based in the US.

Open Measures will continue to monitor extremism online. If you have any information about groups of interest on Telegram or other alt-tech platforms, feel free to reach out to our team or submit a Telegram crawl request.

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