Active clubs—white nationalist extremist groups often incorporating mixed martial arts training—have been rising in both the United States and Canada. Mack Lamoureux, ISD Senior Communications Manager and investigative journalist, spoke to Front Burner about the strategy of these groups and, most critically, their dangerous ideology.

Mack discussed the key aspects of active clubs, including their leaderless structure and subtler ways of expressing racist ideology, including activewear merchandise: “‘Fascist Lululemon,’ one person once described it to me. So it’s a lot more softened than the last wave of kind of extreme right organizations that we’ve seen pop up. And that has been something that has worked to their benefit.”

Martial arts training serves a dual purpose: as a propaganda tool and as preparation for a potential race war.

In the US, youth clubs targeting boys aged 15-18 are also growing: “We’re not seeing it necessarily pop up in Canada yet, but we know Canada tends to fall behind a little bit of America when it comes to far-right organizing. So I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we saw these kind of groups pop up.”

Active clubs now represent a leading force in white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizing in Canada. While they have not yet been linked to violence domestically, Mack warns that even one person holding this ideology could cause significant bloodshed.

The podcast is available on Front Burner. A full transcript is also available.