Jimmy Voyer has praised hateful far-right figures, attacked Muslim federal politicians – calling them “radical Islamists” – and shared content associated with Qanon in a conspiracist Facebook group.
Sébastien Roback
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
As parties gear up for a possible federal election in the near future, a People’s Party of Canada candidate’s racist online footprint and ties to one of Québec’s most prominent hate groups have been uncovered.
Jimmy Voyer, a retiree who has devoted himself to trading cryptocurrencies since leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, was named as the PPC’s candidate for the riding of Chicoutimi – Le Fjord on July 16. He previously ran for the same party in the 2019 federal election.
This announcement took place despite the fact that, days prior, posts on social media made by Voyer resurfaced, showing him actively participating in discussions in private groups linked to anti-Muslim hate and conspiracy theories.
Controversy arose when Voyer, who serves as a regional vice-president for the fringe Conservative Party of Québec led by Éric Duhaime, helped organize a disastrous tour of the Québec region of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.
Duhaime has previously expressed his belief that the Black community has “few heroes it can be proud of,” denied the existence of systemic racism, and said that Islam seeks to “dominate the world.”
In early July, Voyer made reservations at a number of restaurants for the purpose of holding meet-and-greets for Duhaime and his supporters in the area. According to reports by local outlets, he did not disclose the purpose of these events to the venues. Upon realizing that the past Rebel News correspondent turned politician would be in attendance, venue owners chose to cancel the reservations.
This sparked a flurry of hateful and threatening messages from CPQ supporters, and Voyer himself reportedly told one restaurant owner that “cancel culture goes both ways,” in what was interpreted as a threat by the restaurateur.
Jimmy Voyer (right) with Éric Duhaime (middle). Source: Twitter
In a Facebook post, Duhaime condemned the threatening messages, but not without blaming the venues themselves for partaking in the “rise of cancel culture.”
After restaurant owners decried Voyer’s conduct during these events, Xavier Camus, a prominent activist based in Montréal, first reported that Voyer was once a member of La Meute’s private Facebook group.
When reached for comments, Voyer denied having ever associated “in any way” with the far-right group.
Le Troupeau de Moutruches, an anti-racist research group, previously published a screen capture of one of Voyer’s comments, made in the early days of the group’s existence.
Screen capture from La Meute’s secret Facebook group, showing Voyer responding to a post.
Voyer is also a frequent poster in Patriotes Sag Lac, a conspiratorial Facebook group filled with posts denouncing the “plandemic,” the “New World Order,” and the United Nations’ Agenda 21. In the group, Voyer has shared videos featuring Alexis Cossette-Trudel, the leading voice of QAnon in Québec.
He also used the group to share videos featuring the leaders of the political parties he affiliates with, and once posted a petition started by Éric Duhaime, encouraging group members to sign it.
Patriotes Sag Lac has been tied to real-life organizing. In August 2020, members of the group organized a rally in Chicoutimi, drawing a crowd of about 400 attendees, per local media.
On Twitter, Voyer makes it clear that he shares many of the beliefs held in those groups.
In separate posts, he attacks Muslim federal cabinet ministers Omar Alghabra and Maryam Monsef, referring to the former as a “militant Islamist,” and calling for the latter to have her citizenship stripped.
Screen capture of a tweet from Voyer’s account.
When reached for comment, Voyer told CAHN these comments intended to express his “concerns with secularism, radical Islam and Shariah law,” and said it was “thankfully still possible to ask questions in our democracy.”
The comments being pointed to, however, are not questions.
“Born in Saudi Arabia with Syrian citizenship,” Voyer said, responding to a comment on Alghabra’s national origin. “The guy is an Islamist militant.”
In another tweet, Voyer praises Mohammad Tawhidi, a self-dubbed “reformist” Imam who frequently promotes far-right figures, appearing in interviews with the likes of Candace Owens, Jack Posobiec, and Brittany Pettibone.
When Faith Goldy ran for mayor of Toronto in 2019, Tawhidi endorsed her policies on “crime and Islamic extremism.”
“This interview with Imam Tawhidi helped me understand a lot of things about Islam,” wrote Voyer, sharing a link to an interview conducted by reactionary right-wing Youtuber Dave Rubin.
In a later tweet, Voyer described Tawhidi as a “great man.”
Much like the leader of his party, Voyer is a vocal supporter of Rebel Media, enough so that he cited Andrew Scheer’s decision to boycott them as one of his main reasons for supporting the People’s Party.
“What are Andrew Scheer and his entourage afraid of? Why are these authentic conservatives now considered pariahs?” wrote Voyer in an open letter published in the Huffington Post.
Attacking Rebel News’ critics, he goes on to contend that mainstream media unfairly depicts the outlet as “racist, xenophobic and far-right.”
“These accusations are unfounded and have no other goal than to silence the political right,” Voyer concludes.
How venues and community members can identify and avoid booking far-right performers looking for a platform, and what to do if you already have.
Organizers say the protests will continue indefinitely until the tax is repealed.
The question references an attack on one of the first institutes studying gender and sexuality in the earliest days of Hitler’s rise to power.