Second Sons, meanwhile, is an “active club in everything except name,” said Lamoureux.
It promotes itself as a fitness-based fraternity based on European culture. But unlike NS13, there is no Nazi iconography in Second Sons’ internet content. Beyond its use of the Red Ensign, the group alludes to the Great Replacement, the conspiracy theory that white people are being driven to extinction.
Second Sons spun out of Diagolon, which the RCMP has labelled an “extremist, militia-like organization.”
CBC reached out to Second Sons via the group’s email address and received a response from Morgan Guptill, partner of Diagolon founder Jeremy MacKenzie. Guptill’s email signature referred to her as “Queen of Diagolon.” She said she does not speak on behalf of Second Sons.
In the email, Guptill said she didn’t understand “why ‘men’ in this country fail to support other men gathering regularly to improve their physical and mental well-being, as Second Sons does. I also fail to understand why anyone in this country with an IQ above 80 would oppose, at minimum, a full moratorium on immigration given the current economic trajectory.”
There is no indication the places where the training is happening are neo-fascist havens. Some, like Niagara BJJ in Welland, where Second Sons members took a group photo, take pride in training a diverse community of people, including children.
Kevin Mans, the owner of Niagara BJJ in Welland, said that as soon as he saw the photos CBC shared, he called his staff and told them these Second Sons members couldn’t come back. Mans said that unbeknownst to him, someone had booked a private event and used the facility in May.
Lamoureux said this demonstrates how active clubs and adjacent movements are infiltrating martial arts spaces.
“The fact that the gym owner doesn’t know that they were training [there] doesn’t surprise me at all,” Lamoureux said. “It just goes to show how manipulative these groups are, that they are going to lie about what they’re doing.”
