Canada's yellow-vest movement criticized for attracting extremists

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      Vancouver saw its first yellow-vest protest this weekend.

      It came when a handful of demonstrators showed up outside Vancouver City Hall on Saturday (December 15) against a nonbinding UN agreement on international migration.

      The global compact has 23 objectives for "safe, orderly and regular migration", including strengthening transnational responses to people-smuggling and human trafficking. 

      Other goals include providing access to basic services for migrants and empowering them to "realize full inclusion and social cohesion".

      In addition there are calls in the global compact to eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote "evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration".

      In Canada, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has falsely claimed that this nonbinding global compact will grant influence to foreign entities over the country's immigration system.

      For that, he was criticized by former Conservative immigration minister Chris Alexander.

      That hasn't stopped opponents of the global compact from encouraging people from across Canada to turn out for rallies.

      In Vancouver, one protester held up a sign that inelegantly called upon Canadians to "flush the turd 2019".

      In Edmonton, at least one former member of the Soldiers of Odin was reportedly among the yellow-vest protesters.

      When counterdemonstrators showed up, scuffles broke out.

      Some in yellow vests tried to intimidate broadcast journalist Carly Robinson at the Edmonton event.

      Following this altercation, a Twitter account from a group calling itself Yellow Vests Canada insisted that the demonstrators, for the most part, are not racist.

      But that claim has been questioned over social media.

      Calgary, a hotbed of right-wing thinking in Canada, was also the site of a yellow-vest demonstration yesterday. 

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