LIBERAL CORRUPTION

by Rémi Tremblay

Six years ago, Maclean’s (Canada’s national weekly current affairs and news magazine) labeled Quebec “the most corrupt province” of Canada. At that time, the Liberal government led by Jean Charest also launched an inquiry to investigate corruption in the judge nomination process. A year later, the same government had to set up another committee, this time dealing with the construction business. The corruption proved to be widespread, both at the city and provincial levels, with contracts being given according to the donations received by the party. And the mob got its share as well, to reward it for playing the role of middleman between crooked politicians and greedy entrepreneurs.

CASAPOUND'S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

by Rémi Tremblay

I have never visited CasaPound myself. What I know about that Roman movement was learnt through books, articles, but also through friends’ testimonies who have had the chance to go to Rome and experience first hand this movement. More importantly, what I am writing on today is based on two interviews I carried with authors linked to CasaPound (Gabriele Adinolfi and Adriano Scianca) and the lecture and subsequent meeting with CasaPound’s French spokesman Sébastien.

On February 28th, Sébastien, along with two leaders of the student association Blocco Studentesco gave a lecture in Montreal about CasaPound, its goals, its methods. After the lecture, I had the chance to speak at length with Sébastien to explicit some points his lecture had not answered.

The purpose here is not to discuss CasaPound’s ideas or objectives. This neofascist group defends ideas that are rooted in Italian history and would seem out of place in North America. The focus of this essay is on the methods used by CasaPound to achieve the success it is now achieving and to highlight the ones that could be imported here in order to build a strong alternative movement.