Posters Encouraging People To "Join The Alt-Right" Have Popped Up In Toronto

"Sick of being blamed for all the world's problems?"

Posters encouraging white people to "join the alt-right" have appeared in a neighbourhood in Toronto's east end.

Ian Daffern / Via facebook.com

"Hey, white person," the poster reads. "Tired of political correctness? Wondering why only white countries have to become 'multicultural'?"

After several more provocative questions, the poster lists a number of different right-wing websites and blogs associated with the alt-right, the loosely organized political movement that has emerged as a powerful force in US conservative politics and that formed a big part of Donald Trump's support. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, a fundamental value of the alt-right is an embrace of white ethno-nationalism.

Ian Daffern said he saw three posters while walking his son to kindergarten in the morning, in the Woodbine-Lumsden neighbourhood of East York.

"It sickens me. It made me angry," Daffern told BuzzFeed Canada.

Daffern said he was uncertain why his part of town might be the target of such a campaign.

"You can't even say this was your neighbours, because it could have been someone who came in from a different part of town," he said.

Another East York resident who spoke to BuzzFeed Canada said he saw the posters as a clear outgrowth of the US election campaign.

Kara Greene / Via Twitter: @KerrEteach

"The election in the States is not even a week in the rearview mirror and already people are feeling empowered enough to post such hate," Kevin Kerr told BuzzFeed Canada.

He said his children's caregiver saw the poster near a park on the way to school with Kerr's son. He said it made him worry for his family and his community.

"East York is a pretty diverse community, and it is shocking to think that someone could be so emboldened to post this."

Kerr said he had contacted his city councillor and that he wants to see people come together in response to the posters.

"We have to accept the fact that this kind of hate is not uniquely American," he said. "We need a community response to deal with it."

A spokesperson for the Council of European Canadians, the only identifiably Canadian website listed on the posters, said the group had nothing to do with the posters' distribution.

"[W]e had nothing to do with poster and CEC does not identify itself as alt-right, but as pro-Trump," Ricardo Duchesne said in an email to BuzzFeed Canada.

This is not the first time posters have appeared in Toronto specifically encouraging white people to become politically active.

imgur.com / Via reddit.com

At the start of the 2015 school year, a poster campaign encouraged the creation of a "white students union" at Toronto universities, although it's not clear what, if anything, came of it.