The High Cost of 'Remigration' Rhetoric
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
As the Dominion Society seeks to bring a banned extremist to Hamilton, Canada faces a tension between free speech and the safety of its newcomers.
Canada's commitment to free expression is being tested by the Dominion Society, an organization that advocates for "remigration"—the mass deportation of immigrants, as CityNews Toronto first reported. According to the report, the group's website describes this as the return of foreigners to their homelands and proposes a 10-year immigration moratorium, alongside stripping permanent residency and deporting five to nine million people. The group specifically targets Canada's Indian population, claiming these measures are the only way to solve labor market and housing costs.
Central to this tension is Martin Sellner, an Austrian man slated as a keynote speaker for a Dominion Society conference in Hamilton on Aug. 29. Sellner has a history of international bans: the U.K. permanently banned him in 2019 on security grounds, and German authorities issued a three-year entry ban in 2024. Furthermore, his U.S. travel permit was revoked in 2019 after it was revealed that the Christchurch mosque shooter, who killed 51 people, donated approximately 1,500 euros to him.
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath has warned local venue owners about the group's objectives, stating there is no place for racism or hate in the city and confirming the City of Hamilton will not rent space to the group. Dominion Society chair Daniel Tyrie has pushed back, calling Horwath's comments "inappropriate" and arguing that any attempt to block Sellner would be "political persecution."
However, anti-racism scholar Ameil Joseph warns that the Dominion Society uses "laundered" tactics to move extremist ideas into mainstream discourse, leveraging economic anxiety to promote the "great replacement" theory. This sentiment is echoed by Raqib Naik of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, who notes that "remigration" is often targeted at all non-white populations. While a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab stated that all entrants must meet requirements under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, officials have not disclosed whether Sellner will be admitted.