Montreal’s anti-radicalization centre no longer occupies the same spacious offices that once received high-profile visitors such as then-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
To reach its current office, visitors have to navigate the corridors of the concrete pyramid that is the city’s former Olympic Village, past pizza and sushi shops, other offices and a grocery store.
The new venue is one of many changes that the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence has undergone since it opened in 2015 to great fanfare.
Its creation came as a wave of young Quebecers was leaving to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria and after attacks in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., that were inspired by the terror group.
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After a period of organizational turbulence, the centre has continued its work, with a lower profile, a smaller budget, and a focus that has increasingly shifted from radical Islam to the far right and conspiracy theorists.
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Louis Audet Gosselin, the centre’s scientific and strategic director, says that while the fear of young people leaving for Syria was the “spark” that convinced authorities to fund the centre, the institution very quickly made it clear that its scope wasn’t limited to one threat.
He says the centre soon found it really important to communicate that radicalization was something way beyond that specific moment, and that specific ideology of jihadism, or a form of political Islam.
He says every type of ideology, social or political idea can have a radical and an extremist trend, and can lead to radicalization.
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Audet Gosselin says the COVID-19 pandemic “democratized” the notion of radicalization by making people realize that it could happen to someone of any age or background.
Calls to the centre in 2020 — the first year of the pandemic — doubled from the previous year, with the centre’s annual report crediting the spike to “a fraying of the social fabric” that led to violent acts, conspiracy theories and polarized debate.
