Combatting extremism

This week, the RCMP revealed that four men are being accused of an alleged anti-government plot that involved creating a militia and seizing land. Two of the men arrested were members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Police are calling the plot an act of "ideologically motivated violent extremism." Last December, the RCMP, CSIS and the Five Eyes Alliance published a report warning about the rise in young people attracted to violent ideologies. So what are the driving forces behind these movements? What warning signs can family members look out for, and what more can be done to root out this extremism from institutions like the military? We spoke with Barbara Perry, the director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, David O'Brien, the director of Mental Health at Yorktown Family Services, where he works with young people to redirect them from violent extremism and hate groups, and Jeanette Manning, the co-author of Walking Away from Hate: Our Journey Through Extremism, which details her own experience with her daughter after her daughter left a white supremacist group.