What is Dominion Society of Canada and why are people of different political backgrounds worried?

Anti-immigration group says it's holding Aug. 29 conference in the Hamilton area

What is the Dominion Society of Canada?

Dominion Society of Canada says it's planning a conference featuring Canadian and international speakers at a venue in the Hamilton area on Aug. 29.

Elected officials and anti-hate groups have spoken out about the anti-immigration group, accusing it of spreading hate.

The self-proclaimed nationalist group — which advocates deporting millions of people from Canada — registered as a non-profit in 2025, according to a federal corporation database.

According to Evan Balgord, who directs the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Dominion Society likely has thousands of members — mostly young white men and boys.

The group was founded by Daniel Tyrie, former executive director of the People's Party of Canada, which is led by Maxime Bernier.

Balgord said to understand Dominion Society, you need to know "they speak out of both sides of their mouth."

On its website, Dominion Society describes itself as "promoting Canadian nationalism and immigration reform."

However, "when they're talking just to their supporters, they're talking about how they need to deport people from Canada who are not the right kind of white and European," Balgord said.

Balgord said the Canadian Anti-Hate Network found Dominion Society has "neo-Nazi members" and shares members with "more openly extreme" white nationalist groups, including Diagolon and Second Sons.

He said Dominion Society gave a special membership card to a co-leader of Second Sons with the number 88, which white supremacists use to mean "heil Hitler." That member posted an image of the card online last summer.

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When asked, Tyrie didn't say whether or not his group includes neo-Nazis or members from other nationalist groups. He said its membership "includes Canadians from a wide variety of political backgrounds and associations."

"We have absolutely no interest in foreign political movements of the 1930s," he said in a followup email. "We are entirely focused on Canada's heritage and political solutions for the problems of the 2020s."

But Balgord said statements made to supporters "and to the white nationalism ecosystem are more truthful than the statements that they provide necessarily on their website and to journalists.... In other words: When they tell you who they are, believe them."

Balgord describes Dominion Society as "the political arm of the white nationalist movement," seeking to make its ideas mainstream so that one day, white nationalists can seize political power.

The website also outlines a plan for "remigration," or the mass deportation of five million to nine million people, including temporary foreign workers, permanent residents and people born in Canada to non-Canadian citizens.

It also promotes the great replacement conspiracy theory, which suggests white people are being replaced by racialized people.

Barbara Perry, who directs the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, previously told the CBC that the group's arguments are "inherently racist and xenophobic" because it lays the country's problems at the feet of immigrants.

When it comes to who the group wants to see deported, "I think it's pretty clear from their language that what they mean is non-white, non-Christian," Perry said. "Their very presence is intimidating to the sorts of communities they would like to remove."

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Ultimately, Balgord said, Dominion Society wants to make its ideas mainstream so white nationalists can take political power and enact their agenda.

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People with different political ties have criticized Dominion Society. They include Jason Kenney, former Alberta premier and onetime Conservative MP.

"There are a bunch of totally legitimate concerns about what I would characterize as imprudent or irresponsible immigration policy," Kenney, federal immigration minister from 2008 to 2013, told CBC Hamilton in an interview this week.

"But I think that is categorically different than basing our immigration policy on race."

Dominion Society, he added, seems more interested in the colour of people's skin than the kind of contribution they're making to Canada.

"That is clearly un-Canadian, and it needs to be called out.

"People like me, who are on the right of centre of Canadian politics, have a special obligation to do that," Kenney said. "I think it's really problematic to have a group like that wrapping itself in Canadian patriotism and nationalism that is trying to exploit public concern about immigration and turn it into, frankly, a racist message."

What's the impact of this messaging?

Hamilton labour organizer Ritch Whyman said Dominion Society's rhetoric is "dangerous" because it divides working-class people.

"The cost of living has just gone insane," the Hamilton & District Labour Council executive member told CBC. "Groups like the Dominion Society try to use a racist message to explain why that's the case."

When push comes to shove, Whyman said, "people realize it's not someone that came here on foot or crossed a border on a boat that's the problem. It's their CEO who flies around on a Learjet that is the problem."

Blaming immigrants is "an attempt to deflect from the top and convince working-class people that they should be attacking the people with the least amount of power in society," Whyman said. "That actually emboldens employers and will lead to a race to the bottom for working-class people."

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Caitlin Craven, who directs the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, said the Dominion Society is not really trying to have a policy discussion.

"They are trying to create a feeling of belonging and acceptance for a certain group of people and a feeling of fear and exclusion for other people," she said.

Tyrie denied trying to make anyone afraid.

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Dominion Society's planned August event, called DomCon 2026, is "part of the growing movements that we're seeing of anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, anti-trans movements across the country," Craven maintains.

In an open letter, the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion and other Hamilton organizations urged businesses and institutions not to rent conference space to Dominion Society.

In an Aug. 13 YouTube video, Tyrie said the group already has a venue. Earlier this month, a spokesperson said the group is keeping the conference's precise location secret so its members aren't targeted by people who disagree with them.

Justin Chandler is a CBC News reporter in Hamilton. He covers stories of all kinds from places including picket lines, court rooms, council meetings and research labs. Justin has a special interest in how public policy affects people, and loves a quirky human-interest story. Before CBC Hamilton, he worked for TVO and on a variety of CBC teams and programs. He co-hosted Radio Free Krypton on Met Radio.

With files from Aura Carreño Rosas