After the Freedom Convoy, she turned her focus on local politics. What followed was an alt-right siege of this Ontario city

Pickering city officials steeled themselves. They watched as a line of people filed into council chambers to support Lisa Robinson. 
Since her election in October 2022, the rookie councillor has opposed Pride events and denounced Black History Month. But when councillors try to speak out against her, and rein in what they feel is a growing distraction, Robinson’s defenders get louder.
The mayor received an email from a resident, who suggested he could face a public hanging. Two councillors say they were followed home after meetings by people they believe are Robinson supporters.
On this evening in March, for the fourth time in recent months, the business of the municipality of more than 100,000 was sidelined to specifically address Robinson’s conduct. And, once again, the meeting spiralled out of control. 
Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe struggled to contain outbursts from the gallery. Robinson repeatedly interjected, and accused Ashe of running a dictatorship. When one of Robinson’s supporters alleged that the council was committing “an act of insurrection,” the mayor snapped. 
He interrupted and told the woman to get back on topic, but she carried on, saying, “I have the right to speak.”
Ashe cut her mic. Then he turned to Robinson.
“You should be very proud Lisa, very proud, the nutcases you bring in here,” he said. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
In the lobby outside council chambers, the woman argued with Durham police officers. She was arrested over her alleged refusal to leave.
When news of the arrest reached Robinson, she was reportedly pleased. At the next meeting, Ashe publicly chastised her, claiming that Robinson was overheard saying: “Good. She took one for the team.”
City councils, school boards and public libraries are designed for public engagement. But in some towns and cities across Canada, these local institutions are coming under siege.
Those claiming to be fighting for freedom are mounting disruptive campaigns that are overtaking agendas, sucking up time and consuming scarce resources.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Dave Pickles, who has been a Pickering councillor for 27 years and has lately taken to hanging his head in his hands during meetings while chaos erupts around him. “The democratic process I believe in … is being hijacked.”
In Pickering and elsewhere, the incipient political force is being powered, in part, by some of the same groups whose conspiratorial, anti-big government ideology galvanized the so-called “Freedom Convoy.”
For several weeks in the winter of 2022, thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets in downtown Ottawa, grinding life in the nation’s capital to a halt. To those seeking to dismantle the inclusive policies underpinning Canada’s democracy, observers of the alt-right say, it was proof of concept. 
The movement has since dispersed and shifted focus. School-based sex education, equity initiatives and 15-minute cities are now being villainized as alleged manifestations of illegitimate government overreach. So-called “freedom fighters” set their sights on local institutions, and those councils and boards were unprepared for the surge.
Angry outbursts from residents have triggered increased spending on security. Public meetings are turning into marathons. The daily business isn’t getting done.
In Pickering, those amplifying and supporting Robinson include Action4Canada, a national Christian organization that spreads misinformation in its Trumpian mission to “make Canada great again.” The onslaught is also being fuelled from within, by Robinson herself, who critics say is deliberately inciting unrest in council to grow her base online. In their desperation to restore order, city officials risk clamping down too indiscriminately, and in a way that could harm the public’s ability to interact with its government. 
The Star repeatedly contacted Robinson with numerous questions about the findings of this investigation. Most went unanswered. On one occasion, she spoke to a reporter in council chambers. She denied that she is racist or homophobic, and has said on social media that she is fighting for “unity and equality for all.” She told the Star that she has been bullied and harassed by her fellow councillors and accused the media and city officials of bias. 
“That’s what I’m trying really hard to fight against — the corruption, and the taking words out of context without having the full and whole story,” she said. “It has been very divisive.”
In the winter of 2022, Robinson stepped onto a platform near Parliament Hill to address demonstrators at the convoy.
She introduced herself as a licensed paralegal, and became emotional as she told demonstrators that she had taken “an oath to champion the rule of law” and “fight for the rights and freedoms of all people.”
“I’m here to work for you,” she said, and offered to notarize so-called notices of liability (NOLs) for free.
NOLs gained popularity in the pandemic in some anti-vax circles. They appear like legal documents and claim that those implementing a range of initiatives — from public health mandates to sex education — are committing a crime. NOLs have no basis in Canadian law and no significance in court.
Robinson got a much bigger platform that fall. After vying on and off for public office since 2014, she narrowly edged out seven competitors in the Pickering municipal election, and won her seat in Ward 1.
Progressive residents were stunned. A year before the Pickering race, the federal Conservatives dropped Robinson as their candidate in Beaches-East York, after her Liberal opponent publicized Islamophobic posts from a social media account he said Robinson had used in an earlier election.
At the time, Robinson said the social media account was fake, and threatened to sue anyone who spread information she described as “defamatory.” However, on a webcast this spring, she appeared to acknowledge the posts were hers. She blamed the controversy instead on a fellow Pickering councillor, who, she alleged, “had some people go through my Twitter posts and try to make me look like I was Islamophobic.”
Once in office, Robinson appears to have actively courted more extreme elements. 
She twice attended events with a German politician, whose party has espoused virulent anti-Muslim views, and hung a framed photo of them posing together in her office at city hall.
She spoke at a march held by those who oppose teaching kids about gender identity in schools. 
And when an online video defending her blamed a Jewish conspiracy for pushing a “satanic gender bender LGTBQ agenda,” she promoted it on X, calling it “common sense.”
The politicking paid off. As Robinson’s comments sparked outrage among her critics on council and in the community, her allies in the anti-vax, anti-big government movement leapt to her defence. Among them was Action4Canada.
Standing in the nave of a Bowmanville church last summer, Action4Canada’s founder faced a group gathered to hear about the “spiritual battle between good and evil” she claims she has been called upon by God to wage.
Tanya Gaw framed her group’s push against initiatives aimed at LGBTQ+ inclusion as “the Canadian resistance.” Her baseless claims include her denial of the existence of trans children, and her assertion that Pride events and school lessons about gender identity are part of a “globalist” plot by colluding world leaders to enable pedophilia. 
“Rise up, oh God, and scatter your enemies,” Gaw said, quoting from scripture. “Let those who hate you run for their lives, but let the godly rejoice.”
Launched in 2019, Action4Canada is a federally registered non-profit that claims to have more than 100 chapters across Canada. Based in Surrey, B.C., the group has raised more than $1 million in donations over the past two years, financial records show. 
The organization has made inroads in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, where a former chapter leader was elected as a trustee in 2022. When the board voted against flying the Pride flag last month, Action4Canada said the trustee was “instrumental in making this happen.”
Last October, during a debate in the Senate in Ottawa, a senator noted that Action4Canada “played an active role” in the introduction of controversial gender pronoun policies in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.
Following the Saskatchewan policy change, Gaw told members in a video posted on the group’s website, “Action4Canada has been working harder in the background than most people know.”
The policies, which require parental consent for children under 16 to change their pronouns or names in schools, are fiercely opposed by LGBTQ+ advocates, who say such restrictions harm trans and non-binary youth.
Helen Kennedy, the executive director for Egale, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group fighting the pronoun policies in court, said Action4Canada’s focus is “on dismantling inclusive democracy.” 
“They are anti-everything that we have worked very, very hard to achieve in Canada to be a more inclusive, caring society,” she said. 
In a half-dozen communities, public officials and advocates told the Star they blame Action4Canada, in some part, for campaigns they say were hateful, and left them feeling unsafe.
In New Brunswick, an advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools filed a police report after Action4Canada issued a “call to action” about her on its website last year. The group posted a photo of Gail Costello and her profile on X, where she had been opposing the new pronoun policy. Costello was hit with an onslaught of messages. She said police responded with tips on how to stay safe. She shut down her social media accounts and installed a home security system.
In B.C., another Action4Canada “call to action” targeted the Chilliwack school board chair, demanding her removal. Willow Reichelt had cut short deputations from Gaw and others, who alleged school libraries contained child pornography. The RCMP investigated, and concluded the allegations were baseless. Reichelt received a torrent of hateful messages. One called her a “sick c***” and a “pedophile freak.” Another warned: “Your face and name is all over the internet.” 
“What they inspire in people who are potentially unbalanced is scary,” said Reichelt. “They’re a hate group.” 
In an interview with the Star, Gaw rejected this characterization, and said she does not preach violence. She blamed Reichelt and Costello for “pushing a program” she believes is harming kids, as well as school boards and others for not “allowing a reasonable conversation.”
In Pickering, where Action4Canada has been supporting Robinson, Gaw said the individuals “acting out” are not affiliated with her organization. (Several so-called “freedom” groups have put out calls on social media for supporters to show up at meetings in Robinson’s defence.)
Robinson’s ties to Action4Canada date back at least to 2022. Action4Canada sent Robinson chapter start-up materials and resources shortly after she was elected, according to a detailed list of the group’s expenditures that was posted on social media by an LGBTQ+ advocate. The group credits Robinson on its website for assisting with an NOL campaign opposing mask mandates at Durham District School Board.
Neither Gaw nor Robinson disputed the authenticity of the expenditure list or responded to a question about the chapter start-up materials. 
Last fall, when council docked Robinson 90 days’ pay for violating the city’s code of conduct, a provincial leader for the group set up a fundraiser for her, and has repeatedly delegated in support of Robinson at Pickering city council. 
Speaking to the Star after a council meeting in April, Robinson defended Action4Canada members and others supporting her, saying “they don’t have a hateful bone in most of their bodies.” 
She credited the Action4Canada leader’s fundraiser for helping to fund her legal battle against the city, but sought to distance herself from the group.
Initially, she said she had never been involved with Action4Canada. She then acknowledged that she had briefly agreed to lead a local chapter, before realizing that she was too busy to take on the role, and said she offered to help by notarizing documents.
Robinson refused to answer questions about Gaw’s anti-trans rhetoric. She asked the Star not to publish the comments she had made about Action4Canada. When the Star would not agree, she ended the interview.
Shortly after speaking to the Star, Robinson was the featured guest on Gaw’s weekly webcast. She smiled and nodded along as Gaw praised her for keeping her cool, despite sitting next to a mayor and council that Gaw described as “vindictive criminals.”
Gaw encouraged elected officials like Robinson to “stay in the game.”
Before signing off, Robinson said, “There’s a lot of us who think we’re all alone, and together, we’re stronger than ever.”
Pickering’s head of security, Michael Cain, is a retired Durham police officer. When he started five years ago, keeping council running safely was a minor concern. It is now all consuming. 
Speaking to the Star in city hall one morning in April, Cain said, “I don’t want you to walk away from Pickering thinking it’s a festering pit of hatred, because this is a wonderful place … Really, what we’re talking about is a small group of people.” 
The small group is putting an outsized strain on the city government. 
The city has banned eight members of the public from city hall, according to internal security bulletins and trespass notices obtained by the Star. (The woman who was arrested at the March meeting and the man who sent the threatening email to the mayor are among those who were banned.)
There have been physical changes to council chambers. Delegations, which used to be delivered from a microphone behind the horseshoe where city staff sit, have been relocated to an isolated cubicle surrounded by Plexiglas. 
The area around the breezeway that connects chambers to a private part of city hall was roped off after a member of the public followed Councillor Linda Cook into the narrow corridor during an unruly council meeting last fall.
“It was a wake-up call,” Cook said. “It was an actual act within the chamber that prompted us to change our security measures.”
Responding to the unrest has been expensive. Council increased the city’s annual budget for security guards and off-duty police officers at meetings by $30,000. Following concerns from councillors who felt personally targeted, the city approved another $35,000 per year to pay for all seven of them to install home security systems. 
Since 2022, the cost of the integrity commissioner, who investigates alleged breaches of the city’s code of conduct, has skyrocketed to $72,000 — a nearly 17-fold increase over the total spent during the previous term. Ashe said the city has budgeted another $200,000 to defend against Robinson’s application for the judicial review of the commissioner’s findings. 
“I would much rather have a playground or a pottery class or an extra lifeguard than be paying $200,000 in legal fees,” Ashe said.
The fight is also wearing on those in the community who oppose Robinson. 
At a council meeting in February, Durham District School Board trustee Stephen Linton was among more than a dozen anti-Black racism advocates who spoke out against a column Robinson wrote denouncing Black History Month as “racist.” Linton told Robinson that, as a city councillor, she had a duty “to foster inclusivity and understanding of all communities.”
“Dismissing the importance of Black History Month contravenes these responsibilities and sends the message that history and experiences of Black Canadians are of little value,” he said. “This stance is not only hurtful but also perpetuates the very injustices that Black History Month seeks to address.”
Speaking to the Star in his capacity as a Pickering resident, Linton said he fears the vitriol at meetings and on social media, where the discourse is even more caustic, is chasing away residents who might otherwise wish to participate.
“It’s exhausting, to the point where a lot of people are like, ‘What’s the point?’ And that’s hard to hear,” he said. “Because ‘What’s the point’ means that people now just kind of shut themselves off.” 
On Facebook, those on opposing sides of the conflict have set up duelling groups, calling for the removal of Robinson and Ashe. Local residents’ groups, where both chime in, have become battlegrounds. The city is responding to perceived threats there, too: A woman was banned from city hall after she named the mayor and several councillors in a post, and said, “Soon the ropes will hang and the people will gather and smile with satisfaction.”
Municipalities like Pickering need help from the province and federal government to figure out how to deal with the surge they’re confronting, says Ontario’s former premier Kathleen Wynne.
“If we have to barricade every council chamber in the 444 municipalities, and everyone who goes into elected office at the municipal level or the provincial level has to have … security — we don’t have the resources for that,” she said. “There has to be another answer.”
Wynne is sympathetic to the challenge. As the country’s first openly gay premier, she has been repeatedly targeted by anti-LGBTQ+ hatred. She implemented the sex-ed curriculum that is being vilified with what she describes as “vile” misinformation. 
But she warned against measures that could be seen as reducing public access or scrutiny of elected officials.
“It’s not going to make that anger and hatred go away,” she said. “When you try to repress anger, it just comes out in other ways.”
This spring, Pickering city council banned members of the public from recording meetings, eliminated an open-ended question period and prohibited non-residents from registering to speak, except in certain circumstances. 
The mayor said the changes were necessary to restore order and get back to business.
“We’re trying to run a city,” Ashe told the Star. “We really don’t have the time, energy or resources to deal with conspiracy theorists. And I think that’s what this is.”
The moves triggered intense backlash from Robinson and her supporters, who seized on the initiatives as undemocratic. 
In interviews on right-wing webcasts, Robinson accused the city of censoring the public and of tampering with the live feed from council meetings. If she becomes mayor, she said she will fire top city officials, including the chief administrative officer and the city solicitor, and “tear city hall down and build it right back up.”
In late May, she amplified a call on social media for her supporters to descend again on city hall, where council was set to vote on the proposal to limit the ability of out-of-towners to speak at meetings.
Those supporting the councillor registered to speak in person and remotely, from as far afield as Ottawa. They included the provincial Action4Canada leader from Courtice and a former People’s Party of Canada candidate from Port Perry.
Shane Quinn sat in the gallery, wearing a “Make Canada Great Again” hat he says he bought from Rebel News, which has also adopted the slogan. Quinn told the Star he is a longtime friend of Robinson and described her as “the hardest working person you could ever meet.”
“Lisa may be a hardass but she is a fantastic person,” he said. “She only is doing this to make this city a better place for her kid and for his friends.” 
Chaos erupted during a delegation from one of Robinson’s supporters, over a comment Ashe had made about Robinson at a previous meeting. Ashe said he was going to keep Robinson “on a tight leash” — a phrase they alleged was misogynistic and demeaning. 
Ashe claimed his use of the expression was benign, but Robinson’s supporters didn’t let it go. From the gallery, Quinn interjected: “It’s unacceptable speech under any circumstances.” 
As Ashe repeatedly called for order, Robinson chimed in, telling the mayor he was treating her “like an animal.”
“I am not your wife, Mr. Mayor. I do not deserve to be spoken to as such,” she said.
Ashe cut Robinson’s mic, and a woman in the gallery rose to her feet and started hurling insults at Ashe, calling him a “male chauvinist pig” and a “hypocrite.” Ashe called a recess, and police cleared the chamber. 
When the meeting resumed, Robinson and Ashe got into it again, during a delegation from a Pickering resident who accused Robinson of continuing to “publicly endorse and spread bigotry.” 
Robinson interrupted, and asked for a “point of personal privilege,” arguing that she should be allowed to respond to the resident, who had “lied.” 
Ashe disagreed, and told her she was “out of order.” 
She shot back, “You’re out of order, Mr. Mayor.”
The mayor warned Robinson that if she continued to break the rules of the chamber she would be barred from participating. She kept at it, and Ashe made good on his threat. 
“You are not allowed to talk anymore,” he said. 
A Robinson supporter in the gallery added her voice to the escalating argument, and refused to leave. Police cleared the building.
When the meeting continued, the front doors were locked. Aside from a few journalists, who had been allowed in, the gallery was empty.
Robinson tried to interject, but she wasn’t allowed to speak or vote. The motion to restrict deputations to Pickering residents passed unanimously.
Ashe predicted the evening’s events would be “great YouTube content for Councillor Robinson and her supporters.” 
“It’s shameful what’s happened tonight,” he said, “and she’ll take some great pride in it.”
With data analysis by Andrew Bailey.