Will we see a movement similar to that which has paralyzed Ottawa since the end of January arrive in Paris? This weekend of February 12 and 13, processions of French people joined Paris, before trying to get to Brussels at the start of the week. Inspired by the movement of truckers who have been blocking the Canadian capital Ottawa for several days, the French mobilization intends to protest against health measures and the decline in purchasing power. A protean procession, which met on a Facebook group of more than 350,000 members, and which the French intelligence services are struggling to define: the “Convois de la liberté” – of the same name as the overseas version. Atlantic – seem to mix anger over gas prices, distrust of the executive and distrust of health restrictions. But like its Canadian counterpart, the protest appears to be at least infiltrated by conspiratorial figures, who have emerged as self-proclaimed spokespersons for the movement. As if, favored by the exasperation of some against sanitary measures and social discontent, it only took a few weeks for the contagion to spread.
In Canada, the movement declares itself primarily anti-restrictions – and not anti-vax. After ten days of blockages, he still has considerable popular support. Its participants raise the question of maintaining restrictive health measures against Covid-19 at present, an issue to which a large part of the population seems sensitive: 44% of Canadians believe they understand “the cause and the frustrations conveyed by the protesters”. Very followed, the movement is however heterogeneous. Among the truckers parading through the city, some show up with Southern Confederate flags, swastikas, or even wear T-shirts celebrating the QAnon conspiracy movement.
Qanon fans
The leaders of the Convoy are also close to this conspiratorial movement, which, since 2017, has claimed that government, financial and media elites have to their credit satanic, cannibalistic and pedophile crimes. “We gradually realized that the convoy was led by far-right conspiratorial figures, with nationalist or regionalist tendencies. They structured the movement and the latter seems to have become more radical around them”, explains Frédéric Boily, full professor at Campus Saint-Jean and specialist in Canadian and Quebec politics. In these figures, we find in particular James Bauder, at the head of Canada Unity, who publicly supported the Qanon theses, or even Benjamin Ditcher, who worried about “the galloping Islamization of Canada”. Gaining visibility through the support of personalities of international stature such as Donald Trump or the billionaire Elon Musk, or even the extensive – and very favorable – coverage of the conservative channel Fox News, the movement quickly went beyond Canadian borders alone.
In France, it has piqued the interest of Internet users who, at the end of January, created the Facebook group “Le Convoi de la liberté”. An aggregate of demands combining protests against sanitary measures, rising prices at the pump and rejection of the media and Emmanuel Macron soon appeared on the page. But in a variant of the Canadian movement, figures with clearly conspiratorial overtones have gradually proclaimed themselves on the movement’s spokesperson networks: Rémi Monde, a fan of the conspiratorial documentary Hold-Up and of the vaccine-skeptical anesthesiologist Louis Fouché, in fact part. This is also the case, Marie-Elisabeth, known as “Marisa”, close to the ReinfoCovid collective created by the latter. On encrypted Telegram messaging, the “LesVilainsComplotistes” or “LeGrandReveil” loops, purveyors of conspiracy theories, also welcomed the arrival of the movement in France.
Internationalization of conspiracy theses
“It’s not very surprising, says Thomas Huchon, co-author with Jean-Bernard Schmidt of Anti Fake news, the essential book to disentangle the true from the false. With the Internet, in general, there are no borders, only language barriers. English-speaking and French-speaking, Canada has become a vessel for the translation and transmission of certain conspiracy theories.” If the example of Canadian truckers could inspire French people wishing to express their social discontent, it also allowed for faster internationalization This is precisely what happened when, after several months of phosphorizing in North America, the Qanon movement ended up infiltrating France. Imported from the United States by a few influencers and French-speaking bloggers, the conspiracy movement has gradually taken root in France. In February, the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes) announced that since 2020 it had received ten reports reporting “the influence and the indoctrination of relatives” by the movement. This summer, winks to Qanon were found on the signs of the anti-vax and anti-pass demonstrations.
“But this theory is not the only one to have been transmitted”, points out Thomas Huchon. Videographer Jacques Crèvecoeur is a good example. This Belgian, who has been living in Quebec since 2004, has been spreading his theses hostile to vaccination for several years. He nevertheless gained an audience with the pandemic, which he describes as a “monumental manipulation” dedicated to “installing a global dictatorship”. An acceleration as much linked to social networks, which facilitate the circulation of – false – information, as to the general context. “The Covid generated two things: uncertainty and fear. Seeing that neither the scientific community nor the government could provide clear analyzes of the situation, people began to look for answers elsewhere, explained to L’Express the sociologist Romy Sauvayre this summer. He simply offered the time to citizens to invest in these beliefs, via videos, exchanges on social networks or reading articles on so-called alternative sites “.
A global event, the pandemic has allowed the installation of an unprecedented context: all countries are facing the same virus, the same fears, the same restrictions. It is therefore easy to apply the same analysis grids from one region to another, when, until now, conspiracy theories often remained localized. “No need to translate theories: 5G, vaccine, Big Pharma, the new world order… Whether you are on one side or the other of the Atlantic, these narratives can apply, reinforced by algorithms social networks and by certain unscrupulous traditional media”, explains Thomas Huchon. It is as if, through the conspiracy theses, a new collective narrative was being born. “The sociologist Dominique Wolton said that the Internet does not bring people together, but only those who have a common point, continues the specialist. This phenomenon has been hypertrophied by algorithms in recent years.”