Lauren Southern

Lauren Southern is a self proclaimed activist and You Tuber with links to the far right. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter politics Southern started work at Ezra Levant’s anti Islam news organisation The Rebel (which has previously employed well known UK hater convicted fraudster Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and which currently employs oft sacked failed journalist Katie Hopkins).

In 2017 Southern became involved in a Generation Identity project called Defend Europe. This involved the chartering of a boat to sail around Mediterranean waters with the intention of hindering the rescue of any migrants attempting to cross. Southern set up the funding page for Defend Europe which was later taken down by the payment site Patreon who confirmed that the venture was ‘likely to cause loss of life.’ Prior to the closure the project had raised in excess of £50,000 within a three week period.

Southern went aboard the CStar (the name of the Defend Europe boat) for one of the intended ‘missions’ in July 2017 and is quoted as making the statement: “If the politicians won’t stop the boats, we’ll stop the boats.”

After a series of setbacks and bad publicity due to those on board the CStar harassing search and rescue missions, the project was abandoned.

In February 2018 Lauren Southern along with Generation Identity member Brittany Pettibone handed out leaflets in Luton UK. The leaflets were of an incendiary nature making the false statement that Allah (deity of the Islam faith) was ‘gay’. Southern claimed this to be a ‘social experiment’ but it was the view of the Home Office that the actions were an attempt to stir up trouble. The Home Office statement read: “I [Home secretary] believe that your actions whilst in the United Kingdom present a threat to the fundamental interests of society and to the public policy of the United Kingdom.”  Both Southern and Brittany Pettibone were banned from the UK as a result of their racist actions in Luton.

It is worth noting that Southern has links with UK right wing extremist convicted fraudster Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Upon attempting to enter the UK in March 2018 to interview Robinson, Southern was detained in Calais, France under the Terrorism Act 2000.

In July 2018 Southern embarked on a speaking tour in Australia and managed to embarrass herself publicly by making a tasteless joke that Melbourne should be ‘nuked’ Unsurprisingly this attitude did not go down well in the host country.

In August 2018 Southern planned another speaking tour, this time with fellow far right Canadian Stefan Molyneux. This event was cancelled by the original venue with the explanation: “The minute I heard who it was, I [Venue owner] cancelled.”  After failing to find another New Zealand venue to host the hate speech tour was abandoned.

Roanna Carleton Taylor