The Proud Boys Are Simply a Brotherhood of Men Proud of Western Culture
Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, described them as a non-partisan brotherhood for men who are proud of the West. Canada designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organisation in 2021. The group's leader - Enrique Tarrio - was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, but was pardoned by Trump on the first day of his second term.
What we know
Gavin McInnes is a Canadian-British media figure who co-founded Vice Media in 2002 and founded the Proud Boys in 2016 - a group he described as a 'Western chauvinist fraternal organisation' open only to men. McInnes insisted the Proud Boys were neither a supremacist nor a violent group, comparing them to fraternal organisations such as the Elks or the Moose.
However, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) documented the group's growing involvement in political violence from its founding through 2021. On 2 February 2021 - prompted by the Proud Boys' 'pivotal role' in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 - the Canadian government designated the group as a terrorist entity, freezing its assets and exposing members to potential terrorism charges. Canada was the first country to take that step; New Zealand followed.
In the United States, a federal jury convicted Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four senior members of 'seditious conspiracy' - a conspiracy to commit insurrection - for their role in the events of 6 January 2021. In September 2023, Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the heaviest sentence handed down to any of the January 6 defendants. On the very day Trump began his second term - 20 January 2025 - he pardoned Tarrio and approximately 1,500 other individuals convicted in connection with that day's events.
McInnes formally distanced himself from the organisation in November 2018, claiming he did so to help its arrested members. Critics described that gesture as a legal tactic devoid of any genuine break with the ideas the organisation embodied.
Common claims
- The Proud Boys are a largely peaceful brotherhood for men.False - Canada designated them a terrorist organisation
- Canada designated the Proud Boys as terrorists in 2021.Supported
- Proud Boys leadership was convicted of seditious conspiracy.Supported - but subsequently pardoned by Trump