Gavin McInnes

Gavin Miles McInnes (; born 17 July 1970) is a Canadian writer, podcaster, far-right commentator and founder of the Proud Boys. He is the host of Get Off My Lawn with Gavin McInnes on Censored.TV, which he founded. He co-founded Vice magazine in 1994 at the age of 24, and relocated to the United States in 2001. In 2016 he founded the Proud Boys, an American far-right organization which was designated a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand after he left the group. McInnes has been described as promoting violence against political opponents, but has claimed that he only has supported political violence in self-defense and that he is not far-right or a supporter of fascism, identifying as "a fiscal conservative and libertarian". Born to Scottish parents in Hertfordshire, England, McInnes immigrated to Canada as a child. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to Montreal and co-founding Vice with Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith. He relocated with Vice Media to New York City in 2001. During his time at Vice, McInnes was called a leading figure in the New York hipster subculture. He holds both Canadian and British citizenship and lives in Larchmont, New York. In 2018, McInnes was fired from Blaze Media, and was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech. In June 2020, McInnes's account was suspended from YouTube for violating YouTube's policies concerning hate speech, posting content that was "glorifying [and] inciting violence against another person or group of people." Early life Gavin Miles McInnes was born on 17 July 1970 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, the son of Scottish parents James McInnes, who later became the Vice-President of Operations at Gallium Visual Systems Inc. – a Canadian defence company – and Loraine McInnes, a retired business teacher. His family migrated to Canada when McInnes was four, settling in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended Ottawa's Earl of March Secondary School. As a teen, McInnes played in an Ottawa punk band called Anal Chinook. He graduated from Carleton University.