Gavin Miles McInnes (/məˈkɪnɪs/; born 17 July 1970) is a Canadian writer, podcaster, far-right commentator and founder of the Proud Boys.

He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to Montreal and co-founding Vice with Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith.

[8] In 2018, McInnes was fired from Blaze Media[12] and was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech.

The magazine was established by Interimages Communications under a job creation program of the Quebec government to allow social welfare recipients to gain work experience.

[27][28] Richard Szalwinski, a Canadian software millionaire, acquired the magazine and relocated the operation to New York City in the late 1990s.

[37][38] McInnes later wrote in a letter to Gawker that the interview was done as a prank intended to ridicule "baby boomer media like The Times".

In 2010, McInnes was approached by Adult Swim and asked to play the part of Mick, an anthropomorphic Scottish soccer ball, in the short-lived Aqua Teen Hunger Force spin-off Soul Quest Overdrive.

[43] After losing a 2010 pilot contest to Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge, six episodes of Soul Quest Overdrive were ordered, with four airing in Adult Swim's 4 AM DVR Theater block on 25 May 2011 before quickly being cancelled.

McInnes jokingly blamed the show's cancellation on the other cast members (Kristen Schaal, David Cross, and H. Jon Benjamin) not being "as funny" as him.

[44] McInnes wrote a column for Taki's Magazine, beginning around 2011, that made casual use of racial and anti-gay slurs, as described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

"[52] In June 2015, broadcaster Anthony Cumia announced that McInnes would be hosting a show on his network, therefore retiring the Free Speech podcast that he had started in March.

In 2016, he founded the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist,[54][55][56] men's rights and male-only organisation classified as a "general hate" organization by the SPLC.

[62][63][64] On 12 October 2018, at the Metropolitan Republican Club, McInnes participated in a reenactment of the 1960 assassination of socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma by 17-year-old right-wing ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi during a televised debate.

[66] On 21 November 2018, shortly after news broke that the FBI had reportedly classified the Proud Boys as an extremist group with ties to white nationalists, McInnes said that his lawyers had advised him that quitting might help the nine members being prosecuted for the incidents in October and he said "this is 100% a legal gesture, and it is 100% about alleviating sentencing", and said it was a "'stepping down gesture', in quotation marks".

[69] Later that month, McInnes was planning on travelling to Australia for a speaking tour with Milo Yiannopoulos and Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's pseudonym), but was informed by Australian immigration authorities that "he was judged to be of bad character" and would be denied a visa to enter the country.

[78] Amy Siskind, an activist and writer who lives in nearby Mamaroneck, posted on Facebook that she was planning an anti-hate vigil.

After a local newspaper ran a story about it, McInnes and his family appeared at Siskind's door without invitation or forewarning; she called the police.

[78] At the end of December, with the lawn sign campaign still ongoing, McInnes wrote a letter which was dropped off at the homes of his neighbours.

Despite the letter's formality, in a podcast on 4 January 2019, McInnes called the neighbours "assholes", described their behaviour as "cunty" and said "If you have that sign on your lawn, you're a fucking retard.

"[79] Several days after the letter was sent out, HuffPost reported that they had viewed evidence provided by some neighbours that McInnes' wife, Emily – who identifies as a liberal Democrat – had harassed and intimidated them, including with the threat of legal action.

In the papers filed, McInnes claimed that the hate group designation is false and motivated by fund-raising concerns, and that his career has been damaged by it.

"[57][81] In response to the suit, Richard Cohen, the president of SPLC, wrote "Gavin McInnes has a history of making inflammatory statements about Muslims, women, and the transgender community.

[citation needed] In May 2021, Milo Yiannopoulos wrote on Telegram that Censored.TV is "laying off all its staff" and lacked enough funding to sustain production of Yiannopoulous' show on the platform.

[92] In November 2018 it was reported on the basis of an internal memo of the Clark County, Washington Sheriff's Office – based on an FBI briefing – that the Bureau classified the Proud Boys "an extremist group with ties to white nationalism".

[100][101] In September 2004, he told a reporter for the Chicago Reader at a party that he "wanted to fuck the shit out of [a young Asian lady] until she started talking."

The reporter, Liz Armstrong, wrote: "He went on to posit that since Asians' eyes don't work so good in terms of facial expressions they have no choice but to emote with their mouths.

On the trip, McInnes made a non-Rebel video in which he defended Holocaust deniers, blamed Jews for the Treaty of Versailles, and said he was "becoming anti-Semitic".

[108][106] After his statements were promoted by white supremacists (in contrast to other videos from the Rebel Media tour), McInnes publicly declined their support.

They tend to marry their first cousins... and that is a major problem [in the U.S.] because when you have mentally damaged inbreds – which not all Muslims are, but a disproportionate number are – and you have a hate book called the Koran [sic]... you end up with a perfect recipe for mass murder.

"[94] McInnes has been accused of sexism by various media outlets including Chicago Sun-Times,[117] Independent Journal Review,[118] Salon,[119] Jezebel,[120] The Hollywood Reporter,[121] and Slate.