Saturday, March 19, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: Canadians United 4 Canada Ally With Overt Neo-Nazis

On March 7, the founder of the Facebook group Canadians United 4 Canada posted the following message in which she offered her unreserved support for the Soldiers of Odin (SoO).


The Soldiers of Odin (SoO) began in Finland as a vigilante group ostensibly formed to protect women from sexual harassment and assault from the country's immigrant and minority population (which leaves us wondering if they are as concerned about harassment and assaults against women by the majority native European population, but we digress). Though they claim not to be racist, the founder of the SoO has links to the far-right Finish Resistance movement as well as a conviction for a racially motivated assault (my Finish to English translation captures the spirit of the article):
....Soldiers of Odin leader Mika Beach was convicted of assaulting immigrants in 2005. Beach and his friends attacked two immigrants in a restaurant. They beat both victims and his hand was broken, Journal says. Beach was also sentenced for other offenses, including possession of a gun and blade chain in a public place. The offence was racially motivated....
It is noted in the article that another high profile SoO member has and extensive criminal history. Also, some of the membership aren't above lying about their efforts:
The whole story was invented by one man Looper. We are now accused of being liars and just about. We ask all what you humbly apologize that this did happen.
Somehow we have a feeling that they regret getting caught lying rather than the actual lie, but what do we know?

Canadians United 4 Canada don't appear all that concerned with how shady the original Finnish chapter of SoO seems to be in offering unconditional support to the Canadian chapters. The Quebec chapter of the SoO seem to appreciate Ms. O'Farrell's shout-out:


Ms. O'Farrell, founder of Canadians United 4 Canada, wishes to convince her members that the SoO are not racist skinheads and just want to protect Canada and all that we hold dear from the Jihadists at the gate (though she herself show poor judgement in who she adds as friends):


Why don't we test Ms. O'Farrell's claim?

We first took a look at "Dave FightingBack's" Facebook page to see if we could get any clues about the membership of the Quebec chapter of the SoO:

Dude on the right is Sebastien Theberge. More on him later.


When we took a gander at his friends' list, one name jumped out at us immediately:


We'll touch on "Jay Cam" soon enough, but we'll start first with "Whitey" Derek Basque. Some of our readers will be very familiar with Derek Basque who is originally from New Brunswick but now seems to be residing in Quebec:



Derek Basque (who not long after we snagged some of our screen shots changed his Facebook name to simply Whitey Basque) has a long association with the Canadian neo-Nazi movement. He was relatively (though sporadically) active on the American-based hate forum Stormfront posting under the handle "Borum" and was one of the more memorable figures in the New Brunswick movement that we were keeping tabs on even before we began the blog:


Back in 2009, he featured in a photograph with other neo-Nazis taken during a Paul Fromm event in New Brunswick, a photo that he still proudly displays on his own Facebook page:


As these photos are from almost 7 years ago, one might suggest that Derek has changed and these merely represent a youthful indiscretion. Sure, people make mistakes and do stupid things when they are younger, but it doesn't appear that Derek Basque has rejected his racist past so much as continues to embrace his racist present:


And remember how we noted that Basque once posted on Stormfront?

He still does and posted the following this month:


Recruiting for his own racist group on an infamous racist web forum sort of suggests that Mr. Basque still hold racist views.

Okay. One example. There are always some bad apples in any organization. The rest are solid.

Right?

Well....


Meet Derek Basque's friend Kory Nowles:



Rock Against Communism t-shirt is also a bit of a red flag.... pun not entirely intended.

An examination of Mr Nowles Facebook profile is also enlightening:


Yeah, Blood & Honour aren't boy scouts.

Neither are members of the Creativity Movement:

The Creativity Movement was one of the most notorious hate groups in the 1990s, gaining publicity for its rapid growth and the violent incidents with which it was associated. Originally founded by Ben Klassen in 1973 as Church of the Creator, the organization fell into disarray in the mid-1990s following the criminal convictions of several of its members, the suicide of Klassen in 1993 and a successful lawsuit brought by the family of a Gulf War veteran murdered in 1991 by a COTC member. In 1996, COTC was reborn as WCOTC with the emergence of the young law school graduate Matt Hale as its leader. Hale's publicity skills, his unsuccessful battle to obtain his law license in Illinois, and a two-state shooting spree by follower Benjamin Smith in July 1999 that left two dead and nine wounded, all kept the WCOTC in the headlines in recent years. In November 2002, the WCOTC lost a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by the Te-Ta-Ma Truth Foundation, which had successfully trademarked the name "Church of the Creator" years ago. A federal judge ordered the WCOTC to stop using its name, to give up its Web addresses, and to turn over all printed material bearing its name. Hale refused to comply with the order and in January 2003 had arrived for a contempt of court hearing when he was arrested for soliciting the judge's murder. He remains in jail awaiting trial as members of the WCOTC and other white supremacist groups rally behind him. Currently, Thomas Kroenke, appointed "Hasta Primus" or "Spearhead" of the WCOTC before Hale's arrest, is running some of the group's operations in Wyoming.
Another bad apple who in no way reflects the honourable motives of the SoO we're sure. Good thing there aren't any more.


Well.... maybe "Nosaj Leahcim" (or Jason Michael if one prefers):

Jason is a fan of Skrewdriver which might not mean much to a layman, but to those with even a vague familiarity with the international neo-nazi movement, sort of jumps out at you:


He also likes the group Burzum:


Considering the founder of Canadians United 4 Canada is concerned about Christian persecution in Muslim countries, her support for people who enjoy Burzum is SUPER ironic. Aside from being a convicted murderer, the founder and lead singer of Burzum was no fan of Christianity:
On 6 June 1992, the Fantoft Stave Church, dating from the 12th century and considered architecturally significant, was burned to the ground by arson. By January 1993, arson attacks had occurred on at least seven other major stave churches, including one on Christmas Eve of 1992. Vikernes was found guilty of several of these cases: the arson and attempted arson of Åsane Church and Storetveit Church, respectively, in Bergen, the arson of Skjold Church in Vindafjord, and the arson of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. He was also charged with the arson of Fantoft Stave Church, although the jurors voted not guilty. The judges called this an error but did not overthrow the whole case.
Finally, his friendship with Chris Creighton....


.... who has been written about here on the blog a few times and who has claimed to have at one time held a leadership position in the KKK....


.... might give some cause for concern.

Three bad apples. That's got to be it. Right?



Damn it. Okay, what's this guy's story?

Well, Sebastien Theberge is one of the three men pictured in "Dave FightingBack"s cover photo. He's also a fan of the Quebec-based band Légitime Violence a far-right band who we have, once again, profiled here on the blog (here and here)



He likes to post images suggesting a strong likelihood that he may hold neo-Nazi ideals:




Oh, and he too seems to be a fan of RAC music:

Rock Against Communism (RAC) started out as series of political rock concerts in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, and is also a name for the subsequent music genre. Rock Against Communism lyrics typically feature anti-communist themes but can include white nationalist, white supremacist, and neo-fascist politics as well.
Shall we continue?


Scott Kemp, another SoO supporter, is friend with Dan Hall (who is still going by the name "David Lawson"):


Again, given who Dan Hall, a member of the Southern Ontario Skinheads, is, we're thinking this is another case of birds of a feather.

Finally, we come back to "Jay Cam" whom we very briefly mentioned earlier.


Jay Cam appears to be an SoO member in an Alberta branch. A look at his profile reveals his ideology:


The cover photo would be enough to cast suspicion on "Jay Cam's" non-racist bona fides, but a Facebook friendship with Paulie sort of seals the deal.

This does as well:


Our readers may not know Tibor Kertes, but we certainly do.



Also of interest? "Jay Cam" is also an administrator on Canadians United 4 Canada:


All this took roughly half an hour of digging. We could probably find more easily, but Ms. O'Farrell, with just a minimum of research, could have found at least this much.

One wonders why she didn't bother?

Then again, much of her membership doesn't seem to care anyways based on this recent post:




Ms. O'Farrell has expressed concern that Canadians United 4 Canada may be perceived as a hate site.

Madame, you and whom you have chosen to associate with have removed any lingering doubt.

No comments: