Wednesday, August 16, 2017

WCAI Rally In Vancouver August 19 and the Charlottesville Terrorist Attack



Decent people are still mourning the death of Heather Heyer who was murdered by a Nazi supporter in Charlottesville during an "alt-right" rally.



Among those decent people, the POTUS is not among them. The current occupant of the White House, after his previous moral failure in suggesting an equivalency between the fascists who called for the extermination of Jews and the superiority of the "white race" and the citizens who oppose those views before a ham fisted (and tepid) condemnation of the Nazis and Klan 48 hours after the death of Ms. Heyer, decided to triple down on his first statement and even suggested that these people were simply peaceful protesters who were "attacked" by the anti-fascists:



If there is anything positive that resulted from this tragedy, it is that it has resulted in people who might otherwise have ignored hate groups as "fringe" recognizing the real danger they present to individuals and institutions. It has resulted in the msm paying much more attention and exposing these haters. It has resulted in some of the right-wing media, such as "The Rebel" in Canada, trying |(and failing; three correspondents have left as of today) to backpedal their support. And it has resulted in a fracturing of the movement between the hardcore "alt-right" who still support and celebrate what happened and the "alt-lite" who have decided that being edgy, meme-loving, nationalists might not be in their long term interests. I will be talking at length about the infighting in Canada (which to be fair preceded the events in Charlottesville) at a later date.

Among those in Canada who have decided to end any pretense of being non-racist and to fully embrace the spirit of the "Unite the Right" Nazis, Klan members, and militias who marched in Charlottesville is the World Wide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI). Again this trend began before the Charlottesville tragedy as the following twitter posts prove....









.... however we can see that both the president/founder and the vice-president of the WCAI have both adopted the rhetoric of the Nazis who rallied in Virginia and have celebrated the death of a counter protester:










Another group that seems to have embraced this spirit overtly is the Soldiers of Odin (SoO), or at least one faction. With the departure of Bill Daniels, there no longer appears to be a national leadership. Instead, there appears to be individual and autonomous SoO cells in locations across the country, some of which are more active than others. One of those cells is active in the Fraser Valley with Brian Baxter appearing to be in some position of leadership:



Baxter's response to the murder of Heather Heyer and the injuries sustained by other counter protesters in Charlottesville was as callous as the WCAI's Joey DeLuca:


I mention both the WCAI and SoO specifically now as both both groups plan on attending (DeLuca is one of the organizers) of a rally to be held in Vancouver on August 19:

Devin Jett is also an SoO member, fyi.



In the wake of a racist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Va. the City of Vancouver is set to hold its own pair of duelling demonstrations between far right groups and counter-protesters. 
A Saturday event dubbed the “WCAI Canada/CAP rally” has been posted to Facebook by right wing media group “ProperGander Promotions,” and lists speakers from several anti-immigrant groups.....Among the other speakers billed for the rally are the “World Coalition Against Islam” (WCAI), which led a controversial rally in Calgary back in June where members clashed with anti-racist demonstrators amid a heavy police presence. 
The Canadian branch of the WCAI bills itself as a “PATRIOTS group standing against the barbarics of the ideology that is Islam,” and says it is not racist but rather opposed to an ideology. 
The City of Calgary disagreed, denying the group a permit for its June event on the grounds that the group and its message were hateful. 
The Soldiers of Odin, which has roots in a Finnish far-right, anti-immigrant organization, are also listed as one of the speakers.It claims to be a community public safety group independent of its European namesake, and that members “members… don’t see colour, race or religion.”However, a recent intelligence note from the Canada Border Services Agency raised concerns over the group’s “potential for anti-immigrant vigilantism.”
Based on the posts being made by members and supporters of the WCAI and SoO, it seems that they are eager to replicate the violence against anti-fascists that occurred in Charlottesville. However they may wish to reconsider this particular thought process as it may not end well for them:


No comments: