Evan Balgord, A supporter from Ontario, Helmut-Harry Loewen, Maureen Hurley, "Uncooperative Palindrome", Yellow Vests Canada EXPOSED, "No Name", "The ARC of the Moral Universe",
Eric Weiss
We had predicted after the collapse of the Aryan Guard that there would likely not be a rally. W.E.B. had suggested they were organizing the march, but they called it off less than a week before it was scheduled. While this could have been a red herring to throw off anti-racists, those opposed to the Aryan Guard and W.E.B. still held a rally.
Yesterday, anti-racists spoke about the events that would be occurring today:
Even though a march by members of Calgary white supremacist groups appears to be cancelled, anti-racism activists vow they’ll still show up in force at a City Hall rally Sunday.
Members of the Aryan Guard and White European Bloodlines were expected to march through downtown for the third straight year Sunday, however organizers said through an Internet posting that it is now cancelled.
Our readers will remember that we had posted a request regarding posters that had been placed in the University of Calgary advising students that a member of the Aryan Guard was a student there. We had requested, and the group that put them up (Anti-Racist Action Calgary) agreed based on our explanation, that they be removed. We didn't expand on the reasons here at the time, but we will do so now.
The posters contained information that unfortunately resulted in someone suffering harassment who was not the subject of the flyering campaign but who by coincidence matched a lot of the details found on the poster. As the group who put the posters up used this website as a source and included our url on the poster, this young woman contacted us with her concerns. We then looked up the email of ARA Calgary and explained the situation. While we made the request on behalf of the innocent young woman, ARA Calgary agreed that the appropriate action would be to end the postering campaign until changes could be made.
That, we believe, is something else that separates groups who oppose racists from the racists. When groups on our side learn that something like what occurred to the young university student happen, we do our best to help. The other side wouldn't care.
Sorry "Black Sonnen" (who is definitely not Natalie... nope, definitely not... ha!). No rift, but thanks for playing. We've some lovely parting gifts for you though.
Now, though the postering campaign ended (and there's no reason to think that a modified postering campaign might not be started again later), it still did catch the attention of Paul Fromm (we include excerpts below from his Stormfront post):
The campus of the University of Calgary has been blanketed by an inflammatory poster harassing and targetting a second year female student who has been an activist in the Aryan Guard [You mean the gang who's members assaulted a Japanese woman, attacked the home of two anti-racist activists not once, not twice, but three times, pipe bombed the home of a rival racist gang and tried to attack a Calgary transit worker?]. The group doing this is Anti-Racism Action, Calgary, apparently in conjunction with a website called Anti Racism Canada[Anti-Racist Canada, thank you very much Paulie!], which is run by anonymous people, although Richard Warman's legal documents seem to appear up there even before the printer's ink seems dry on them[What are you trying to say?]…
ARA-Calgary, some of whose circle assaulted peaceful marchers at last the March 21 White Pride Parade in Calgary, has been headed by a perennial Communist Party of Canada candidate Jason Devine. He ran most recently in the 2008 federal election in Calgary East, piling up a mere 323 votes and finishing dead last just 20,988 votes behind the Conservative winner [Uhm, people in glass houses, Paulie…]...
The Anti Racism Canadawebsite has been featuring and baiting [Pot calling the kettle black here, we thinks] Miss Sonne [Not her real name]for several months, publishing her pictures and emphasizing that she is a university student [Yes, she is. We need to provide accurate information to our readers, Paulie].
This postering technique seems based on Richard Warman's strategy announced in a speech by the same name to a conference sponsored by the ARA inToronto in August, 2005 -- "Maximum Disruption : Shutting Down the Neo-Nazis By (Almost) Any Means Necessary."
In 2006, a motley band of about 25 ARA, flying the flag of communist Cuba, arrived in a bus that an ARA sign thanked Richard Warman for paying for [Guess the Nazis didn't get the joke], and demonstrated outside the Port Credit townhouse of Paul Fromm [Freedom of speech and assembly Paulie. Were you physically attacked or did they merely hurt your feelings?], Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression who had clashed with Warman as he defended many of Warman's victims in Sec. 13 Internet tribunals [And a bang-up job you've done there, Paulie; a half eaten cheese sandwich would have been less of an embarrassment as an advocate]. The ARA twice leafletted Mr. Fromm's neighbours making wild and defamatory remarks. This is a tactic used by homosexual radicals called "outing" -- denouncing a person in front of his co-workers or neighbours in an effort to get them to ostracize, exclude or hurt that person. Warman later denied paying for the bus, but, signifcantly for such a litigious person who sues people who criticize him, as far as we know never sued the ARA for their supposed misinformation [Or maybe he doesn't really care about the insignificant, and sort of funny, stuff like you do?].
Well, the righteous anger unleashed by Paulie's post! It could be summed up in this post by Cydonia:
Sadly, Cydonia is quite incorrect. The posts we've made here are perfectly legal and contain accurate information concerning our subjects (we never wrote anything about flattering though). As public figures who have willingly made themselves targets and who court public attention, we are fully within our rights to profile their membership on these pages. We also challenge our detractors to find anywhere on this blog where the ARC Collective suggests anyone be harassed or assaulted. In fact, when some of our readers suggest such a course of action take place, we refuse to print their comments and have warned that calls for violence will be not be tolerated here.
But let's assume Cydonia is correct and that we've violated the law in some way. Then perhaps she (we assume Cydonia is a she based on past writings) will equally condemn her own forum moderator OdinPatrick for doing exactly the same thing:
When protesters prevented an American writer and speaker who calls himself a "race realist" from speaking at the Lord Nelson Hotel on the night of Jan. 16, they hardly expected to be tracked down by members of a large white supremacist website.
Some protesters, and at least one person who was at Jared Taylor's speech just to observe, have had their personal information posted on stormfront.org, a white supremacist website. Some have even had pictures taken of their homes.
Brad Religion (the last name is a pseudonym he commonly uses) and his roommate Aaron both live at a Halifax house they call Woozley Farm. The two were at the Taylor protest and have had quite a bit of their personal information placed on the Internet since that time, including pictures of their house.
"A lot of the information was already on our myspaces or what have you," says Aaron, referring to the popular social networking site. "The biggest thing was having one of the Nazis in town come and take pictures."
Sean MacGillivray is the site administrator and moderator of halifaxlocals.com, a website where some of the protesters are members, and he has been in contact with the moderator of stormfront.org. He was told the supremacists took the pictures to try and protect themselves.
"(It was) all done under the premise that they can avoid these places because an unruly mob might come storming out of the building and randomly beat them," says MacGillivray. "It's preposterous."
MacGillivray says it's unlikely that the information was posted on stormfront.org to protect the site's members.
"The obvious underlying reason for posting this information is that some wing nut, who might not even have an account, is going to get hold of that information and do something violent. That is the part that has my users scared. That is the part that's really, really insidious."
The moderator of stormfront.org accused two reporters of trying to set him up and refused to talk to them.
Mark Black is the member of halifaxlocals.com who brought the stormfront.org accusations to light.
Black sometimes works as a freelancer for The Coast and was at Taylor's attempted speech to see if he could write a story about the event. He was only present to observe, but was later accused of being a protester.
Black has a Myspace profile with a plug-in called spyspace that allows him to see who has visited his profile and where they were linked from.
"I saw a link from stormfront.org and thought 'that's weird. Why would my Myspace be linked from stormfront.org?'" says Black.
That's when he found the thread accusing himself, along with Brad and Aaron, of assaulting Taylor.
Black joined the site to clarify the events of that evening. His assertion that he was not involved in the protest was accepted, but he was then accused of being an accessory and accomplice.
Black has since made his Myspace profile private in an effort to protect his friends and family from being associated with the situation.
"I'd rather my parents not get a call in at three in the morning calling me a commie," says Black.
None of the accused have contacted the police yet.
Aaron is opposed for ideological reasons, saying that the police "enforce the laws of an illegitimate system."
Brad agrees with Aaron on ideological basis, and adds that, at this point, there is nothing the police can do about the matter.
"What would we go to the police about at this point? Neo-Nazis have become very effective in knowing what lines they can and can't cross in terms of legality," says Brad.
"The most the police could do at this point is say 'when they do something illegal, call us.' The unfortunate part of the matter is that it's not much good to call the police when there's Nazis at the door with baseball bats," says Brad. "At that point, it's too late."
As for harassment and intimidation:
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Cydonia.
We'll leave our readers with one last reason why people at the University of Calgary, a multiethnic institution, should care about Natalie "Sonne." Regarding the tragedy in Haiti, Natalie posted this on her Facebook profile:
UPDATE (January 25): We've received information that there ae new posters up on campus. If anyone has any pictures, we'd be interested in seeing them.
We mentioned that Paulie would be visiting Calgary today and that some friends might be interested in attending his speech today. God knows that, considering how cold it was, Paulie should be thankful for anyone who would brave the subarctic winds to listen to a windbag.
But, when they arrived, Paulie didn't seem at all interested, as evidenced by the short video that was sent to us by an anonymous benefactor:
Now, when the welcome wagon arrived, they noticed that Paulie was all alone. In the past members of the Aryan Guard and others would have been in attendance, but today, nothing. One could blame the cold, or one could consider the possibility that, "White Nationalism" is so unpalatable in the aftermath of, oh, we don't know, attempted murder, that this will all that Paulie will be able to attract to his cause in Calgary. At least for now.
We're open to the possibility that Paulie may have found another venue. If he did, and there are pictures or video, please show and share.
Certain readers -- our biggest fans given the attention paid to us by them -- have claimed we engage in, "guilt by association" attacks. Of course, that hasn't stopped them from engaging in the very tactics they decry. Case in point the pro-Palestinian protests that were crashed by some members of the neo-Nazi Aryan Guard:
Heartwarming, isn't it? The Aryan Guard and Anti-Racist Action, putting aside their differences to show their outrage at Israel.
You know what, idiots? I will shake anyone's hand that I damn well please...but, unlike you guys, you will NEVER find me attending any rallies against Israel.
If you want to find anti-Semites, perhaps you should start by looking in your own freaky little organization.
That the presence of the Aryan Guard at the protest was unwelcome and the members told to leave matters little to Mrs. Fournier. That, and as we've mentioned a few times, we aren't the ARA.
Well Mr. and Mrs. Fournier recently appear to have attended Doug Christie's annual George Orwell Free Speech Award dinner in Victoria (UPDATE: Attendance of Mr. and Mr. Fournier at the dinner is now confirmed by Paulie). Among the participant in the event was none other than Paul Fromm.
Paulie has a few more events taking place in British Columbia. For example, on Friday he'll be the speaker (again) at Volksfront Canada's 15th Anniversary celebration:
And what are some of the things that Volksfront Canada stands for?
We wonder if Mr. and Mrs. Fournier had an opportunity to talk to Fromm about his association with Volksfront or, for that matter, with the Aryan Guard with whom he marched with on March 21, 2009, and of whom he paid such lovely compliments to:
Maybe these staunch supporters of Israel had the chance to discuss their concern with his views on the following subjects:
To be clear, the ARC Collective don't believe Mr. and Mrs. Fournier are antisemetic. We just think they're hypocrites. Somehow, we think they'll manage to overcome our criticism though.
And no one from the Aryan Guard or W.E.B. showed up. Seems that while they're really brave when it's dark and no one is watching, they get a little skittish in broad daylight.
CALGARY -- Sparked by what they called a recent incident of intimidation by the Aryan Guard, members of Anti-Racist Action Calgary rallied in the city's Bridgeland neighbourhood yesterday.
"We had a couple members out here who were putting up posters just alerting the community and they were approached by members of the Aryan Guard, had their pictures taken and then all the posters were ripped down," said Jason Devine, a spokesman for ARA Calgary.
"I don't believe (Aryan Guard members) were just per chance rolling through and happened to see all the posters."
Devine said he has personally been the victim of violent attacks by members of the Aryan Guard.
About a dozen members of ARA Calgary chanted anti-Nazi messages before marching yesterday. Despite the low number, Devine said he was happy with the turnout.
"It's kind of screwed up because we're on Thanksgiving and the weather is horrible," he said.
UPDATE: And the average, "White Nationalist" turnout when they call events?
We reported that there is a planned anti-fascist rally on October 10 on the weekend. The spokesperson for the main organizing group, Jason Devine, sent out the following message regarding an incident that happened at his home during the early hours of yesterday morning:
Today October 3rd, 2009 at 5:38 AM we awoke to the sound of glass breaking. A cinder block had been thrown through the front window of our house as well as a smaller projectile through the bedroom window of our 3 sleeping children (one is 6 years old andtwins whom are 4). The front door had been tagged with graffiti, specifically spray painted in red "C-18" and a swastika.
This is in response to ARA planning a rally in Bridgeland on October 10th. This rally is to alert the community on the high number of sightings and recent neo-Nazi activity in the community and how to deal with it.
This comes as no surprise to local ARA members Bonnie and Jason Devine as they have been targeted before, first in February of 2008 with a molotov cocktail thrown at their house, and once again this summer the morning before a local anti-racist rally. Not to mention numerous insults and threats over the internet.
This is a clearly not a random act of violence but a direct target to us and our family, other anti- racist activists, and all who are against racism, with a clear message: neo-Nazis are violent, have no regard for human life, especially children, and they are clearly a terrorist gang.
As for ARA it can be clearly defined by its statement of beliefs and principles which are reflected in the 4 points of unity which are listed below.
We go where they go: Whenever fascists are organizing or active in public, we're there. We don't believe in ignoring them or staying away from them. Never let the nazis have the street!
We don't rely on the cops or courts to do our work for us: This doesn't mean we never go to court. But we must rely on ourselves to protect ourselves and stop the fascists.
Non-Sectarian defense of other Anti-Fascists: In ARA, we have lots of different groups and individuals. We don't agree about everything and we have a right to differ openly. But in this movement an attack on one is an attack on us all. We stand behind each other.
We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. ARA intends to do the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, discrimination against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest and the most oppressed people. We want a classless free society.
Roughly 60 to 70 people began marching from Plaza Theatre to Riley Park, an area where the Aryan Guard has been especially active in recent months. On the way a number of passersby joined up with the march. There was also a great deal of support from the people and merchants who work in Kennsington who have to put up the Aryan Guard but who are not at all pleased with their presence.
Of note that despite the fact the Aryan Guard consider this area to be, "their turf" not a single member was spotted during the march.
Congratulations on a job well done.
Unfortunately, while the Aryan Guard didn't show up to harass the much larger number of marchers, it's believed that they were involved in the vandalism of a home of one of the organizers while the residents of the home were asleep:
At around 10:30am June 27th Anti-Racist Action (ARA) public spokesperson Jason Devine went out his front door to take out the garbage. It was at that point that he saw graffiti on the front of his family's house. Specifically on the front door was spray painted in red "C-18" which stands for Combat 18 (or C18) which is the "armed wing" of the racist British neo-nazi organisation Blood & Honour. On the front window spray painted in black was a swastika. This obviously occured some time in the early morning after 1:00AM.
Like the firebombing of Bonnie and Jason's house over a year ago this is a provocation againstAnti-Racist Action and the lives of Bonnie, Jason, and their four children. This is a threat designed to inhibit ARA from attending the rally of teh same day at 1:00PM in Kensington. This is also a threat to all people who stand up against violent racist thugs. We will not be silenced and we will not give in to terror!
And yet AGAIN, we at the ARC Collective (damn, that's cool) are NOT affiliated with the ARA, though if they wish to send us information and find your blog a useful source of information, good on 'em.
In addition to the press release, the "Calgary Sun" published the following article today:
Marchers protest racism Swastika spray-painted on group leaders' home before anti-racist rally
Targets of a firebomb attack last year, anti-racism advocates yesterday found a swastika and other neo-Nazi symbols sprayed on their house.
Bonnie and Jason Devine, parents of four children, said it's no coincidence the most recent abuse was levelled at them on the same day they planned to hold an anti-racism rally in Kensington.
"This is to try to make us terrified of what we're doing -- but we won't stop speaking out," said Jason, spokesman for Calgary's Anti-Racism Action Group.
A black swastika was found spray-painted on the front window of the couple's Radisson home.
Their front door was spray-painted red with the symbol "C-18," which stands for Combat 18 and refers to the armed wing of a British neo-Nazi group.
"It's always shocking but it's not a surprise," said Bonnie.
"It actually fuels the fire to fight racism."
The couple didn't let the "threat," which they believe is the work of local white supremacists, deter them from marching through Kensington to voice their opposition to the neo-Nazi group.
As many as 50 anti-racist supporters joined the couple, chanting "Clean the streets, run them out," as they marched from the Plaza Theatre to Riley Park.
The demonstration was prompted out of concern that neo-Nazis recently incited violence in Kensington, said Bonnie.
She said anti-racist members have been beaten in the area by white supremacists in recent weeks, while a Native man was also allegedly assaulted by members of the neo-Nazi group.
"It makes me alarmed that they're this bold," she said.
"It tells me we're not doing enough -- the community needs to band together and do a lot more."
Many participants of yesterday's anti-racism demonstration covered their faces with masks and bandanas out of fear of retaliation from neo-Nazis, said Bonnie.
"They're afraid that when they're walking alone they'll be targeted," she said.
Bonnie said she's concerned the ranks of the neo-Nazi group in Calgary are growing, estimating there are up to 30 members.
Police maintained a strong presence at yesterday's march, but unlike past demonstrations, there wasn't a clash with white supremacists.
"The Intelligence Report" of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center has written an exposé on Calgary's Aryan Guard in their Summer 2009 issue. We're happy to state that we played some small part in contributing to the research for the article. Others who contributed their time and knowledge include Jason Devine (spokesperson for the Calgary ARA), Edmonton Police Sgt. Stephen Camp (co-chair of the Alberta Hate Crime Committee), Valerie Pruegger, Constable Lynn MacDonald (hate crimes coordinator for the Calgary Police Service) and Cam Stewart (author OF a hate crimes report commissioned by the Alberta Hate and Bias Crime Incidents Committee).
Since one can easily click on the link (and since the article will be archived by "The Intelligence Report" we will not reprint te entire article. However a few excerpts:
The Aryan Guard was founded in late 2006 with help from two disgraced ex-teachers who marched with the fringe group at the March 21 rally: Paul Fromm of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, who lost his teaching certificate because of his white supremacist activities, and National Socialist Party of Canada leader Terry Tremaine, a former part-time university lecturer who in 2007 was fined $4,000 by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal because of his racist and anti-Semitic Internet postings.
...
MacDonald said the Aryan Guard has also received ongoing support from Christian Waters, a leader of the Canadian branch of the Brotherhood of Klans Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Headquartered in Marion, Ohio, that group has emerged as the largest Klan organization in the United States.
...
The true danger posed by the Aryan Guard comes not from its public activities, but from its more clandestine ones. A man reached at the Aryan Guard's contact number refused to answer most questions during a brief interview, but repeated the group's opposition to violence.
Yet the group's history of criminal activity belies that assertion. According to the Calgary Police Service, the Aryan Guard has been linked to several assaults between late 2006 and mid-2008. The victims have included a homeless man, a gay community member, and a cab driver from North Africa, MacDonald said. Writing about the latter incident on Stormfront on July 20, 2007, McKee — who'd been charged in connection with the attack, though he claimed a good friend was actually responsible — boasted about getting the case dismissed. "The reason being was that they couldn't make a positive ID because apparently everyone there was all dressed in combat boots with white laces [and] black flight jackets and all had shaved heads. So let this be a lesson to anyone who wonders why on earth all us skinheads dress so similarly. [T]his is another great reason. lol [laughing out loud]"
The incident that has received the most publicity involved an assault on a Japanese visitor in her mid-20s, Asako Okazaki, when she left a bar shortly after midnight in July 2008. A 17-year-old Aryan Guard member — who was convicted in March but has not been publicly identified because he was a juvenile — kicked the woman in the back of the head with steel-toed boots. According to court testimony, the attacker followed the woman out of the bar after making a disparaging remark about Asians. At the time of his arrest he was wearing boots with red laces — a skinhead symbol indicating he'd spilled blood for the movement.
...
The group's propensity for criminal activity is no surprise given that many members have histories of vandalism and assault. Two of the group's most prominent members, McKee and Dallas Price, faced assault and weapons charges in connection with a September 2006 confrontation in which one victim was hit with a wooden club and another was stabbed with a knife. Robert Reitmeier, also active in the group, was charged with attempted murder in connection with a November 2006 assault on a man who suffered skull and facial fractures. Member Bill Noble was convicted in 2008 of posting hate material on the Internet that primarily targeted non-whites, Jews and gays. A judge sentenced him to four months in jail and imposed limits on his computer use for three years, though Noble continues to post frequently on Stormfront.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has been instrumental over the years in the effort to combat racism and bigotry in the United States. Some of their greatest achievments on the legal front have included the successful suits against the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, White Aryan Resistance, the United Klans of America, Christian Knights of the KKK, Aryan Nations, Imperial Klans of America and many others which effectively destroyed each group.
Perhaps now, with the Aryan Guard as the focus of an international publication, the gear of justice will start to turn a little bit faster.
Bonehead Mike Gaio, when wondering about what to do on his birthday, wrote that he might like to go to Jack Astor's. Mention of that particular restaurant prompted Paul Fromm to write (click on picture for the full view):
So you, Lemire and the group of geriatrics you were leading, "whupped" the ARA who "attacked" you? Is that right? Was that before or after you and Lemire raced into the restaurant to hide? Because we would think that it would be very difficult to determine what was happening considering you spent your time hiding in a storage closet.
This was an anonymous message we received today. lol instead of posting stupid shit like this you should get on the fact that kyle mcgee or however yous spell his name got killed at work by a truck
The above message was followed up by this one:
kyles fucking dead so you can stop slandering him
We received a few more messages, including one saying that he was pronounced dead at the Peter Lougheed Hospital in Calgary.
Well golly gee! We guess we'll just publish this "news" without any further investigation as to it's veracity. We certainly will not contact a friend who works as a nurse at Peter Lougheed Hospital who would be able to tell us if it's true or if it's a load of horse manure in a matter of minutes. Why would we ever suspect news like this delivered to us on April 1 would be anything less than totally credible?
And if you have an bridges on sale we want to buy half a dozen.
Come on! Give us a little more credit than that. No, Kyle McKee is very much alive, though he still looks as scrawny as a meth addict. You all have to do a lot better than that.
In other news, we managed to identify a few more Aryan Guard supporters from the March 21 rally. We published their names along with the others. Speaking of names, one of the people we named seems to have been taken quite aback concerning our having identified him:
I CANT BELEIVE THOSE FUCKERS FOUND ME! IM ON THE FUCKING ARA WEBSITE! PLEASE EVERYONE JOIN MY GROUP!!!! FUCKING ARA SCUM
It doesn't seem that Jordan H., pictured here with Paul Fromm, is appreciative of our efforts. One point of clarification however. We are not the ARA, but we do have a very amicable working relationship with some of their members. We don't suppose that fact will mean a great deal to Mr. H. though. We also enjoyed his emo, "no one understands me" moment as well:
fuck everyone who is agianst me. I will always stand proud and strong. Think what you want.''brainwashed'' Listen to the lying media cause thats the only source you get the worries about. Im Not a fuckingg child anymore, Im not ever changing. Disowning me will only affect you in the end.
Priceless.
We also recently had some discussions with Michael Gaio of Toronto. He too was surprised that we knew who he was. We decided to ask him about his friends Richard Martin and Andrew Benson:
hahaah i dont even speak with them. saw them once downtown and that was it. so how the hell would i know? i dont hang out with them i got my own people.
We thought that the great Aryan Race would be more honest. Well, for someone who doesn't hang out with them, Puddles sure does hang out with them.
Aw! Looks just like that scene out of "An Officer and a Gentleman." We guess that makes Gaio Debra Winger and Richard Martin a very homley Richard Gere.
It's interesting that Gaio has tried to convince us that he's not associated with Martin, Benson and that group. Perhaps because the last two pictures seem to have come from the batch of photos taken of Martin committing arson?
Finally, a blast from the past. We at Anti-Racist Canada have been active long before we began this blog. We've been monitoring racists on line not long after Stormfront came online back in the mid 1990s.
A few years ago, a young man named Renaud Emard was busy posting away on hate websites such as Stormfront and Blood & Honour as Necro99. Among his online activities was posting pictures of himself with numerous firearms in front of Nazi flags, writing racist online posts and talking about his obsession with the Columbine murders. This was just after the Kimveer Gill attack on Dawson College in Montreal. Given this it isn't too much of a surprise that police in Quebec took down Renaud soon after being made aware of his online activities.
While we missed it at the time (we were busy preparing for the Aryan Guard march), here are two articles that detail how Mr. Renaud plead guilty to almost all of the weapons charges against him and received a conditional discharge with a year's probation. He claims to have learned his lesson. Let's all hope that this is the case.
Conditional discharge for Îile Perrot man who dabbled in racist past-times
Wed, 2009-03-18 15:07.
Shuyee Lee
A young Île Perrot man who dabbled in racist online chats and paraphernalia has pleaded guilty to most of the weapons charges against him. But he won't have a criminal record.
It was about two weeks after the Dawson shootings and police didn't take any chances when they arrested Renaud Émard on seven weapons violations after they searched his bedroom at his parent's Île Perrot home and found five unloaded guns and plenty of ammunition, plus posters of and books on guns, the military, the Third Reich, and ethnic cleansing. Émard was also believed to have been chatting online on white supremacist sites and posting pictures of himself giving the Heil Hitler salute and holding guns.
The guns belonged to his father, a hunter and gun collector, and were improperly stored. Police found 20 guns in all. Émard pleaded guilty to all but the most serious weapons charge, weapons possession for dangerous intent, which was dropped. He was given a conditional discharge and one year probation.
Anti-terrorist and hate crimes investigators also found a suitcase with military paraphernalia, a manual entitled "Ethnic Cleansing", posters of guns with slogans such as "Born to Kill" and "Natural Born Killer", and a list of schoolmates he considered to be annoyances to be done away with.
During his first bail hearing in October 2006, the 18-year-old testified he was surprised the list was still around and that he didn't get rid of the list, insisting he was still on friendly terms with the people on the list.
His lawyer says it was all an act by an immature young man who was bullied and teased at school and the alleged online threats were just posturing to gain respect and acceptance, adding his client in no way approved of the actions of the Dawson shooter.
"All the experts concluded that he wasn't a danger to society. He didn't have the intent to kill anybody," defence attorney Robert La Haye tells CJAD News, pointing to two psychiatrists' reports.
"It was just having a behaviour that would make some people to think that but that wasn't the case."
The judge agreed, calling it bad judgement and an error of youth, saying Émard has come a long way following his therapy.
Émard told the judge that it was partly his fault and understood what he did wrong. The young man, now 20, still has a babyface two and a half years after his arrest, but now he's got a goatee and his shaved head is now fully grown out. He appeared relaxed, sometimes smiling during the court proceedings.
Guilty plea to gun charges after Web threats
The Gazette March 19, 2009
An Île Perrot man who was arrested for making threats on the Internet less than a month after the Dawson College shootings has been given a conditional discharge. Renaud Émard, 20, pleaded guilty to most of the weapons charges laid, after police saw images of him posing with several guns, and making a salute to Adolf Hitler on a popular white supremacist website. Émard was living with his parents on Oct. 4, 2006, when he made threats similar to those made by Dawson shooter Kimveer Gill. He was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possession of a prohibited weapon - brass knuckles - and five counts of careless storage of five rifles. The guns belonged to his father. Yesterday, his lawyer, Robert La Haye, said Émard was depressed at the time that he made the threats, and fellow students were making fun of him because of his large size. He has since undergone therapy. La Haye said neither Émard's therapist nor the prosecutor's psychiatrist found that Émard represents a danger to society. Because he was discharged, Émard won't have a criminal record.
Before we publish this statement, we want to make it clear that we are not the ARA. While we may share some similar goals, there are distinct differences between the ARA and ARC. One difference is that ARC will not sanction the use of violence in support of our ideals for any purpose, though if it should come to it we will ONLY use the minimal amount of force necessary to defend ourselves so that we can extricate ourselves from a dangerous or threatening situation. For us, this is reasonable. A second difference is that we are generally very supportive of the police, though this support doesn't mean that we don't have some legitimate concerns about the events of March 21 (such as some obvious assaults committed against anti-racist protesters by Aryan Guard members and supporters that occurred in view of some of the police, or what seemed to be an overreaction by some police officers in their treatment of anti-racist protesters in tense and difficult conditions).
Despite our differences, we have a very amicable working relationship with a number of ARA members in Canada, including Calgary. As such, when one of those members asked if we would be willing to publish a statement regarding a controversy arising from recent statements by an ARA spokesperson in the media, we were happy to agree to the request. Here then is that statement;
Since we posted the story about the Aryan Guard march that occurred yesterday, we've been inundated with comments. These comments run the gambit of ideological positions:
From those who support the police to those who condemn them for brutality.
People sending us email addresses to provide pictures of the events.
Debate over the number of Aryan Guard members and supporters who attended (these numbers now range between 30 and 120, though a safer range is likely between 40 and 60).
Discussions over the use of violence, who started the confrontations and how anti-racists should respond.
We actually can't keep up with it all at this point so if you left us a comment and it hasn't posted, that isn't necessarily because we refuse to publish it. It could be that it was just lost in the shuffle. Or, if you left an email and we haven't gotten back to you yet, it might be because we've lost track of it amongst all the other requests we've received to contact people (if we don't respond in the next couple of days, try us again).
However, if you're a supporter of the Aryan Guard, don't expect us to give you a forum. You have your own. For you we suggest going out to play in traffic.
In the meantime, we had a request to provide the link to a video of the event on YouTube. Enjoy.
Activists Successfully shut down Neo-Nazi MarchMore than 500 people prevent racist rally in downtown Calgary
More than 500 anti-racist activists converged on downtown Calgary this afternoon to successfully prevent local neo-Nazi hate group the Aryan Guard from holding a rally of their own.
We received the following update and contact information and we thought we would post it for the benefit of those who plan on attending the rally:
The March 21 rally against the Aryan Guard is now only 12 days away and we would again like to ask everyone to invite their friends to this event if they haven't done so already.
Currently we only have a little over 300 confirmed attendees and would like to muster a significantly larger crowd than that.
Last March 21, the white supremacist gang the Aryan Guard marched in Calgary to spread their message of hate. They plan on marching again this year.
On Saturday, March 21 come tell the Aryan Guard that they are NOT welcome in Calgary.
What: A demonstration against racism and the Aryan Guard When: Saturday, March 21 10:00am onwards Where: The steps of City Hall - 700 McLeod Tr SE Why: To show the world Calgary does not tolerate racism and white supremacists
Last year, over 200 anti-racism protestors confronted 40 Aryan Guard supports in downtown Calgary. Let's try to double this number.
It would seem that the Aryan Guard is still trying to convince you, our dear readers, that Willis is not a Nazi. As posted on Stormfront by Temperalles on September 3, 2008:
Now there's a bunch of tards on some site called 'march21.tk' trying to say Willis is a Nazi because he's in a photo throwing a straight-arm salute. Well I guess all the ancient Romans were Nazis as well.
It occurs to me there's just enough people out there naive enough to buy the fallacious deduction put forward by the Reds, so I thought I'd point out that National Socialists are not the only people to use the straight-arm salute. Because it is a gesture which goes back much further in history than the NSDAP of less than a century ago, non-National-Socialists also use it, often as a symbol of White Pride, other times merely as a salute. Just like the Triskelion on the flag behind him, it's a symbol with broad heritage overtones, and by no means of specific enough symbology to boil anyone down to any particular ideology.
My God, if the Roman salute were a Nazi symbol, you'd never see a Third Positionist using it... and they do all the time.
While we are not members of or affiliated with Anti-Racist Action and our methods are sometimes dissimilar, we do share common goals. We were recently contacted by one ARA chapter in Ontario going by the name of the Southern Ontario ARA (SOARA) regarding two matters. The first matter deals with the recent London, Ontario Gay Pride parade where SOARA and other anti-racist activists confronted a tiny contingent of Northern Alliance and Canadian Heritage Alliance members (in the photos one can see David Ruud, Tyler Chilcott, Randall Linton (who was arrested along with Tomasz Winnicki on weapons charges), and Melissa Guille as well as one as yet unknown Northern Alliance member):
On the evening of February 12, 2008, the home of Bonnie Collins and Jason Devine was hit by a firebomb. The home of another anti-racist activist was hit by a firebomb the same evening indicating the very strong likelyhood that this attack was no coincidence. Though the damage to both homes was superficial, the clear message was one of intimidation.
Neither Collins or Devine have been intimidated however and have instead increased their efforts to fight the presence of neo-Nazis in their community. The individual, or individuals, responsible for the attack, remain at large.
We don't think it would be unreasonable to suspect that members of the Aryan Guard might have some knowledge of the attacks. Jason Devine is a well-known figure in circles related to the racist movement. A grudge against Devine goes as far back as the days of the short-lived Western Canada For Us when Devine managed to disrupt a meeting by the WCFU with Paul Fromm and was one of the reasons why WCFU founder Glenn Bahr lost his job in Red Deer. Any new group wanting to make and impression might consider targeting Devine.
The reaction to the firebombing by the Aryan Guard was predictable, but still interesting. When encourage to condemn the attacks by another poster on the hate website Stormfront, Kyle McKee responded (grammatical, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling errors have been left as is):
We have said that we are not members of Anti-Racist Action (ARA), however we do support the aims of non-violent movements that oppose racism. In that vein, we will post the following announcement by ARA Calgary, a group that uses non-violent means to educate citizens about the dangers of the Aryan Guard and other such movements. ARA Calgary has acted within the law in their activism and have only acted in self-defense when they themselves have been attacked.
Anti-Racist Action Calgary have a proven record of success when it comes to shutting down racist groups such as the Aryan Guard. In recent years the efforts of ARA Calgary contributed to the collapse of Glenn Bahr's and Peter Kouba's racist group Western Canada For Us (WCFU) after only a few short, though active, months of existence in Alberta.
