Ten Pointed Questions for CPC MP Alex Nuttall

Something stinks in Barrie Ontario. In March of this year, on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Barrie City Councillor, Keenan Aylwin, called out two local CPC MPs, John Brassard and Alex Nuttall, for remaining silent after Scheer spoke at United We Roll. He also pointed out that Nuttall was Facebook friends with Faith Goldy and stated that the two MPs were "playing footsie with white supremacists." They didn't take kindly to this accusation, but, instead of doing something productive, like denouncing white supremacy, they decided to sue Aylwin for defamation instead.

.@JohnBrassardCPC and @AlexNuttallMP are each suing Barrie councillor @KeenanAylwin for $100,000 for a Facebook post criticizing their silence on Andrew Scheer speaking at same event as “neo-Nazi sympathizer Faith Goldy,” and playing footsie with white supremacists. #cdnpoli 1/

— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019

was Facebook friends with Faith Goldy before Goldy was banned from Facebook under its policy against white nationalism, which they recognize is indistinct in its expression from white supremacy. Rather than an explanation or an apology, he's suing a critic. 2/

— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019

@AndrewScheer promised that “there is absolutely no room in . . . Canada for intolerance, racism and extremism of any kind. And the Conservative Party of Canada will always make that absolutely clear.” 3/

— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019

Now it’s time for you, Mr. Scheer, to prove that you mean it. Condemn Faith Goldy and Yellow Vests Canada, apologize for taking so long, and tell your MPs to drop their lawsuits. Otherwise your promise is meaningless. Full post: https://t.co/s5ZmIGvD1H 4/

— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) May 31, 2019

I assumed Barrie city council would stand behind Aylwin, but unfortunately, I was wrong. Instead, on June 12th they voted unanimously to reprimand Aylwin, and demanded that he remove the "offending" Facebook post. As reported by Fatima Syed in the National Observer, the Integrity Commissioner had introduced a new code of conduct, and Council found Aylwin had run afoul of it "by denigrating a fellow elected official in a public forum and fail[ing] to treat him with "dignity, understanding and respect.”

As Syed's article explained, council had a tough choice to make. If they voted to reprimand their colleague, it sends a message that they are censoring criticism of dog whistle politics, but if they didn't reprimand, they would potentially be disrespecting the role of the integrity commissioner.

While I appreciate this is challenging, it is worrisome that councilors would rather repeat "He broke the code! He broke the code!" than fully consider the important issues of racism, dog whistle politics, and censorship, before making what this writer believes was a blind decision en masse. 

Even after having a couple of days to consider it further, the councilors remained unmoved. On June 14th, Global News reported that they decided to uphold the reprimand. In response, Brassard opted to drop his lawsuit, stating that “I am satisfied with the findings made by Council and the Integrity Commissioner." Nuttall also dropped his suit on the same day and it seems the matter is considered closed. 

Except, it is anything but. The issues that prompted Aylwin's Facebook post remain, and now there is the added concern of politicians being censored for speaking out about other elected officials. Aylwin reflected on his experience with Syed:

“I think the problem here is that there are some politicians out there that are walking a very fine line (and some would call it dog whistling), where in one breath they will denounce racism, as they should, and then in another breath will support groups like the Yellow Vest movement or United We Roll that we know are rife with white nationalist elements and hateful elements. And they fail to make the connection between the harmful views and those in those movements and the creation of an environment where violence can fester. If there’s anything we can learn from my experience, it’s that there is a great risk to calling out white supremacy in this country.”

The fine line Aylwin mentioned can come in the form of associations, dog whistling, enabling, or blatantly offensive remarks, among other things. Given that Nuttall was indeed Facebook friends with Faith Goldy while she was on that platform, more digging was in order. 

Based on what I found, I have some questions. 

As I don't want to get sued, I will say up front that I found no direct posting of Nuttall's that indicates beyond a doubt that he is "playing footsie with white supremacists." What I found were several troubling social media associations and potentially related concerns that should be addressed.

I'll start with the most pressing:

Ahem. 

1. If Nuttall is concerned enough about his reputation around the issue of white supremacy to sue for defamation, why on God's green earth is he still following Faith Goldy on Twitter? 

It seems like common sense that if you don't want to be accused of playing footsie with white supremacists, don't follow them or their sympathizers on social media. 

2. Speaking of following white supremacists, why was he Facebook friends with Kevin J. Johnston, the white supremacist who targeted Barrie's mayor, until at least late May?

This is alarming. Nuttall allows a man who was charged with a hate crime on his FB. Brassard was out on Twitter cheering on the Yellow Vest Convoy to Ottawa. The rise of white supremacy being overlooked by elected MPs is something we should all be worried about. @VestsCanada https://t.co/GZ0LXa8s7n pic.twitter.com/A5Bjio6iwO

— Aylan Couchie (@AylanX) May 23, 2019

 

It appears that sometime since this Tweet went live on May 23rd, Nuttall unfriended Johnston.

The Far-Right Continues To Eat Itself: Milo Yiannopoulos Attacks Lauren Southern

Sometimes one reads a story and walks away hoping that everyone involved crashes and burns:

I hadn't planned on talking about Lauren Southern, who had just released another in a line of dubious propaganda films, since among other things  I didn't think her "retirement" was a real; I was sure she would pop up again like a bad rash when she decided she needed affirmation from her particular army of incel alt-righters. I'm still not convinced that she's gone for good, but the timing is especially interesting in light of a story posted by alt-right (or at least alt-right adjacent) personality Milo Yiannopoulos to his blog:

Readers may remember the name Caolan Robertson as he was featured in a controversy regarding his time with Ezra Levant's "Rebel Media" where he was once employed. In fact the Yiannopoulos post discusses this incident at some length. The article discusses how Robertson and his partner George Llewelyn-John are lying grifters who stole from the likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and who spend their ill-gotten money lavishly on themselves.... which I think is a rather rich accusation since Yiannopoulos is a grifter who spends money lavishly on himself. However the parts dealing with Lauren Southern are what I find to be especially interesting considering that Yiannopoulos and Southern, who worked with Robertson and Llewelyn-John on both the propaganda film released in May of this year as well as a strategically edited (ie. lying) ambush of a human rights lawyer representing refugees in Greece, at one time were thick as thieves:

That relationship seemed to be at the very least on shaky ground when plans were being made for an Australian tour which ultimately collapsed:

Given his desire to be the center of attention and to undermine those who he believes are challenging his status as well as the rather obvious professional (if one can call what these people do as a profession) jealousy one might be inclined to take Yiannopoulos' bitterness with a grain of salt.

Still, there's certainly enough here to indicate just how awful everyone involved in this really are:

The Hypocrisy of Faith Goldy

During the past few weeks south of the border a number of state governments controlled by Republicans have passed and signed into law increasingly regressive restrictions on reproductive rights in a rather transparent effort to challenge and ultimately overturn the right of women to choose to end a pregnancy. All of these anti-abortion bills have been terrible, however the worst is probably that which was passed in Alabama as it doesn't even consider rape and/or incest as a mitigating factor.

None of these laws are currently enforceable by the way.

The Alabama legislation is so bad that even the likes of Pat Robertson thinks it is extreme. Others on the right have also come out in tepid opposition:

That Ann Coulter's mini-me Tomi Lahren came out in opposition to the Alabama abortion ban isn't entirely surprising since reproductive choice is one of the very, very, few instances where she holds a moderate position. This post did give at least one individual frequently featured on the blog an opportunity to trumpet her own ideological and religious purity however:

I believe the folks on the right call this "virtue signaling":

But then something rather interesting occurred in the thread someone called Goldy out:

The events of Charlottesville have been discussed on this blog and elsewhere paying some attention to Goldy's participation in the event:

Ultimately Goldy was fired from "The Rebel" when even Ezra Levant decided her biased reporting (too biased even for "The Rebel" which is really saying something) and her participation on a neo-Nazi podcast was a bridge too far. In fact it seems that Levant had implied that Goldy had engaged in what would be incredibly unethical behavior with one of the subjects of her "reporting':

The women posting on Twitter as "Liberal, Not Lefty" appears to be a friend of Megan Bobonick. This is significant since Bobonick claims to be engaged to alt-right toad Richard Spencer:

Rather than extinguish this particular fire, Bobonick threw gasoline on the flames:

Now, I truly don't give a damn about Goldy's or anyone else's sex life (still, Richard Spencer?!? Ew!). What I do care about is the puritanical, holier than though hypocrisy of people like Goldy who rail against what they claim to be sexual deviance and the need for some sort of state regulation (i.e. restrictions on abortion and contraception, legal rights for LGBTQ, etc)....

Here is Faith Goldy at a conference speaking about the 'Evils Of Sex Education'

also included are a bunch of tweets with Richard Spencer's girlfriend confirming Faith Goldy fucked him in Charlottesville behind her fiancés back.

The world sucks, folks. Savor this. pic.twitter.com/vRUziNv5Fu

— HeyIt'sVadim (@vadimnewquist) May 17, 2019

  

.... often privately engaging in the same acts that they condemn publicly.

Examination of Marc Lemire: Part XIII

Between 2008 and 2013, ARC published a series of articles detailing Mar Lemire's racist past and his involvement with the Heritage Front. I compiled all of the links on this single page:

Marc Lemire: Summary of Information

It has been more than six years since I've added to this series of article that highlighted the history of Marc Lemire's involvement with and eventual leadership of the Heritage Front. When I posted the last few articles I sort of felt like I was beating a dead horse so whenever I had heard of Lemire's name come up in my investigations, such as his participation in the memorials of lawyers Doug Christie and more recently Barbara Kulaszka I either briefly discussed his involvement or ignored it all together.

Chris Edmunds, Malcolm Ross, Michele Erstikaitis, Marc Lemire

I had assumed there was no further use in covering Lemire since I believed he was of no particular significance any longer.

That turned out to have been a mistake on my part, but it is a mistake that journalists such as Mack Lamoureux has rectified:

Marc Lemire is the last leader of the Heritage Front which has been described as one of the most impactful white supremacist groups in Canada since the Klan. A former member of the Heritage Front told us how he was a “very obliging foot-soldier” prior to being its leader.

— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) May 8, 2019

His existence at the city was a quiet one with odd things like his outgoing message being his extension number not his name. Several days after I first contacted him on his work phone, his extension was taken out of service. The city would not confirm or deny that he worked there

— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) May 8, 2019

A source told us that Lemire would have had back access to city employees data, something that worried @MatthewGreenNDP, Hamilton's first POC city councillor.

Green told us he was disgusted he didn’t know about this. pic.twitter.com/zyO03ZBeJG

— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) May 8, 2019

For my American followers this would kinda be like uh... if Philadelphia had Don Black (of Stormfront fame) in their IT department. https://t.co/17FOqPMNJQ

— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) May 8, 2019

Those articles on Lemire that I thought of as overkill I'm happy to say helped Mr. Lamouroeux in his research so I sort of feel a bit vindicated in having written them, but full credit to Mack for his dogged work.

I know there was another journalist who had been working on this story as well but she appears to have been stymied by the City of Hamilton for some reason which no doubt will result in a great deal of interesting speculation:

I did an FOI recently asking for any email correspondence containing the words "Marc Lemire" combined the words "Heritage Front," "neo-Nazi" & other terms. I'm looking for the response I got right now. Needless to say, it didn't turn up what I was looking for

— Samantha Craggs 🦉 (@SamCraggsCBC) May 8, 2019

Lemire's extension was never available in the city's dial-by-name directory. It always required going directly to a human being, who would connect you

— Samantha Craggs 🦉 (@SamCraggsCBC) May 8, 2019

However, Ms. Craggs was able to get Lemire to speak about his involvement with the Heritage Front after the publication of the "Vice" article.
In news that will surprise no one who follow this blog, Lemire lied:

"The Heritage Front stuff dates back to when I was a teenager," Lemire said, linking to an article where he said he's not a Nazi or white supremacist. 

"I reject the Heritage Front for what it was, as I have stated consistently for over 11 years." 

But, as Vice reported, an archived web page from the Heritage Front's website from 2001 shows Lemire distributing flyers saying "immigration can kill" in Hamilton. A post on Lemire's own webpage from that same year also describes him as the "head honcho" of the organization.

ARC first published this a number of years ago:

Hmmmm, 152 Carlton Street....

When this was published on Lemire's website, he would have been 26 years old.

In fact Lemire hosted the Heritage Front on Freedom-Site from 1998 (age of 23) to roughly 2001 when he appears to have moved it to a separate server. Here is an example of one of those early Heritage Front websites (December 2000, I believe):

And here is the HF merchandise page where the hate group sold their magazine featuring former KKK leader David Duke and videos by the leader of White Aryan Resistance Tom Metzger:

Gee, 152 Carlton Street again?

Surely a coincidence.

And here is a request for donations to keep Freedom-Site alive:

There's that 152 Carlton Street again!

Curious isn't it? I mean, it would be amazing if one could link that address directly to Lemire, wouldn't it?

Oh! You mean he had a personal webpage?

Sigh....

And by the way, here is one of the images of the Canadian Patriot Network Lemire designed:

Subtle Marc. Real subtle.

And what did his other website look like when Marc would have been 23?

Tsk, tsk....

The reality is that Marc already tried to snow people regarding his past with the Heritage Front. In that case, he had a willing stooge in Ezra Levant who refused to challenge Lemire's claims because Levant also had an agenda:

Uh, the Heritage Front uh, was active back in, uh, the the 90s and I was a young kid at the time. I had some, uh, interest in some of the things that they were doing in particularly thing like uh opposition to employment equity, things like reducing immigration. So I uh, listened to some of what they were about, and uh, I went away from it. I mean I was involved with them peripherally in my teenage years.

Well, Lemire is right that he was involved with the Heritage Front as a teenager:

CANADA - FEBRUARY 23 Hearing Adjourned Heritage Front leader Wolfgang Droege and his white supremacist supporters leave University Ave. courthouse yesterday. (Toronto Star)

But he was also involved in his early 20s as he continued to count Wolfgang Droege as a friend:

"I Disagree With Violence But....": The Justification and Celebration of the Christchurch Mosque Murders By Paul Fromm and Robert Jones

It didn't take long for the likes of Paulie to try and justify the murder of 50 adults and children worshiping at two Christchurch mosques. In a post on his blog, Fromm posted the entirety of the murderer's "manifesto" along with his own forward justifying the attack while couching that justification if claims to oppose violence:

The most relevant section of the forward his here:

Of course long time readers of ARC and those who know the long history of Fromm's support for violent hate groups who do the dirty work that he tacitly promotes know just how hollow Fromm's claim to "disagree with... violence." He has supported groups such as the Aryan Guard/Blood & Honour, Volksfront, the KKK, and a multitude of groups who have engaged in violence and he has rationalized every single instance:

In fact he has his own links to Christchurch, New Zealand where another violent hate group had been founded:

Here Fromm is shaking hands with Kyle Chapman while on a speaking tour of New Zealand in December 2010. Chapman was leader and founder of the neo-Nazi hate group Right Wing Resistance that formed targeting Maori and other Polynesian peoples, other New Zealand peoples of colour, Jews, and Muslims:

• Anti-Muslim pamphlet upsets residents

Right Wing Resistance also had a number of chapters around the world. Many were quite small including a Canadian chapter whose sole active member was profiled on the blog in late 2015:

Fromm isn't the only prominent disseminator of hate propaganda who has helped to poison the well and creating the conditions that contribute to events such as the Christchurch tragedy. Like others regarded as leaders or (to use a more resent term) influencers in the white nationalist movement internationally, Fromm toes right up to the line where he doesn't overtly advocate for violence, but justifies it when it occurs as the inevitable consequences of an ethnically diverse society and that the remedy is to make society not ethnically diverse.... however that task would be accomplished is left up to the imagination. These dog whistles are heard by those who ARE potentially inclined to commit such reprehensible acts, but those who have helped to foster this noxious environment have their plausible deniability. 

A figure on the far right whom I have written about due to his active involvement in protests and groups that are increasingly more extreme, Robert Jones, represents the kind of person people like Paulie are dog whistling too:

We usually find the sort of radicalization Robert Jones is undergoing in teens, however like the children who find their way into hate groups, Jones is someone who seems desperate to belong to something. He has been a member of the Soldiers of Odin, the Proud Boys, and the JDL as an affiliate. He has eventually been booted from all three of the groups mentioned and now he's on his forth, the hate group known as the Northern Guard. He has also embraced overt fascism and worships Donald Trump as a sort of living god (note that he has more than one Facebook account two of which I will be sourcing in the article without bothering to make the distinction):

When the Christchurch murders took place, Jones was immediately drawn to the manifesto which he has spent a great deal of time sharing online:

Jones seems aware that posting links to the manifesto, as well as the video of the murders, violate Facebook's terms of service regarding dissemination of hate propaganda and violence, but he seems determined to share these with a wide audience:

Jones' reaction to the murders has been equally crass:

Duarate seems to be under the impression that Fraser Anning, the Australian senator
who blamed the Muslim community for the the murder of their members for
the audacity of living in New Zealand, is a leftist because he likely didn't
read the article.... because he seems to be an idiot.

The term "retribution attack" used by Jones is telling as he very quickly begins to justify the murders and dehumanize non-white peoples: