Anti-Yellow Vest Protest in Edmonton: Counter Protester From the Clann Hate Group Arrested

At the Alberta Legislature an anti-Yellow Vests protest took place calling the movement out on their ties to overt racists and racist groups such as the Nouns of Odin, Northern Guard, and other hate groups. In response, the Yellow Vesters counter-protested.... along side the Nouns of Odin, Northern Guard, and other hate groups:

So.... thank you for proving the point I guess?

Journalist Carly Robinson reported on the event:

Another protest at the Alberta legislature today.
This week the counter-protesters had the podium (Yellow Vest movement comes weekly on Saturdays), using their time to call out what they call are "radical patriots" like members of the so-called "Clann" who participate. #YEG pic.twitter.com/qbFsycQMvE

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) March 16, 2019

Jeff Sharpe with the Yellow Vest movement in Edmonton says the counter-protesters are "dividing the community when we should be uniting the community to stand up for civil rights", says online hate comments come from "trolls". #yeg pic.twitter.com/Sda6sySOyZ

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) March 16, 2019

On the counter-protesters side, Dylan Michaels says they are fine with the pro-pipeline/job creation/political expression from the Yellow Vests, they just want them to disassociate and stop allowing members of groups and individuals who have made Islamaphobic comments. #yeg pic.twitter.com/WwcEsA6Yl5

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) March 16, 2019

As a bit of an aside, it is a bit galling to hear Jeff Sharpe claim that the there are no Yellow Vesters who are racists given his own history associating with groups such as the Worldwide Coalition against Islam and the Canadian Combat Coalition.

In any case, an interesting incident occurred during the protest.

One of the Clann members was arrested, evidently on outstanding warrants:

Ms. Robinson witnessed the arrest and included a photo in her Tweet:

Groups they are calling out are Solider/Wolves/Nouns of Odin, The Clann (who were present, one member taken by police for what I am told are unrelated outstanding warrants), Canadian Infidels. Says if YV denounced these groups, they would stop counter-protesting. #yeg pic.twitter.com/fuNgWDG0Tt

— Carly Robinson (@CarlyDRobinson) March 16, 2019

ARC readers will recognize the man being led away in handcuffs as the man in the following photograph alongside Clann leader Tyson Hunt attending a United Conservative Party event in October 2018:

February 2019 Bits and Bites

You know, the reactionary Yellow Vesters really are doing a poor job of vetting their supporters.... unless the presence of neo-Nazis is a feature and not a bug (spoiler: it is a feature):

Pictured here is Brian Ruhe, friend and supporter of Paul Fromm, Holocaust denier, antisemite, and a quite literal Hitler worshiper:

ARC has of course profiled Ruhe a few times on the blog already:

• The Company He Keeps: Meet Fromm's New Friend Brian Ruhe (UPDATED)
• Brian Ruhe Compares Paul Fromm to Hermann Göring

Then again, Ruhe does really fit in to the reactionary Yellow Vester crowd given what ARC and especially Yellow Vests Canada Exposed have dug up. In fact others have decided to document the hatred and vitriol the supporters of this vitriolic movement has promoted, including on their own personal Facebook profiles:

@ARCCollective pic.twitter.com/HxIxJzOej8

— ClydeGronk (@clydegronk) February 6, 2019

But then the violent Islamophobic rhetoric isn't confined to the reactionary Yellow Vesters. As the sentencing for the 2017 Quebec City mosque murderer is imminent, members and supporters of the Canadian Combat Coalition have some things to say.... all of which are absolutely disgusting:

With all this in mind and considering the numerous threats made by reactionary Yellow Vesters, I'm just going to leave this here to do with as you please:

Here is a list of hotels for the #YellowVestsCanada convoy to Ottawa. Please contact the hotels and mention that they are giving group rates to a hate group. @ARCCollective @YYCantiracist

If they question this, please direct them to the information that we have provided. pic.twitter.com/pdjmbiESe6

— Yellow Vests Canada Exposed (@VestsCanada) February 6, 2019

Back in Alberta, a mosque received a threatening note demanding Muslims leave the province:

We are alarmed to find that another mosque in #yeg has been targeted by what appears to be the work of the clann.@jkenney should know that this is what antisemitism looked like ~100 years ago when antisemitic literature had been floating around freely. It didn't end well. https://t.co/QpXwjZNdfW

— Calgary Anti-Racist Action (@YYCantiracist) February 6, 2019

It appears that the note comes from the Clann of which Ryan Dean and Tyson Hunt are members. The note, as well as the subsequent denial by Dean on the Clann Twitter account, seems to be another example of Dean trying to create his own false flag straw man in an effort to blame others:

The Clann Agreement to Speak to Members of Al Rashid Mosque Made in Bad Faith

Last week the Clann which is an amalgam of the Wolves of Odin (which was formerly the Soldiers of Odin), Patriot Pride Canada, Canadian Infidels, Odin's Heathens, and a partridge in a pear tree harassed members of an Edmonton mosque. They claimed to be innocent lambs there only to ask questions and to use the toilet, though it seems rather odd that someone would preemptively broadcast his visit to said toilet and dare the media to report on it.... almost as if it was all a ruse to create both controversy and plausible deniability:

It is also hard to believe that they were the open-minded fellas they claimed to have been who simply wanted to discuss a holy book when one of the photos they proudly posted included this one....

.... as well as posting images such as this on your Twitter account three days later....

.... and posting a map of Edmonton-area mosques three days prior to the visit....

.... and finally a call to recruit "surveillance units and "gray men" to support the cause:

Ryan Dean really wants to play at being a soldier, though he would
never pass the physical or any of the psychological tests. 

The video that Tyson Hunt posted of the encounter outside Al Rashid Mosque was rather interesting. Both Hunt and Dean appear to believe that the video made them look reasonable and the two men speaking to them appear like fanatics:

Alternate title for screen shot: "Muslim Wearing Pants Is Scary"

In fact, the video posted by Hunt indicates a spectacular amount of patience on the part of the two men who spoke to Hunt and Dean:

Of course, Ryan Dean (who operates the Clann Twitter account) considers that they are the REAL victims because they are white.... all the while accusing the people they harassed at Al Rashid Mosque of playing the victim card:

And of course, they are also angry at the media for reporting on the story in a way that didn't make them appear as if they were the heroes of the story:

Nouns of Odin, Now Re-Branded The Clann, Harass Edmonton Mosque Worshipers and Local Businesses

You know, it I once thought that making fun of the Aryan Guard/Blood & Honour name change as well as the rather lengthy and ostentatious Steven Blah Blah Myatt was sort of funny in my own "I'm-secretly-a-two-year-old" way.

But, my god!

In Edmonton we now have the Soldiers of Odin/Wolves of Odin/Odin's Heathens/Patriot Pride Canada/Canadian Infidels/The Clann.

These people change their groups' names more frequently then they change their underwear.

In any case, there was a "big" announcement earlier this month as members of the Wolves of Odin joined up with Ryan Dean (who I again remind readers is fairly recently off house arrest after being convicted of assaulting a former girlfriend) and his Clann which as one observer noted is a little on the nose:

And because everything Ryan Dean touches eventually collapses as a result of his profoundly toxic behavior, the seeds of infighting appear to already be present:

Prior to this though, the Nouns of Odin had been a regular presence at the reactionary Yellow Vest events in the city. For now though they have decided that a good look for them would be to harass people worshiping at a mosque and local businesses:

Gee. Tyson is being photographed giving the middle finger. How edgy and totally original of you.

First they harassed members at a mosque. It would be bad enough had they done so outside, but they sort of upped the ante and entered the building:

A spokesperson for the mosque said members of the Wolves of Odin group  attempted to “provoke” the people inside: "You don’t come inside the mosque with a toque that says infidel on it … Our No. 1 priority was to ensure our people here feel safe." #yeg https://t.co/aK2WhOpTor

— The Star Edmonton (@thestaredmonton) January 26, 2019

I grew up going to Al-Rashid. My dads funeral started at Al-Rashid. A mosque by the same name was the first mosque in Canada.

It makes me angry seeing these smug smile while they intimidate the community I grew up in. #yeg pic.twitter.com/4YRCAv0W5m

— Bashir Mohamed (@BashirMohamed) January 26, 2019

Patriot Prayer biker gang knockoff "The Clann" (formerly Wolves of Odin, formerly Soldiers of Odin) were walking around Edmonton today looking for fights & harassing Muslims outside a mosque. they literally call themselves "clannsmen". be safe #YEG pic.twitter.com/SHBhpZQ8hr

— Bob Nesta Makhno 🌹♎🏴 (@GilletteMachNo) January 26, 2019

This eventually resulted in a confrontation outside featuring Hunt, Dean, and company as well as two of the most patient men I've observed in these encounters:

The comments left on Tyson Hunt's Facebook page are pretty much as you would expect from the brain trust of the far right:

The goof troop also headed to Whyte Ave to harass people working at two pubs that Hunt describes as "antifa bars" either yesterday or today (the time line is a little up in the air for me right now):

There were two short videos posted prior to entering the two establishments as well as two of the Clann members harassing the people in the businesses that I don't think need to be posted. What was clear from the encounters though was the desire to gin up anger and, perhaps, violence directed at the pub workers as evidenced by the posts left on the videos:

Among those commenting are Beau Welling, leader of the Alberta III% militia as well as Bill Daniels who is a former BC Soldiers of Odin leader as well as the short lived national leader of the racist gang before the collapse as a national organization. He also has his own history of legal troubles.

Gotta say, not a good look for ya'll.

Well, it seems that you are doing your damnest to convince people you're both.

Guest Article: Schism in Edmonton Reactionary Yellow Vest Protest

I admit that I haven't been following the various reactionary Yellow Vest protests in every community where they are occurring unless something jumps out at me (like the participation of former Aryan Guard member and supporter Tom Trenerry and Dara Graham respectively). So on January 5 when the Yellow Vesters arrived at Churchill Square and the Edmonton Legislature for their weekly whine, I didn't pay all that much attention other than to note that their numbers had declined.

Seems I missed something rather significant as the individuals counter protesting observed and have kindly shared with ARC. Seems that Ryan Dean is continuing to be a glorious dumpster fire:

On January 5th, there were two rallies planned for Edmonton. The first was at the Legislature and the second was at Sir Winston Churchill Square. A few days before, we became aware that Ryan Dean (Odin's Heathens/Canadian Infidels/III%/PATRIOT PRIDE CANADA WIDE) was planning a counter-protest for the Churchill Square event because of an apparent issue with Stephen Garvey and the National Citizens Alliance (NCA).

We sent a small fraction of our group to scope out the Legislature rally because we had decided to focus our organizing on counter-protesting the Churchill Square rally. Some stayed a safe distance back while another group of us tried to get a bit closer to hear more clearly what was being said and to get a sense of the size of the crowd. We were immediately confronted by someone from the rally who greeted us with homophobia, misogyny, and a question about a permit. When the cops came, he claimed we were invading his space.

We didn't make it much further before being met with a police line and a line of Nouns of Odin [NOTE: "Nouns of Odin" is a term I'm definitely using this in the future!]. There was probably a dozen or so rally attendees who stopped paying attention to the speeches and focused their attention on us. Three yellow vests approached us from behind, holding up anti-UN and pro-pipeline signs. When the cops told them they needed to approach the rally from the other side, the approaching yellow vests became annoyed.

We stuck around for a few more minutes before deciding to leave and organize for the Churchill Square event. The Nouns of Odin/Canadian Infidels quickly declared this a victory over Antifa.

Upon arriving at Churchill Square, we were surprised at how few people were there. Stephen Garvey, someone in a yellow vest, and a handful of cops.

A few more yellow vests and even more cops showed up, but the event seemed to be running very late.

Our numbers were greater and the decision was made to block the Square's Happy Wall. Garvey and Friends had changed the message on the wall to read "Broke No Jobs". While this is a fair point, it was being said insincerely by fascists for the sake of whipping their yellow vest fodder into a frenzy. The message on the wall was changed to "No Hate".

We also decided to take a different approach for this counter-protest. Someone made bingo cards containing predicted talking points and conspiracy theories. Instead of trying to drown out Stephen Garvey and the liberal cast of people he invited to speak, we let them talk so that we could hear their points in order to mark our bingo cards. We made noise too, of course, but it was much less constant than past counter-protests. 

Garvey engaged in some theatrics. He produced a plunger and suggested that everyone needs to become a plumber in 2019 because Canada has become a clogged toilet. He repeated the same points many times and we eventually yelled at him to wrap it up and move along because we still had some unmarked spots on our cards. 

A man was invited to the podium to speak. He spoke to the counter-protest and told us the communists were not going to protect LGBTQ rights. He also bragged about how many of his fellow United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters members (Local 488) he was able to bring out for the yellow vest side. He then said that the movement had become contaminated and that he could no longer take part. The man speaking then walked off with the Nouns of Odin. 

This, it turns out, was the counter-protest orchestrated by Ryan Dean. Reading the notifications on the event page reveals the problems Dean has with Garvey: 1) Garvey thinks Canada should accept more Syrian refugees; 2) Garvey has an interest in the Muslim Brotherhood which was somehow shown by him inviting a Muslim Student Association to an anti-Islam rally; and 3) the NCA has ties to a neo-Nazi. This is especially interesting since the Soldiers of Odin was founded by a neo-Nazi and the now defunct/renamed Edmonton branch has close ties to C3 in Edmonton, who Dean has called cop callers and snitches.

In a post on PATRIOT PRIDE CANADA WIDE, we can see that Dean also has a problem with Garvey being a politician.

Those who have followed the trajectory of the Soldiers of Odin in Edmonton know that they are now called the Wolves of Odin/Canadian Infidels due to the founder of the Soldiers of Odin giving them the choice of politics or the Soldiers of Odin. While Tyson Hunt, the head of the Edmonton chapter, said he was choosing Soldiers of Odin over politics, other Canadian branches believed too much damage had already been done. In an interview with Vice, Hunt claimed he was happy to leave the Soldiers of Odin because he started to question that group's racism. 

I can't say for certain what we witnessed when the yellow vests splintered at Churchill Square, but it seems to be two neo-Nazis fighting over who will get to use the yellow vest protestors as resources to bolster their numbers.

A reminder that "Huck Greg" (or "Greg Huck") is one of Ryan Dean's (convicted on domestic assault charges) more recent pseudonyms:

• Ryan Dean Is Genuinely A Clown

None of this is entirely surprising as racists are often also misanthropes in general who can't even stand each other.

We'll see where all this leads to. If past is prologue, it will probably result in further fracturing amongst the already fractured groups which will further result in more (but smaller) groups that, in turn, will also fracture.

And these people believe they are leaders of men.

Ezra Levant's "Rebel Media" Event Provides Media Pass To Hate Group

Hey, so you know how Maxime Bernier wanted to have ridding officials for his new party sign a pledge not to embarrass him and his new People's Party of Canada? I wonder if that applies to far-right media outlets who provide press passes to hate groups who's founder was recently convicted of domestic violence?

More on that in a moment.

Since publishing the story on Keean Bexte yesterday, the media outlet "Ricochet" picked up the story and provided further details:

NEW: A Ricochet investigation has revealed that Keean Bexte, a Rebel Media reporter, former CPC staffer and UCP member, is the pseudonymous "Anton" who worked for white supremacist web store Fireforce Ventures. https://t.co/VmHKeNF8AL #cdnpoli #ableg

— Ricochet (@ricochet_en) November 13, 2018

Mr. Bexte acted as I had anticipated:

Now this weekend Bexte was one of the speakers at a "Rebel Media" event in Calgary that was headlined by Maxime Bernier. Also speaking at the event was John Carpay whose presentation was.... let's just say not well received by decent and not bigoted people:

Speaking at #TheRebelLive, John Carpay of @JCCFCanada just compared the rainbow flag to a swastika, and said that protecting LGBTQ rights is totalitarianism. In case you were wondering if they were bigots. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/jMdezFWUBs

— Michael Bueckert (@mbueckert) November 10, 2018

Though he was roundly condemned, Carplay found support in young Bexte....

.... as well as one other person folks who read this blog are familiar with:

Ryan Dean, a man who has been kicked out of every single racist and Islamophobic group he has joined including one he actually founded, has decided to chime in.

The last time ARC wrote about Dean was when he was kicked out of an NDP-sponsored anti-racism event. ARC also wrote about the ejection and made fun of Dean's over-the-top cries of victimization which he responded to eventually on Twitter:

Keep in mind, Ryan says he isn't a racist:

That's right, not a racist.

And certainly not an unapologetic, unrepentant, and violent misogynist who just served a sentence for domestic assault:

Yeah, he's a charmer.

He's also not a fan of the police as our readers are already well aware:

Well you see, we already know that he isn't law abiding since he quite literally did not abide by the law and was convicted of domestic assault for his attack on a former girlfriend whom he continues to publicly malign.

But to tie this all back to the "Rebel Media" event this past weekend, Dean also posted this:

Yep, Ryan Dean and a +1 attended the event:

Dean also made it out as if his new "group" (and I use the term "group" in the loosest sense of its meaning) was a sponsor of the event:

This is typical of Ryan Dean's delusions of grandeur and self-importance, however in this case there's a bit of a twist.

It appears that Ezra Levant granted Ryan Dean a press pass:

Oh, Lanny! Not you too?