Marc Lemire and the Heritage Front: Was He Ever the Leader?

We’ve been following the Marc Lemire (pictured) saga play out for some time. As a result of a complaint being brought against him by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, his constitutional challenge to Canadian hate crime laws, and his, shall we say, acrimonious relationship with Richard Warman, Lemire has become a cause célèbre for those opposed to the CHRC and CHRT. In fact, some have referred to Lemire as no less than a persecuted martyr and a free speech hero. A common cause makes for strange bedfellows; Ezra Levant, who is Jewish, has found common cause with a man who’s links to holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis is unquestioned.

Well, that’s not entirely true. In fact, those ties do appear to be questioned. Not just questioned, but outright dismissed as libelous.

One of the groups supporting Marc Lemire is Free Dominion. Free Dominion, an Internet political webforum, is the Canadian sister site of the American-based Free Republic, both of which are known for being particularly partisan. The members of their web forums don’t view political discourse as a competition of different viewpoints so much as a war of black and white where conservatives represent everything good and pure while liberals are communistic, atheistic, barbarians at the gate trying to destroy everything patriotic Canadians know and love. In short, they view politics as a struggle between good and evil and those who don’t fall into step with conservative positions are evil and must be destroyed.

Sound a little melodramatic? Take a look at the webforum of Free Dominion and form your own opinion (you might also wish to join and try to express a leftist or socialist view; you’ll learn quickly how their views regarding freedom of speech and expression don’t apply to anyone who’s speech or expression differ markedly from their own).

The Rise and Fall of a Racist Gang: Long, Nerland and Sims

We thought we'd direct our readers to this video from an old CBC story covering a racist skinhead/Aryan Nations rally in Provost, Alberta in the early 1990s. In this video is Carney Nerland, the Saskatchewan Aryan Nations leader who not long after the "First Annual Alberta Aryan Fest" took place shot and killed a First Nations trapper named Leo LeChance in Prince Albert. The organizer of the Provost rally, Terry Long, ran into his own legal problems when he was implicated in the brutal attack against Keith Rutherford in Edmonton. The attackers, young skinheads, were influenced by Terry Long.

The parallels between the Aryan Nations of the late 1980s and early 90s in Alberta and the Aryan Guard are compelling. Both groups had roughly 25 core members. Both groups became brazen enough to engage in public protests and/or rallies. The difference is that the Aryan Nations eventually collapsed as a result of the criminal activities of the membership. The Aryan Guard, thus far, is still going, however it hasn't been around as long as the Aryan Nations that was created by Long.

Any bets on how long it will be before the Aryan Guard also implodes?

Sources

The Skinhead International: Canada (from the Nizkor Project)

The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Jan. 24, 2005.

A Bit of a Change

We were getting a little bored looking at green so we decided to change things up a bit. We also decided to provide a few laughs at the expense of Paul Fromm via "The Daily Show."

Statements by The Southern Ontario ARA: Gay Pride Protest and Levant's Statement of Defence

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):

Calgary Firebombing: Update

Remember this guy?

We'll get back to him soon enough.

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):

Citizens Are Mobilized

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.

Ezra Levant. Irony or Chutzpah?

As we've said before, we don't have a dog in the hunt when it comes to the Ezra Levant saga. Yes, we're in favour and supporters of free speech even for the most vile of people since the protection of their speech protects our freedoms. Yes, Ezra Levant is an attention seeking media whore who is reveling in the attention and adulation of neo-Nazis who, if given the chance, would have him killed.

Whatever.

Still we do occasionally visit Levant's blog to see what he's whining about now. We recently clicked on a link that lead us to a blog entry where he was urging the U.S. Congress to put Canada on it's human rights watch list as a result of the Canadian Human Rights Commission's "abuse." At least that's what we think it was about based on the title; we were too busy laughing to get into the article much.

We're Mentioned in the "Briarpatch"

We guess this is a tooting our own horn moment, but we would have posted this link regardless because it's a great article. "The Briarpatch" is a progressive magazine that deals with issues ranging from human rights, corporate media control, the environment, and numerous other issue that are not effectively dealt with (if at all) by the mainstream media. In a recent article, "Fighting Fire With Fire: Anti-racist Organizing in Alberta" the magazine discusses the growth of the Aryan Guard in Calgary, but more importantly the efforts by anti-racist activists to shut the group down. This blog is mentioned in relation to the videos posted by Jason Harley and others:

If videos posted on the Anti-Racist Canada blog are any indication of the kind of non-violent family values the Aryan Guard espouses, Devine and Bernard have a right to be skeptical. In a profanity-laced diatribe, Aryan Guard member Jason Harley explains that multiculturalism is like putting a red sock “representing the communists” and a blue sock “representing the Jews” into a washing machine with a white load of laundry. “Everything turns fucking fruity and purple and fucking gay. Fucking retarded. There you go. Fucking white supremacy.” In another video, two Aryan Guard members fight bare-chested in the snow on a quiet residential street.

The A.G./ARA Throwdown: Much Ado About Nothing

On July 15, 2008 the Calgary ARA and an Aryan Guard member who goes by the name of Willis had a bit of a run in. The ARA members had been at a Calgary skate park putting up fliers and talking to the youths who hang out there. It appears that Willis felt that this was fertile ground for recruitment, even though some of the youths he managed to swing to his side aren't even White.

Now the Aryan Guard would have you believe that the ARA swarmed over Willis in his own apartment, but we think that after the amount of b.s. the Aryan Guard has spread, you won't buy it. So here's what did happen.

When the ARA members were leaving the skate park on their way back to the C-Train, the walked by an apartment complex. Willis was on his balcony and started Seig Heiling. Braniac then came down to start a fight. He threw the first punch which injured an ARA member. The next punch resulted in Willis taking a nap on the concrete.

More Aryan Guard Delusions

Kyle McKee wrote the following post on Stormfront under the heading, "White Nationlist Relocation Program - Destination Calgary":

The Aryan Guard is always seeking new brothers and sisters, if you are interested in relocating to our Calgary area, we will pay the damage deposit for your residence. We believe that through fortifying our current locations with more White Nationlists we can spread the world more efficiently and than in the future branch out further throughout Canada.

If you are interested in moving to Calgary, please let us know.

First, we note that McKee, who is functionally illiterate, has someone to proof read his entries before he posts them now (either that or OdinPatrick, the Canadian forums moderator on Stormfront, has been a busy beaver). Second, the claim of support files in the face of claims made earlier by an Aryan Guard supporter who now lives in British Columbia.