Reaction From Right To Gerald Stanley Acquittal In Colten Boushie Murder Trial As Ugly and Hypocritical As Expected

I grew up on the prairies close to the Manitoba and Saskatchewan border. Growing up I was keenly aware that bigotry and active discrimination against FNIM was not only accepted, it was expected and often enforced. For example my white friends who got drunk and got into their cars to drive home were stopped by the police, but were driven home to the waiting arms of their parents with a stern finger wag at worst (they were "good boys" after all). My First Nations friends who got drunk and tried to walk home were stopped by the police and either thrown in the drunk tank and charged with public intoxication or they were driven kilometers out of town and told to "walk it off."

Restaurants refused to serve First Nations customers and landlords refused to rent to First Nations families, and businesses refused to hire First Nations people.  "Jokes" were told about how it was perfectly legal to run over "Indians" walking on the side of the road. In one story a friend told me, she had made friends with a First Nations girl and invited her over to a pool party. When her step-father came home to see a First Nations teenager visiting his home, he kicked the girl out of the pool and told his step-daughter to, "never bring a filthy Indian into his home again."

There's a reason why the prairies have been referred to as the Alabama of Canada and Saskatchewan as Mississippi North.

"I didn't think it was wrong to degrade my Indigenous classmates, friends and neighbours.

That's systemic racism. That's Saskatchewan." https://t.co/OTsCmV3n4g

— VICE Canada (@vicecanada) February 11, 2018

Which brings me to recent acquittal of Gerald Stanley, a Saskatchewan farmer who shot Colten Boushie:

The circumstances behind the shooting aren't entirely clear, but given Gerald Stanley's own statements it is difficult to fathom how the verdict can be considered in any way just, which isn't also to say also sadly not unexpected.

For everyone who didn't attend the #StanleyTrial, this is as close as you're going to get to knowing what happened to Colten #Boushie that day.    https://t.co/lniKN6rd3e

— Terry Glavin (@TerryGlavin) February 10, 2018

Still, it is a kick in the teeth.

Also expected are those folks on the right who are celebrating the verdict. In their mind Boushie and his friends were trespassing, armed (there was evidently a rifle in the vehicle), and trying to steal from the property. Boushie's friends have another story of course but that is all academic now.

I could post reactions of the right from a number of different sites, but the Facebook groups "Canadians Against the NDP and Liberals (Information & Facts)" will serve as a representative sample since the same language and responses are found elsewhere. Before doing so, and as a bit of a contrast, I thought I would first provide comments found on the group concerning the Bundy standoff in Oregon when armed members of the Cliven Bundy family and their allies trespassed on government property, commandeered (i.e. stole) trucks from the property, and drove from the property into town with relative impunity intimidating locals:

When LaVoy Finicum, one of their members who was armed and reaching for his weapon after being stopped by the police, was killed, the reaction of those posting on "Canadians Against the NDP and Liberals (Information & Facts)" responded as such:

Lets now contrast these reactions to those regarding the acquittal of Stanley and the death of Boushie:

And please note the references to "shit hole" countries, riffs on the "Make America Great Again" slogan, and complaints about the "real" oppression being directed at "old stock Canadians":

Is "Western Justice" the same as "Southern Justice"?

That would be a hard no Richard:

"The argument has taken root in online debate around the trial of Gerald Stanley, the man accused of killing Boushie, and it’s hard to say what’s more astounding: the ignorance underlying it, or the arrogance it implies."https://t.co/KdAJGOoDdl

— Lenard Monkman (@LenardMonkman1) February 9, 2018

In response, I'm just going to put this here:

Don't forget: "Each time a person who appeared to be Indigenous took his or her turn, a single word emanated from the defence bench: challenge...which by definition requires... The final result appeared to be an all-white jury" https://t.co/2ejgtKvdow

— Denise Balkissoon (@balkissoon) February 10, 2018

Is that so Darrin?

If this doesn’t fill our minds with rage and our hearts with despair, then it tells us a lot about who we really are., writes columnist @ShreeParadkar. https://t.co/WCPZdTsnai

— TorontoStar (@TorontoStar) February 11, 2018

So the police should just take your word for it? 

Right....

"White privilege does exist and, for me, it will always be defined as having the confidence to stand on second base even when you're out." -Chris Murphy, lawyer for Colten Boushie's family https://t.co/mGJ8Alfhwy

— Garth Mullins (@garthmullins) February 11, 2018

Food for thought:

So if the farmer that caught Fildebrandt committing illegal acts like poaching and trespassing on his property had shot Fildebrandt because he was threatened by the shotgun he was carrying, do we really think the farmer would have been found not guilty of killing him? #Boushie

— Brian LaBelle (@brianlabelle) February 10, 2018

Support from Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter on Colten Boushie. #coltenboushie #JusticeforColten #twitter @BerniceKing 🙏🏽❤️ pic.twitter.com/kp0bgQ7Hbz

— Lowa Beebe (@LowaBeebe) February 11, 2018

As I said, these are representative of the views on the sites ARC monitors. There are some people, a lot of people in fact, in Saskatchewan who are disgusted and ashamed because of this verdict.

I just wish there were more.

ARC Living Rent Free In CDN Wolfpack's Head

The head of the English-Canada chapter of the CDN Wolfpack (better known as La Meute, a hate group which has seen better days) Bryan Trottier follows ARC on Twitter.

He's also wants to make it clear that he is absolutely NOT a bad guy:

Except.... you know.... for his racist tweets:

And then there are those misogynistic comments (other than those that were also racist of course):

And the posts rejoicing in the deaths of other humans, particularly Muslims....

.... or WISHING death for those who peacefully protest the unjust, though sadly not unexpected (Saskatchewan), death of another human being:

Hey, and remember how groups like La Meute, Storm Alliance, the Northern Guard, III% militia, and other "patriot" groups complain about how the Canadian government isn't helping "real Canadian" who, for example, are homeless? Funny story that:

Other than that, Trottier and the CDN Wolfpack/La Meute are just wonderful people who have been horribly maligned by the likes of Justin Trudeau:

But all this brings me back to Trottier's preoccupation with ARC. You see he often comments on ARC's tweets and retweets. I usually ignore him because he is a bit redundant, however recently he commented on what he thinks is a low number of Twitter followers ARC possesses:

#JusticeForColten

When I was driving through the Whitebear Reserve in Saskatchewan 24 years ago, my car broke down. I started walking to get help, but in less than 30 seconds a First Nations man stopped his car, took me to his home, let me use his phone to call a tow company, and let me wait there and kept me company until a tow truck showed up. He offered me a glass of Coke and something to eat.

I wasn't shot. 

Infighting In Northern Guard: Least Shocking News Of the Week

There really are three things in life that are certain.

Death.

Taxes.

And far-right, pseudo-biker, wannabe militia types are going to eventually start fighting each other:

The scene above took place when members of the New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario Northern Guard chapters (as well as some III%ers and Proud Boys) arrived at what was billed as an anti-Trudeau rally in Toronto last October though a number of participants were carrying anti-Muslim and anti-refugee signs and included in their number quite a few overt racists.

As a slight digression, middle-age Proud Boy Robert Jones of Toronto has been sharing some of his fantasies on his Facebook profile:

Yeah.... and "antifa" are the violent ones?

Back to the October 2017 event in Nathan Phillips Square, counter-protesters managed to get some good images of the Northern Guard members as they walked towards their muster point including some members of the leadership including the two who will be highlighted in this article:

Gallant, a former New Brunswick Soldiers of Odin provincial leader as well as the founder and current leader of the Northern Guard is someone who ARC's readers have become well acquainted with because he's become ARC's biggest fan. The fella in front is Eric Brazeau, the one time provincial vp of the Quebec Northern Guard chapter and someone who had become somewhat of the official spokesperson of the group in Steven Myatt's and Georges Massaad's videos. Brazeau also struck this writer as one of the more competent and intelligent members of the Northern Guard, though if I'm going to be totally honest that might be a bit of a backhanded compliment considering I'm comparing him to Gallant who seems to possess the intellectual capacity of a half-eaten tunafish sandwich.

No doubt ARC readers have already noticed that I'm referring to Brazeau's time with the Northern Guard in the past-tense:

I will note the irony of Ryan Dean complaining about infighting and leave it at that.

In the video posted by Brazeau he refers to "egos" in New Brunswick and though he doesn't mention Gallant by name he does speak of the Northern Guard "president":

Brazeau's wife who was also actively involved in the woman's division also made a pointed comment:

Never one to let sleeping dogs lie, Nick Gallant eventually responded:

In a now classic example a Gallant video, he rambles on about how it doesn't bother him that Brazeau has left in an 11 minute video complaining about Brazeau. He also claims there is no infighting within the Northern Guard shortly after admitting that along with Brazeau, at least 20 other members have left the gang:

This writer can't help wonder who will get Steven Myatt, a member of the Northern Guard and friend of Brazeau, in this latest acrimonious divorce?

Jeff Sharpe Is "Focused" on ARC; ARC Collective Yawns

So looks like there's some tension within the Northern Guard. Accusations of backstabbing, egos, and at least on member of the leadership stepping down today. More on that in a future article as we get more details.

It really has been some time since ARC has even mentioned Jeff Sharpe, founder of both the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Government and the Alberta Citizens Coalition. Last time ARC spoke about him in detail was in relation to some difficulties he was having with Joey Deluca and the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI). Those difficulties were refereed to by Bernard "The Roughneck" Hancock who spoke at the June 3, 2017 event in Edmonton:


Truth be told I had forgotten all about this video, however a little over a week ago I received an update that someone had commented on the video:

One of the trends I've noticed is an increasing number of the "free speech or die" anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant "patriots" covered on ARC are especially intolerant of speech that opposes them personally. They also have no actual understanding of the law and believe that their threats are enough to result in this writer backing down; here's a hint as to how that is going for them:

"Go fuck yourselves with a long, cold, rusty, rebar."

Hmmm, I hope that isn't too subtle.

Anyways as another example, when ARC first started covering the Northern Guard, the following was one of the messages that was received:

These were from Northern Guard founder and president Nick Gallant (I could tell, in part, because of the clarity and precision of his writing). I'll probably make a post about this eventually, though given the shake-up in the Northern Guard related to a very public departure by Eric Brazeau, he likely has other things on his mind at the moment.

Back to Jeff (he confirms his name next), he provides an explanation as to why he believe this little spot in a remote corner of the Internet has dun him wrong:

Ah. Okay then.

Let's deal with the last statement first.

The following was taken from Jeff Sharpe's own Facebook profile yesterday:

February 2018 Bits and Bites: The Hypocrisy, Infighting, and Just Plain Dumb Edition

I think it is correct to acknowledge that humanity is a complicated lot rife with contradictions. We all have our blind spots where we have difficulty seeing that our words are not always reflected in our actions or behaviors. Many of us occasionally subscribe to the maxim, "do as I say and not as I do." It is all part of being a complicated human being trying to muddle through life before shuffling off our mortal coils.

But then there are times when the hypocrisy of some people is so pronounced, one can't help but be in awe.

ARC submits the following as current a case study for your consideration.

I first offer one Bill Whatcott, a man who for at least two decades been in the news in some form or another for his rejection of abortion rights, the LGBTQ community, and same-sex marriage. He's best known for his incredibly graphic and offensive propaganda that he distributes from door to door or at places such as university campuses as well as his frequent court appearances where he challenges efforts to keep him off the premises of public institutions:

During the last few years he also welcomed the support of white supremacist Paul Fromm, support that Whatcott has also reciprocated:

Like other religious right supporters, he's also a big supporter of Donald Trump:

I and others find it interesting that religious conservatives support a twice-divorced, thrice married man accused of engaging in extramarital affairs, sexual harassment and assault, and who has acquired at least a portion of his wealth through the gambling industry. Whatcott himself has been outspoken about his opposition to divorce, despite the fact that he too is twice divorced and thrice married:

Well it turns out that this particular post has aged especially poorly as Whatcott is actually now thrice divorced and now on his fourth wife:

This came as a surprise to many of Whatcott's followers:

But those friends of Bill Whatcott needn't worry because he has a perfectly fine explanation for his most recent divorce/remarriage.

He had grown tired of his third wife.

Shawn Le Guerrier In News Again

So ARC readers may remember that an article primarily focused on the reaction to the hijab story in Toronto also included some information on Shawn Le Guerrier. Le Guerrier had been arrested earlier last year for his involvement in a number of mosque attacks in Ottawa as well as assaulting a police officer. In the story published on January 21 ARC noted that Le Guerrier had been active on VK, a Russian-based social media site that has become popular in some far right circles due to the.... shall I say less stringent restrictions regarding hate propaganda:

For example, some of Le Guerrier's posts included the following:

Well it seems that the msm has decided to pick up the story as well, though I can't help but noticing there doesn't appear to have been any credit given to lil' ol ARC:

Ottawa man charged in attacks on mosque sites leaves trail of online hate