A More Serious Turn?

Homes hit by firebombs

2008-02-22 01:26:06 MST

By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA
 

City arson detectives are looking into a possible white supremacist link to a pair of firebombings in the city. 

One of the attacks targeted a southeast home containing four children. 

Anti-racism activist Bonnie Collins said on the night of Feb. 12, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her townhouse on Radcliffe Dr. S.E. 

She said the blazing bottle filled with a flammable fluid just missed a rear window, but struck the side of the building and torched a fence and her patio set. 

Collins believes her work in standing up to white supremacists provoked the attack. 

"It's horrible and scary, but it also means we're doing something effective against them," said Collins, 29, whose husband and four children, aged three to nine were home at the time. "We're monitoring their websites to see if they boast about it." 

Det. Brad Weinberger of the arson unit confirmed the incident and said another occurred on 68 Ave. S.W. about 12 hours earlier. 

"It's very similar, in that a Molotov cocktail was thrown, this one through a front window," he said, adding three people were home at the time. "There was no fire internally, but the potential for huge damage and loss of life was there." 

It's possible whoever firebombed the first home was targeting the previous tenants who had activist ties, said Weinberger, adding he's investigating the involvement of foes of anti-racist demonstrators.

Collins -- who's also running as a Communist Party candidate in Calgary East -- said white-supremacist groups in the city have become more active and belligerent lately. 

"They're getting stronger, they're showing their flags," she said. "There's a lot of kids drawn to it -- they're looking for something and they find acceptance with these groups." 

Collins said she and her colleagues still plan to demonstrate against a white power march on March 21.

While we aren't certain that the firebombing is as a result of Ms. Collins' anti-racist activism, we are probably 99.5% in agreement that this was a legitimate act of intimidation and perhaps attempted murder. At least on Aryan Guard member is closely associated with a neo-Nazi originally from Kitchener, Ontario who is believed to have been involved in some assaults and a firebombing in Edmonton. These two were roommates in Kitchener and moved to Calgary together, however the one eventually returned to Ontario, then moved to Edmonton. It was during his time in Edmonton when the assaults and firebombing took place; similar incidents in Edmonton declined when this individual left the city again. This all speculation, but it's based on some precedent.

We'll be keeping an eye on developments.