Back in March we ran an article linking Canadians United 4 Canada to the Soldiers of Odin, a movement that started in Finland but which has spread to a number of other countries including Canada.
Among those Finnish members are this guy:
Mr. Johansson's friend list might be of interest to readers on this side of the Atlantic:
Our original article on the SoO focused specifically on the Quebec wing and noted the Quebec group consisted of a number of overt neo-Nazis. Not surprisingly SoO members and supporters denied being members of an overt hate group, going so far as to print leaflets promoting their non-bigoted bona fides:
Later, a journalist writing for VICE picked up on the story (while also kindly linking to our article on the SoO) resulting in some concern from at least one provincial SoO wing:
Btw, if Blake Cunliffe is concerned about how SoO might be portrayed in the media, he might decide to desist advocating political assassinations:
While we are no longer privy to the Soldiers of Odin's BC wing as they appear to have removed our dummy Facebook profile, we did notice that no one really ultimately challenged the underlying claims made in the article. Had they done so though, they might have had to explain this fella:
We had mentioned Murray Ardell in a previous article, but we thought we would remind our readers how his membership in a group that claims not to have racist views might prove to be somewhat inconvenient:
Yeah, that's a kick in the teeth, ain't it?
Now, if Murray Ardell were the only person to hold these views within the SoO, then one might argue that he simply fell through the cracks (despite having a completely open Facebook page which could easily be examined by the same SoO Facebook group administrators who granted him membership).
But he's not.
With that in mind, we thought we would take our readers on a tour from West to East detailing some of the overtly racist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist members and supporters of the Canadian SoO. This isn't even a comprehensive list, but one that is comprised of folks who have been on our radar for years and those who's views are so obvious that one would have to be willfully blind to not take note of.
Continuing in BC, we give you Kirk Delmo using the name Leon Degrelle, an infamous Nazi collaborator and member of the SS:
As noted on the blog numerous times, Delmo has ties to both Volksfront as well as the Blood & Honour facation led by Calgary's Kyle McKee:
Moving on to Alberta for the time being, we come across quite a few characters whom our readers will be quite familiar with.
Like John "Big Dirty" Marleau:
Oh, what can we write about John Marleau that hasn't already been written? In this case we'll simply let the images tell the story (in addition to the like already provided of course):
Another of McKee's friends and Blood & Honour member familiar to our readers is Bernie Miller:
Jason Anderson, who ran into problems a few years ago while helping to organize a march in Edmonton, is also a member of the SoO Alberta wing in good standing:
Martina Mortimer one-time associate of the BC faction of Blood & Honour, is a proud member:
UPDATE 1: The young woman in the photo claims to have been under 18 when the photos were taken and that she was also added to the SoO Alberta group without her knowledge.
We're more than a bit skeptical regarding both of these claims, but we'll err on the side of caution.
UPDATE 2: We were right to be skeptical.
Martina Mortimer, who was associated with Blood & Honour in BC and now is close to McKee's Blood & Honour in Alberta, has been put back on the blog.
And then there is Travis Ross, another friend of McKee and also Bernie Miller whom we've already profiled:
This guy is new to us....
.... but when you get a tattoo referencing an infamous Nazi death camp on your arm, you certainly get our attention:
Continuing our march eastward into Saskatchewan brings us to Jody Issel who is actually a member of a few ogroups:
Jody's entry on to this list marks a bit of a milestone on this particular article as he is, as far as we know, one of the first SoO member who is in a leadership position as he was named the president of the Moose Jaw chapter.
Our readers remember him though as a participant in at least one "White Pride" march organized by Kyle McKee as well as having tried to found a branch of Aryan Nations in Saskatchewan:
Also in Saskatchewan is a guy even members of the Aryan Guard found creepy:
Over in the Manitoba SoO group are these two handsome fellas:
We'll get back to them when we arrive in New Brunswick.
Jumping over Ontario (for now; we plan on a separate article focusing on the Ontario wing of the SoO) brings us to Quebec. We actually weren't going to do much with Quebec assuming that we had managed to catch most of the worst offenders, but it turns out there were some obvious cases that we missed, like this guy:
A second example from Quebec is Fred Pelletier:
Pelletier's ideological bent isn't at all subtle:
Pelletier also gets some love from another Quebec SoO member who we have profiled:
Therberge's entry on this list marks the second individual with overt ties to extremist views who has a leadership roll in the SoO:
We'll finish with the East Coast where an SoO support group was created by two members already mentioned:
Beginning first with Chris Styx, we note some posts that might be of concern for an organization that is claiming to not be racist in nature:
And while we have, again, profiled Kory Nowles on the blog in the last article detailing the SoO links to neo-Nazi extremism, it doesn't hurt to include a few more recent screen shots:
Now we know what some of our readers might be thinking. These two gentlemen run a support page and thus the actual SoO isn't responsible for the membership. That may or may not be true, but it doesn't seem to bother the SoO national president Joel Angott who is a member of the New Brunswick support group:
By the way, interesting hat Jean-Luc:
Getting back to members whom we are familiar with, we start with Jeremy Kelly who's been rather quiet until now:
Oh, and we can't forget about Derek Basque (again, already profiled in our earlier article):
And though he's not a Canadian, Norman Emmerson of the UK is also a support member:
We've learned that a number of SoO chapters in Canada are worried about their members communicating with the media, worried that the wrong message about the group and goals might be published thus harming their movement.
Dudes, who does and does not talk to the media really is the least of your worries.
Among those Finnish members are this guy:
Mr. Johansson's friend list might be of interest to readers on this side of the Atlantic:
Our original article on the SoO focused specifically on the Quebec wing and noted the Quebec group consisted of a number of overt neo-Nazis. Not surprisingly SoO members and supporters denied being members of an overt hate group, going so far as to print leaflets promoting their non-bigoted bona fides:
Later, a journalist writing for VICE picked up on the story (while also kindly linking to our article on the SoO) resulting in some concern from at least one provincial SoO wing:
Btw, if Blake Cunliffe is concerned about how SoO might be portrayed in the media, he might decide to desist advocating political assassinations:
While we are no longer privy to the Soldiers of Odin's BC wing as they appear to have removed our dummy Facebook profile, we did notice that no one really ultimately challenged the underlying claims made in the article. Had they done so though, they might have had to explain this fella:
We had mentioned Murray Ardell in a previous article, but we thought we would remind our readers how his membership in a group that claims not to have racist views might prove to be somewhat inconvenient:
Yeah, that's a kick in the teeth, ain't it?
Now, if Murray Ardell were the only person to hold these views within the SoO, then one might argue that he simply fell through the cracks (despite having a completely open Facebook page which could easily be examined by the same SoO Facebook group administrators who granted him membership).
But he's not.
With that in mind, we thought we would take our readers on a tour from West to East detailing some of the overtly racist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist members and supporters of the Canadian SoO. This isn't even a comprehensive list, but one that is comprised of folks who have been on our radar for years and those who's views are so obvious that one would have to be willfully blind to not take note of.
Continuing in BC, we give you Kirk Delmo using the name Leon Degrelle, an infamous Nazi collaborator and member of the SS:
As noted on the blog numerous times, Delmo has ties to both Volksfront as well as the Blood & Honour facation led by Calgary's Kyle McKee:
Moving on to Alberta for the time being, we come across quite a few characters whom our readers will be quite familiar with.
Like John "Big Dirty" Marleau:
Oh, what can we write about John Marleau that hasn't already been written? In this case we'll simply let the images tell the story (in addition to the like already provided of course):
Another of McKee's friends and Blood & Honour member familiar to our readers is Bernie Miller:
Jason Anderson, who ran into problems a few years ago while helping to organize a march in Edmonton, is also a member of the SoO Alberta wing in good standing:
Martina Mortimer one-time associate of the BC faction of Blood & Honour, is a proud member:
We're more than a bit skeptical regarding both of these claims, but we'll err on the side of caution.
UPDATE 2: We were right to be skeptical.
Martina Mortimer, who was associated with Blood & Honour in BC and now is close to McKee's Blood & Honour in Alberta, has been put back on the blog.
And then there is Travis Ross, another friend of McKee and also Bernie Miller whom we've already profiled:
This guy is new to us....
.... but when you get a tattoo referencing an infamous Nazi death camp on your arm, you certainly get our attention:
 |
| I don't know? Arrest you for assault for starters maybe? |
Continuing our march eastward into Saskatchewan brings us to Jody Issel who is actually a member of a few ogroups:
Jody's entry on to this list marks a bit of a milestone on this particular article as he is, as far as we know, one of the first SoO member who is in a leadership position as he was named the president of the Moose Jaw chapter.
Our readers remember him though as a participant in at least one "White Pride" march organized by Kyle McKee as well as having tried to found a branch of Aryan Nations in Saskatchewan:
Also in Saskatchewan is a guy even members of the Aryan Guard found creepy:
Over in the Manitoba SoO group are these two handsome fellas:
We'll get back to them when we arrive in New Brunswick.
Jumping over Ontario (for now; we plan on a separate article focusing on the Ontario wing of the SoO) brings us to Quebec. We actually weren't going to do much with Quebec assuming that we had managed to catch most of the worst offenders, but it turns out there were some obvious cases that we missed, like this guy:
A second example from Quebec is Fred Pelletier:
Pelletier's ideological bent isn't at all subtle:
Pelletier also gets some love from another Quebec SoO member who we have profiled:
 |
| Interested in the meaning of 318? Click on the link here. |
Therberge's entry on this list marks the second individual with overt ties to extremist views who has a leadership roll in the SoO:
We'll finish with the East Coast where an SoO support group was created by two members already mentioned:
Beginning first with Chris Styx, we note some posts that might be of concern for an organization that is claiming to not be racist in nature:
And while we have, again, profiled Kory Nowles on the blog in the last article detailing the SoO links to neo-Nazi extremism, it doesn't hurt to include a few more recent screen shots:
Now we know what some of our readers might be thinking. These two gentlemen run a support page and thus the actual SoO isn't responsible for the membership. That may or may not be true, but it doesn't seem to bother the SoO national president Joel Angott who is a member of the New Brunswick support group:
By the way, interesting hat Jean-Luc:
Getting back to members whom we are familiar with, we start with Jeremy Kelly who's been rather quiet until now:
Oh, and we can't forget about Derek Basque (again, already profiled in our earlier article):
And though he's not a Canadian, Norman Emmerson of the UK is also a support member:
We've learned that a number of SoO chapters in Canada are worried about their members communicating with the media, worried that the wrong message about the group and goals might be published thus harming their movement.
Dudes, who does and does not talk to the media really is the least of your worries.
Awesome article as always.
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