Saturday, September 03, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: Canadian Media Paying Attention Part 2

Before we begin and for any new reader here as a result of the latest article abut the Soldiers of Odin published by the CBC, we thought we would provide you with the links to our coverage of the group before jumping into our commentary on Mr. Lamoureux's article:
For a while, we at ARC seemed to be one of the few groups who were keeping an eye on the Soldiers of Odin, the vigilante group that began in Finland that was founded by a number of overt neo-Nazis. The movement eventually sprang up in other countries, including Canada. As of this date, there's a branch or support group in almost every province in Canada.

Now we've always been pretty realistic about our own limited media impact, so we were very pleased when Mack Lamoureux published his expose on the SOO in Alberta for "Vice" in April. This was followed by a story by Samantha Craggs of CBC News in Hamilton who spotlighted the growth of the movement in her own city; we commented on the story a few days later. If you haven't read these articles, we would urge you to do so.

Today, Mack Lamoureux again, this time writing for the CBC, has highlighted the group's activities in Edmonton:

Canadian president says local chapters 'not affiliated' with white supremacy
By Mack Lamoureux, CBC News Posted: Sep 03, 2016 6:00 AM MT           Last Updated: Sep 03, 2016 7:25 PM MT

A few interesting points:
"At this stage, we have a group of people that have associated [themselves] with a group that are internationally extremely negative," Jones said. "In the city of Edmonton context that we have right now, we have seen no violence, no complaints, no threats, nothing criminal." 
Jones said police have spoken to the group. 
"They are reporting they are not the same type of group, that they are not anti-immigration or radical right."

Well, that might be a hard case to make when, in order to be recognized as an official branch of the international Soldiers of Odin movement, a new national branch needs the approval of the original Finish branch:


And it's tough to convince us that the Canadian SOO isn't anti-immigration or radical right when you associate with overt racists and neo-Nazis:


"People think we're some sort of white power group," Joel Agnott, the SOO national president, told CBC News in early August. "We're not affiliated with any of that. We have had a few of those members, and we've kicked them out."
Yeah, we're still able to find a lot of "those members." For just one example, a quick look at the SOO Edmonton support page brings this guy to our attention:



"Jay Cam" has been profiled on the blog briefly before. He at one time was an administrator for the Canadians United 4 Canada Facebook group. Oh, and he's associated with Kyle McKee's Blood & Honour chapter.

Perhaps our readers would like to take a closer look at his profile photo



If you were able to identify the photo as that of George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, give yourself a pat on the back.

Also Joel Agnott has some interesting ties to people we're able to link to McKee's Blood & Honour faction (we'll be addressing this in a future article) as well as to Ernst Zundel's wife and fellow Holocaust denier Ingrid Rimland which in and of itself cause our spidey senses to start tingling: 

In any case, Joel Angott later issued a response to the CBC post:

The discussion that resulted, and the responses by supporters of the SoO, don't really do much to help Mr. Angott's case:






FYI, Carl MacKay is the head of the Canadian III%ers and can be frequently
found in groups such as the SoO trying to recruit people to his online militia.



The CBC article includes Agnott's criticism of the ADL, though we suspect based on the wording he might actually be attacking antifa groups"
The ADL is blunt in its assessment of the group. 
"An examination of the members and supporters of Soldiers of Odin USA leaves no room for doubt: though not all such adherents of the group are white supremacists or bigots, so many of them clearly are that the Soldiers of Odin can easily be considered a hate group."
The report said there are four typical types of members of the Soldiers of Odin: white supremacists, Norse pagans, anti-Muslim bigots and anti-government extremists.
But Agnott said the ADL holds a "Draconian misperception" of the group. 
"They [ADL] represent themselves as a benevolent organization, but in fact their actions demonstrate otherwise," Angott said. "While we are out working to better our communities and cities making them safe and accessible, they scrutinize our activities and motives, calling us out as racists."
Or maybe, as one of the oldest civil rights groups in the United States, the ADL are calling the SoO out as racists because the organization is, in fact, racist:
Though it claims not to be racist, many Soldiers of Odin USA members and supporters are in fact open white supremacists, ranging from racist Odinists to Ku Klux Klan members. Moreover, Soldiers of Odin USA is also attracting anti-government extremists from the militia movement and the related "Three Percenters," in addition to other extremists.
And really, considering a number of Canadian SoO chapters and support groups frequently provide web links to obviously racist websites, it's sort of difficult to take Mr. Angott's claims the SoO isn't racist all that seriously:


Here is what one can find when one clicks on the link provided:



Yep. That's a thing.

We have more to discuss, including Ezra Levant's reaction to the CBC article, the pompous and extreme position of the leader of the BC chapter of the SoO, as well as the friction that exists in the SoO which results in a revolving door of both members and individuals in leadership positions, but we'll leave those for other days.
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous20 April 2017 at 04:58

    Indeed the soldiers of Odin: a very conscise description of their group and the work that they are doing. Give you 2 big thumbs up! Keep up the good work!!!

    ReplyDelete