On April 23, 2018, a van swerved onto the sidewalk in Toronto in what appears to have been an intentional act. When the carnage was over, 10 people were dead and more than a dozen injured. The people killed and injured were men and women, young people and old, people of different faiths, Canadian citizens and tourists.
Very little was known about the accused (for example, while Canadian law enforcement has said he was unknown to them, some have suggested American law enforcement was aware of him though I've come to consider this claim to be rather dubious), however as time went on we learned more about him. We learned his name was Alek Minassian, a 25 year old from Richmond Hill who had recently graduated from Seneca College having attended from 2011 to 2018. Accounts from those who knew him in high school and during his post-secondary studies paint a picture of a socially awkward individual who might have had special needs; in a 2009 article in the "Richmond Hill Liberal," his mother expressed concern that an unnamed son who was said to suffer from Asperger syndrome would no longer have access to a program called Helpmate:
Initially there wasn't any information regarding a motive for the Minassian's actions, however eventually his Facebook page was discovered and though it has since been removed by Facebook administrators Minassian posted the following status update just prior to the horrible events that were soon to take place:
Initially this post was met with skepticism as it had not been verified when the media started reporting on it, however Facebook acknowledged the authenticity of the profile:
Fun fact: Ezra Levant had to roll back his mockery of the "fake news":
If this is true, it seems that Minassian may have been inspired by Elliot Rodger:
There are still a lot of unknowns. One thing that doesn't matter at all is the religion of the accused. Since his name is of Armenian origin, it suggests that he MAY be a Christian, but really it doesn't matter if he's a Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, or other.
But damn if some people really, REALLY, want him to be a Muslim:
Almost all of what Myatt posted here is not true. The accused appears to have been in the country for close to a decade at least and may have been born in Canada. He did not arrive from Aleppo six months ago and his Facebook profile never made that claim. No where is there any evidence of his religion and the there is no indication that Trudeau has ever said or written any of the statements that are attributed to him in the picture Myatt provided.
Steven Myatt is a liar, and I believe he know's he's a liar because he has since removed this post and the accompanying comments. He has not acknowledged that he was wrong and continues to stoke religious and ethnic hatred however. This post was also shared hundreds of times and resulted in whipping his fans into a frenzied rage that is potentially very dangerous:
There were some who did question the accuracy of Myatt's claims:
Myatt's response then was to both double-down and to state something incredibly stupid:
"Armenia doesn't exist anymore"
Yeah, he actually wrote that:
As for the attempted murder charges, the alleged victims are: Sammantha Samson, Samantha Peart, Morgan McDougall, Mavis Justino, Catherine Riddell, Aleksandra Kozhevinikova, Amir Kiumarsi, Yunsheng Tian, Jun Seok Park, Amaresh Tesfamariam, So Ra, Beverly Smith, Robert Anderson— Tamara Khandaker (@anima_tk) April 24, 2018
Very little was known about the accused (for example, while Canadian law enforcement has said he was unknown to them, some have suggested American law enforcement was aware of him though I've come to consider this claim to be rather dubious), however as time went on we learned more about him. We learned his name was Alek Minassian, a 25 year old from Richmond Hill who had recently graduated from Seneca College having attended from 2011 to 2018. Accounts from those who knew him in high school and during his post-secondary studies paint a picture of a socially awkward individual who might have had special needs; in a 2009 article in the "Richmond Hill Liberal," his mother expressed concern that an unnamed son who was said to suffer from Asperger syndrome would no longer have access to a program called Helpmate:
“My son would spend afternoons working with Helpmate. They were sensitive to his needs and now he has a job at Compugen here in town,” she said, referring to an IT company in Richmond Hill.
“He was able to take the experience provided by Helpmate and apply it. This kind of service for my son wasn’t available elsewhere. I am convinced that if we didn’t have Helpmate, my son would not have had such an opportunity.”It was also reported that Minassian had tried to join the Canadian Armed Forces in August of 2017, however after 16 days of the 13 week basic training schedule, he asked for and received permission to leave.
Initially there wasn't any information regarding a motive for the Minassian's actions, however eventually his Facebook page was discovered and though it has since been removed by Facebook administrators Minassian posted the following status update just prior to the horrible events that were soon to take place:
Initially this post was met with skepticism as it had not been verified when the media started reporting on it, however Facebook acknowledged the authenticity of the profile:
Facebook has confirmed this post is real. The language used (i.e. "Chad") strongly indicates that Minassian was reading 4chan or another alt-right forum. After Bissonnette, this may be the 2nd murder spree in Canada associated with alt-right media diet. https://t.co/GdmgNH33OJ— Evan Balgord (@ebalgord) April 24, 2018
Facebook says the post from Alek Minassian referencing the "Incel Rebellion” and Elliot Rodger is real, and was posted publicly on his profile before Facebook shut it down.— matthew braga (@mattbraga) April 24, 2018
Toronto Police have also confirmed the post in a press conference. "It's something we'll take into account in this investigation," says homicide detective Sgt. Graham Gibson.— matthew braga (@mattbraga) April 24, 2018
Fun fact: Ezra Levant had to roll back his mockery of the "fake news":
Ezra Levant, meanwhile, has deleted a tweet dismissing the "incel" Facebook post as "#FakeNews": pic.twitter.com/pp8Ph3pHob— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) April 24, 2018
There is, as they say, always a tweet: pic.twitter.com/uUTL3wQw35— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) April 24, 2018
Elliot Rodger, of course, refers to the 22-year-old who, motivated by his self-professed hatred for women and frustrated by his status as a virgin, murdered six and injured over a dozen before killing himself in Isla Vista, California, in May 2014. The “incel rebellion” refers to the involuntarily celibate community—people, though almost exclusively men, distraught with their lack of sexual experiences, and often expressing this disappointment as anger towards women writ large. For violent-minded incels, Rodger is thought of as a hero, and it’s believed Nikolas Cruz—the shooter responsible for the massacre in Parkland, Florida—also idolized Rodger.
“Chad,” for those unaccustomed to the Neanderthalic corners of the internet, is a reference to a meme that contrasts the qualities of a “virgin” with his confident, well-endowed opposite, Chad Thundercock. The opposing, poorly drawn men of the meme are applied to everything from character picks in Overwatch to astronomy; but true to the meme’s origin’s on 4chan—another radicalizing force Minassian mentions—the subject matter tends to veer towards subjects of traditionalism, ethno-centrism, and misogyny.
00010 is the trade number for the Canadian infantry, and C23249161 appears to be a military service number. Minassian joined the CAF for approximately 2 months, and requested a voluntary discharge without completing his recruit training, Vice reports.
I wrote/helped write a few stories about the Toronto van attack today. If you want to read them they are here: https://t.co/ySetrQ2SOphttps://t.co/7bz6RTGg2hhttps://t.co/IhYbWoiOkt— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) April 24, 2018
There are still a lot of unknowns. One thing that doesn't matter at all is the religion of the accused. Since his name is of Armenian origin, it suggests that he MAY be a Christian, but really it doesn't matter if he's a Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, or other.
But damn if some people really, REALLY, want him to be a Muslim:
Almost all of what Myatt posted here is not true. The accused appears to have been in the country for close to a decade at least and may have been born in Canada. He did not arrive from Aleppo six months ago and his Facebook profile never made that claim. No where is there any evidence of his religion and the there is no indication that Trudeau has ever said or written any of the statements that are attributed to him in the picture Myatt provided.
Steven Myatt is a liar, and I believe he know's he's a liar because he has since removed this post and the accompanying comments. He has not acknowledged that he was wrong and continues to stoke religious and ethnic hatred however. This post was also shared hundreds of times and resulted in whipping his fans into a frenzied rage that is potentially very dangerous:
There were some who did question the accuracy of Myatt's claims:
Myatt's response then was to both double-down and to state something incredibly stupid:
"Armenia doesn't exist anymore"
Yeah, he actually wrote that:
- Armenians Somberly Mark 'Genocide Day' Hours After Celebrating PM's Resignation
- Armenia’s protesters just removed its Russia-friendly prime minister — Moscow is ‘definitely nervous’
Steven Myatt is an idiot.
But he's a dangerous idiot with a fairly large following of increasingly radicalized anti-government racist and Islamophobes whose violent rhetoric is reaching a fevered pitch and seems ready to explode.
He of course isn't alone:
Ronny Cameron is also a liar:
Mr. Goodale never said what Cameron claims. If he had made an error that would be one thing, but he was told repeatedly that he was wrong and continued to ignore those correcting them and continued to lie.
The video Cameron posted a video that was an hour and a half in length. All that needs to be posted that will tell you all you need to know about his character can be found withing the first two minutes:
He doesn't give a damn if he's right or not, he's going to accuse Muslims and immigrants anyways and if he's wrong.... oh well....
In short, and as I've editorialized in the video, Ronny Cameron is a dirtbag. And he's a dirtbag who appears to have no concern about the potential damage that might result from his casual lying:
In this thread we see that Tim Kelly, a member of the Proud Boys, posting. The Proud Boys embraced the anti-Muslim rhetoric very quickly:
He's also promoting the planned PEGIDA Canada protest that is to occur at Mel Lastman Square this weekend, the very spot where a part of the tragedy took place because PEGIDA Canada are amoral, opportunistic, ghouls:
As a bit of an aside, I have to admit that it has been incredibly difficult to contain my own anger as I read these posts.
And these are not the only ones.
Every single social media site ARC monitors is sowing the same hatred and the same lies.
Kevin Johnston, a man who is a chronic liar who is currently charged under Canadian hate crime laws posted the following with the accompanying comments:
By the way, here is Cynthia Hill who in a number of posts has called for a civil war and the deportation of Muslims:
Putting this as nicely as I can right now, go fuck yourself Cythia.
But I do digress.
There's also the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, both the "international" page and the Canadian one:
Speaking of Jesse, the vice-president of the WCAI....
The III% militia are also chiming in:
And finally the Canadian Combat Coalition, whose leader Dan Dubois posted a rambling video that I cut for the sake of brevity:
I could post more. Sandra Solomon, La Meute, Soldiers of Odin, Northern Guard, Stormfront, and others have all contributed to the powder keg of purposely misdirected anger.
But one can only read so much of this bile before becoming sickened by it.
One thing the readers have likely noticed that, sheep-like, they continue to bleat the same phrase or a variation of it.
Trudeau has blood on his hands.
By continuing to disseminate lies and stoking the anger of their supporters, leaders of this toxic movement may very well be creating the conditions by which one of their more unhinged supporters might actually put rhetoric into action. Real lives are at risk and people could be seriously harmed and if that is done because they have been radicalized by people such as Steven Myatt, Ronny Cameron, Kevin Johnston, PEGIDA, III%ers, WCAI, CCC, or all the others who are continuing to sow fear rage, then blood could truly be on their hands
Somehow though, I have a feeling that people who admit to not caring whether or not the information they are providing is accurate will give a damn.
In this thread we see that Tim Kelly, a member of the Proud Boys, posting. The Proud Boys embraced the anti-Muslim rhetoric very quickly:
He's also promoting the planned PEGIDA Canada protest that is to occur at Mel Lastman Square this weekend, the very spot where a part of the tragedy took place because PEGIDA Canada are amoral, opportunistic, ghouls:
As a bit of an aside, I have to admit that it has been incredibly difficult to contain my own anger as I read these posts.
And these are not the only ones.
Every single social media site ARC monitors is sowing the same hatred and the same lies.
Kevin Johnston, a man who is a chronic liar who is currently charged under Canadian hate crime laws posted the following with the accompanying comments:
By the way, here is Cynthia Hill who in a number of posts has called for a civil war and the deportation of Muslims:
Putting this as nicely as I can right now, go fuck yourself Cythia.
But I do digress.
There's also the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, both the "international" page and the Canadian one:
Speaking of Jesse, the vice-president of the WCAI....
The III% militia are also chiming in:
And finally the Canadian Combat Coalition, whose leader Dan Dubois posted a rambling video that I cut for the sake of brevity:
I could post more. Sandra Solomon, La Meute, Soldiers of Odin, Northern Guard, Stormfront, and others have all contributed to the powder keg of purposely misdirected anger.
But one can only read so much of this bile before becoming sickened by it.
One thing the readers have likely noticed that, sheep-like, they continue to bleat the same phrase or a variation of it.
Trudeau has blood on his hands.
By continuing to disseminate lies and stoking the anger of their supporters, leaders of this toxic movement may very well be creating the conditions by which one of their more unhinged supporters might actually put rhetoric into action. Real lives are at risk and people could be seriously harmed and if that is done because they have been radicalized by people such as Steven Myatt, Ronny Cameron, Kevin Johnston, PEGIDA, III%ers, WCAI, CCC, or all the others who are continuing to sow fear rage, then blood could truly be on their hands
Somehow though, I have a feeling that people who admit to not caring whether or not the information they are providing is accurate will give a damn.
3 comments:
Having trouble sleeping? Getting depressed again? Angry? Someone throw in the towel, she's all washed up.
ARC publishes some disturbing material, but this article is truly terrifying! The level of HATE shown in thosee comments you selected is astounding, it must take ALL their energy to sustain such rage 24/7. Thank you for having the stomach to go through those cesspits and expose them to the light.
Anonymous 1: Not as such, though the death of 10 people does often result in people who are capable of feeling a range of human emotions feeling sad, just as seeing assholes trying to take advantage of those deaths to erroneously further their hateful ideology makes those same humans feel angry.
So to sum u, go fuck yourself with a cold and rusty pole. :)
Post a Comment