Yellow Vest Extremists: Two Case Studies From Edmonton and Calgary

I've been offline -- at least on the blog -- for over a week now in part due to finishing up some work-related projects (the work I'm actually paid to do), prepping for the holidays, and a long, long, LONG, drive back to the mother province to visit my family; ma has been dutifully fattening me up with cookies and nanaimo bars while pa has been providing home brewed beer at trying to engage me in discussing an activity known as "sports." Still, I have been keeping abreast of at least some of the activities the far right have been engaging in.

Last Saturday another series of Yellow Vest protests occurred. Fewer cities and towns appeared to have participated and the numbers were down in all cases while a number of venues saw an increase in the number of counter-protesters. Online the infighting and factionalism has been growing as participants sling insults at each other almost as much as they do towards the Liberal government in Ottawa and Notley government in Edmonton. Also, while there had been some effort to minimize the number of violent threats on the main Yellow Jacket Facebook pages, those efforts appear to have collapsed. 

It was inevitable that this new movement would attract mainly the same faces (Steven Myatt, Ron Banerjee, Georges Massaad, Faith Goldy, Georges Hallak, etc) and groups (Soldiers of Odin, Northern Guard, Storm Alliance, La Meute, Canadian Combat Coalition, III%ers etc) I've been seeing at these protests the past number of years in addition to some newer, though still familiar, movement such as those who are associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory(s). Two of the faces associated with the Yellow Vests will be familiar to readers and include one more recent addition as well as someone who frequented the days of ARC Classic.While the initial momentum in much the rest of Canada appears to be waning as the attention span of the supporters diminishes and the weather turns colder, Alberta is still quite active. 

In Edmonton the Yellow Vest protesters were outmaneuvered by the counter-protesters who showed up in larger numbers equaling or even perhaps slightly surpassing the Yellow Vest reactionaries, last week, the previous weekend saw a large number of far-right extremists show up including members of the Wolves of Odin. Now ARC readers will be familiar with this group as it used to be the Edmonton chapter of the Soldiers of Odin before they were compelled to change their name by the mother hate-group in Finland due to negative media attention. Prior to the name change the SoO were the focus of a story involving members of the hate-group hobnobbing with members of the United Conservative Party. Among those who attended the UCP event as well as the Yellow Vests protest on December 15 (where a journalist was roughed up, btw) was this fella:

The photo above of Jim Slahey (as well as the leader of the then "Soldiers of Odin" now rechristened "Wolves of Odin" Tyson Hunt) who has also been a constant presence at the reactionary Yellow Vest protests was taken at the UCP event. A look at his social networking profile is rather enlightening concerning just how reactionary Jeff is:

His exchange with Ryan Mclean, a leader in the Ontario Canadian Combat Coalition, is a bit of an eye opener:

I might note that the Canadian Combat Coalition often tries to ingratiate itself to the Jewish Defense League in public, but posts like this where members appear to support antisemitic and racist tropes elsewhere are not uncommon.

Three hours to the south, the Yellow Vest reactionaries' first two protests where in the 150 to 200 range, though this past weekend it looks like it was closer to 75 to 100. After ARC's first article on the event, some of the participants began to get a little skittish and upset by the coverage resulting in threats of violence:

and....

They all just seem so lovely.

But in the thread exhibited in the previous three screen shots, we have someone ARC readers will be well acquainted with:

Why it is John Richard Marleau, formerly of the Aryan Guard and Blood & Honour who is also an active participant (at least online) in the reactionary Yellow Vest movement:

Later on in the same thread, Marleau defends the KKK as a bastion of Christian moral fortitude:

Given his associations, this isn't all that much of a surprise:

Marleau later expresses his disappointment that the reactionary Yellow Vesters have been (in my view erroneously) described as not being violent in the media:

Given that Marleau was charged with assaulting a city transit worker, and that he routinely associated with people who faced (and convicted on) weapons, assault, attempted murder, and murder charges, his advocating of violence as a means to an end isn't shocking in the least.

As already noted, Marleau is quite active in the Yellow Vest Canada group on Face Book. Here are a selection of his other posts:

Now I know that the reactionary Yellow Vesters are going to have a fit about this and claim that I'm painting them all with the same brush.

To that I answer yes, yes I am.