It has been hard to keep up with all the information coming out about the far-right in Canada and internationally, especially those related to the more underground and violent movements that have come into existence during the past few years. The tragedy in El Paso and the arrest of a man in Las Vegas who appears to have been planning a similar attack has made the danger posed by the far right much more clear.
The Las Vegas suspect, whose plans look to have been known of and perhaps assisted by the international members of the Atomwaffen-affiliated Feuerkrieg Division, also had a connection to a Barrie, ON man who was profiled on the blog. And earlier this month ARC and other groups became aware of another violent, and perhaps more dangerous, group in Canada:
The screen shot comes from the now deleted Gab profile for The Base, a secretive hate group that has been recruiting members in the United States, engaging in survivalist and combat training, and preparing to attack targets with the goal of helping to create conditions for a societal collapse from which their members and like minded individuals will emerge to create their vision of a whites only society. Those considered undesirable -- racial minorities, Jews, Muslims, LGBTQ -- as well as white who don't subscribe to the racist ideology and are thus deemed traitors, would be eliminated.
As journalists Mack Lamoureux and Ben Makuch noted in a Vice story published Friday morning The Base is also now active in Canada:
Been monitoring The Base (neo-Nazi extremists): evidence shows it's recruiting across the US and Canada and already undertaking live-fire paramilitary camps. One set of images shows them shooting a target with the Star of David. https://t.co/ulqL8szqTY w @MackLamoureux for @VICE— Ben Makuch (@BMakuch) August 16, 2019
Those of us who keep an eye on hate groups were already aware that groups like The Base could be active in Canada and we had seen some indications of some level of paramilitary activity. It wasn't until the posters started showing up that it was confirmed however:
These posters started showing up in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan earlier this month. Myself and groups such as Yellow Vests Canada Exposed, FF1, and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (among many others) have been trying to figure out who might be responsible. On Friday Ryan Thorpe of "The Winnipeg Free Press" published a story detailing how he was able to gain access to the group and learn the identity of the Winnipeg recruiter:
— Winnipeg Free Press (@WinnipegNews) August 17, 2019
Online, he goes by the names Dave Arctorum and "coincidence detector" (a reference to a Google Chrome extension used by anti-Semites to identify Jewish-sounding names in news articles).
He said his real first name was Patrick and that he was 26 years old. He said he grew up in the countryside and at some point lived in Winnipeg, but now resides in Beausejour. He later said his father owned land near Lundar.....Recently, he’s begun putting up flyers that attempt to intimidate and threaten local anti-fascist activists.
He claimed to have joined the military out of high school, training as a combat engineer, but indicated he plans to leave the military soon because he feels he can no longer "serve the ZOG."....During his years in the military, he said he tried to turn other soldiers onto neo-Nazism and felt he had made progress with two individuals.
Patrick also revealed that in addition to his social-media accounts, which promote his political views, he set up multiple other accounts to spread misinformation among local anti-fascist activists.
At one point in the conversation, which lasted roughly an hour-and-a-half, he said in a well-ordered society such activists would be dragged out of their homes and "strung up." He also discussed plans to find the addresses and phone numbers of these people and post them publicly....."At this point it is the system that is fomenting armed (white nationalist) revolution, not us. We tried the peaceful route. The system closed it off at every turn. Now the system shall reap what it has sown. I’ll leave it at that," he wrote.
"At this point it is the system that is fomenting armed (white nationalist) revolution, not us. We tried the peaceful route. The system closed it off at every turn. Now the system shall reap what it has sown. I’ll leave it at that," he wrote.
While we don't know Patrick's Patrik's last name, ARC and others did learn at least a few of Patrik's online identities including this one:
Patrick, the neo-Nazi terrorist group member, says "social media will be a wonderful record for figuring out what surviving whites get the rope." The first three accounts Patrick followed on Twitter are us, @ARCCollective and @ebalgord. For context: rope = murder by hanging.— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) August 17, 2019
Using this and a few other Twitter profiles (including three profile set up to look like they were antifascists) Patrik followed ARC, CAHN and it's head, YVCE, FF1, and others. Most of us blocked these profiles though that certainly doesn't preclude Patrik from creating new accounts. He also followed a number of other accounts that are rather telling:
Before blocking Patrik I made a point of getting screen shots of all his tweets and replies. They provide an understanding of the mindset of an individual who adheres to a racist and violent vision of society and why such groups and individuals, while perhaps small in number, pose a real danger to the community. Here are a representative sample:
Patrik didn't use this profile long. He started it on August 5 and hasn't posted anything since August 9. He then started using a second profile, PunishedPhilosopher
I'll remind readers that Patrik claims to be a member of the Canadian Forces. It has also been suggested his Saskatchewan counterpart is also a member of the CF.
If anyone has more information about The Base and their members, please feel free to contact us.
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