How To Demonize A Minority In Less Than A Week Using Actual #Fake News

This past Tuesday, the Quebec-based TVA ran a story claiming that two Montreal mosques had demanded women working on a construction site be removed from the area on Fridays. The story was later picked up by Ezra Levant and "Rebel Media" and used as another opportunity claim this story is an example of a Canadian, "no-go" zone and attack the Canadian-Muslim community with race-baiting commentary:

The folks who responded to Levant's screed (including one using the "old stock Canadian" dog whistle) were very clear in how they felt about the Canadian-Muslim community:

In Quebec, anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant hate groups including La Meute and Storm Alliance planned a protest at one of the offending mosques:

Dave Treg de la Storm Alliance (lire SA, oui oui comme les SturmAbeitlung) dit que l'histoire de la mosquée était un piège des Libéraux pour justifier la commission sur la discrimination (racisme systémique ?). #onestpasracistes pic.twitter.com/2EerF4h19g

— Le Troupeau (@LetroupeauQC) December 15, 2017

#onestpasracistes les appels à la violence et la haine se multiplient. pic.twitter.com/1Vp27NvEAm

— Felix_le_chat_ (@Felix_Le_Chat_) December 16, 2017

Puisqu'il n'y avait pas de preuve, maintenant on essaie de faire dire quelque chose à cet homme à au chapeau rouge, sur le site de la Meute et de la Storm Alliance, on dit qu'il aurait dit "I'll kill you" #onestpasracistes pic.twitter.com/0Rh9eoKhBA

— Le Troupeau (@LetroupeauQC) December 15, 2017

There was however a problem with this story of gender discrimination.

None of it was actually true:

After two days of investigation, the Quebec Construction Commission has found no sign whatsoever that anyone associated with two mosques in Côte-des-Neiges asked for women to be excluded from a work site outside their doors — ever. 

That’s the conclusion of the CCQ’s report, based on 10 meetings with witnesses from the construction companies involved, and with two mosques in C.D.N. — the Ahl-Ill Bait and the Baitul-Mukarram — as well as with the women allegedly targeted by the unusual, anti-feminist requests.
....
The controversy erupted on Tuesday, when TVA News reported that one of the two mosques had requested women not be allowed to work near the mosques on Fridays, the most important day of prayers for Muslims. TVA did not specify which mosque. 

But it initially stated a clause was written into a contract signed with the excavation company G-Tek, which was laying electric cables, and/or the signalling subcontractor Map Signalisation, both of which were working on or near the mosque’s property.
....
Scrummed in Quebec City, Diane Lemieux, the president of the CCQ, said it appears that women may indeed have been moved from one part of the site to another, as part of the normal management of the work site. 

But these shifts were made as a result of a surplus of workers on-site, or because workers were needed elsewhere, she said. Lemieux repeatedly insisted that no one who met with the CCQ, including the women, said there was ever any request made, formally or informally, in relation to the mosques’ activities. 

The damage, of course, has been done. 

Already Wednesday, representatives of the Ahl-Ill Bait mosque, at the centre of the firestorm, said they had received many hate messages and threats. They called the police after one person even threatened to burn it down.

By Friday, TVA finally apologized for the story:

The TVA news network apologized Friday for a controversial and since debunked report on mosques banning women from a nearby construction site, but a national Muslim organization says the network needs to go further.

However, ARC's readers know that, as stated elsewhere, the damage had been done and no apology would stop the Islamophobes and anti-immigrant bigots from believing what they wanted to believe:

Hate Groups Claim To Be Acting As Security For Pam Geller and Ezra Levant Anti-Muslim Event Hosted By Jewish Defence League in Toronto; One Group Promotes Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories

Posted to Facebook on October 30, 2017

A few weeks back ARC noticed the following post by Bryan Trottier, the head of the Ontario branch of La Meute and someone who is facing charges of domestic abuse:

Trottier is referring to the film, "Killing Europe," and especially vile piece of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant propaganda that had originally been scheduled to be played at the Ottawa Public Library . While the Ottawa Public Library cancelled the screening, it did take place at a more private setting:

Now it wasn't only the Ontario chapter of La Meute present. So were some of our friends from the Northern Guard including the leader of the Toronto chapter Lee Down who had his photo taken with Michael Hansen, the writer, director, and producer of the propaganda film:

And Lee is a classy son of a gun:

Now the Wolfpack and Northern Guard, along with the Proud Boys, Storm Alliance, the Jewish Defence League, and III% militia, are planning on attending the speech by American Islamophobe Pamella Geller who, along with Ezra Levant, will be speaking at the Canada Christian College in Toronto on December 18.... maybe:

Rabble has published the following:

Pamela Geller just issued a statement on the vandals of Bloc Identitaire found guilty of destroying the building of a mosque in France. The Far-right militants were convicted and received suspended sentences and a major fine for their racist actions against the Muslim community. But Pamela Geller, opens her statement with "Far-right militants? Hardly. These are young people who care about the future of their country." We are approaching the one year anniversary of the horrific killings in a mosque in Quebec. Do we want this kind of hate spewed in our country? 

The Jewish Defence League (JDL) has invited Islamophobe propagandist Pamela Geller to speak in an event on December, 18, 2017 at the Canada Christian College in Toronto. She was refused entry in the United Kingdom in 2013 and given her ramped up hatemongering, Canada should deny her entry later this month. 

The Groupe de recherche sur l'extrême droite et ses allié-e-s (GREDA) has been leading the charge to keep her out. They have some great information and tools on their website. Send letter, call your MPs and let's show Pam that she has no place in Canada.

In a series of posts Trottier claims that his Wolfpack and the Northern Guard will be "providing security" at this event should it actually take place:

The Quixotic Quest of Don Myatt's Class Action Lawsuit Effort

Looks like the hamster in Steven Alexander Sisyphus Jude "Bonnie Prince Charlie" Gregory Myatt's cranium has been running and gone a popped an idea into head:

But I really am getting ahead of myself.

Since October 19, 2015, many of those who are associated with the Islamophobia and/or racist movements in Canada have been apoplectic about the victory of the federal Liberal Party, directing their rage particularly at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The rage has continued to be stoked by such "media" sites as Ezra Levant's "The Rebel Media", a litany of false (or grossly and willfully misinterpreted) news stories that have been disseminated through social media, and the dog-whistle politics of the then governing Conservative Party which continued through the leadership campaign of Kellie Leitch and I would argue under the current Conservative leadership of Andrew Scheer:

Within days of the Liberal's victory, many of the individuals motivated by these efforts were creating petitions to demand the Governor-General call the election null and void, remove Trudeau from office, and replace him and the Liberals with Stephen Harper's Conservative Party. When these efforts proved impotent (because.... you know.... democracy), many started lashing with more violent rhetoric advocating for the deportation of Trudeau and his family to a Muslim country based on the erroneous belief that he is a Muslim and thus not qualified constitutionally to be Prime Minister (I don't have to tell ARC's readers that this isn't actually a law), wishing for his wife and children to be sexually assaulted, and even political assassination some of which has been written about on this blog.

A more recent tactic is the desire of these especially malcontents to see if they might be able to convince the American government to invade the country and either annex all or part of Canada or at least remove the Liberals from power and replacing them with a puppet government:

The irony of all this of course is that they folks all present themselves as God-fearing patriots....

Georgeanne Burke, Islamophobia, and Ties to Conservative Party of Canada

Back in July ARC published a story featuring Georgeanne Burke, a Conservative Party activist, and her ties to Islamophobic groups in Canada. Today Evan Balgord and Steven Zhou have dug even deeper, publishing an article in "Vice Canada" highlighting her continued links to Islamophobic groups in the country as well as her connection to Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, the Conservative Party, and Rebel Media:

Conservative party leadership advisor helped create anti-Islam organization....
Georganne Burke, the Scheer campaign’s Outreach Chair, was involved in the founding of Canadian Citizens for Charter Rights and Freedoms (C3RF). The group warns that the Liberal government is criminalizing criticism of Islam and opening the door for a Sharia (Islamic) takeover of Canadian law. C3RF plans to hold events across the country to advocate against M103 and the Trudeau government. 

Georganne Burke is one of at least three senior members of Scheer’s campaign team that have now been linked to the so-called alt-right or anti-Islam groups. Scheer’s Campaign Manager, Hamish Marshall, was a director of Rebel Media, an alt-right media outlet that pushes narratives of white genocide and hosts prominent alt-right figures, and worked out of the Rebel offices during the campaign. He has been named as a campaign chair for the 2019 general election.
....
Burke was also a member of several extreme anti-Muslim groups on Facebook, but says she was only in those groups for information purposes. Burke left at least two of these groups following a story by Anti-Racist Canada which named her as a member of groups like the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, a group which critics say is anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic. Burke hasn’t posted any explicitly anti-Muslim comments on the C3RF Facebook Page, according to a search of posts in the group.

Warren Kinsella has also commented on the story and asks the following questions:

Why – why, why, why – is [Scheer] aligning himself with/associating with people who have links to the extremes? Why is he taking that risk, in a country as diverse and as multicultural as this one?

Good questions and ones I think the Canadian public would be interested in hearing answers to.

I would urge ARC's readers to take a look at Balgord's article in more detail.

December 2017 Bits and Bites: Calgary Vandalism, Blood & Honour, and Ronny Cameron

It might be a bit early in the month to post a Bits and Bites article, but I figure if another is necessary later, I'm sure the readers won't mind.

In any case it has been a busy couple of days and I thought that I should address a few recent news stories that crossed my desk.

The first deals with racist notes left (and in at least one case thrown through a window) at the home of two women in Calgary:

Pair of Calgary women receive racially charged threats signed with altered Canadian flag 

Letters threaten specific violence against Indigenous woman and woman with Nenshi sign on her home
By Robson Fletcher, CBC News Posted: Dec 04, 2017 3:57 PM MT Last Updated: Dec 04, 2017 3:57 PM MT 

Calgary police say they are investigating after two women in the same neighbourhood received racially charged letters that threaten extreme violence against them, signed with a similar symbol that blends a Canadian flag with a Christian cross.
....
Both letters are signed with a symbol that is "essentially a Canadian flag with a red cross in the centre of it, rather than a maple leaf," said Misty Wind Shingoose, a resident of the southeast community of Deer Ridge. 

Shingoose said she awoke on Saturday to find a bed sheet sprawled out on her front lawn with a note left on the sheet. 

"There were death threats, threats of rape, and racial slurs and comments about me being an Indigenous woman," she said of the note. 

"It was really quite horrific." 

The note expresses anger at Shingoose for parking a large bus on the street in front of her home, a vehicle she has been retrofitting to use as a mobile hair studio to give free haircuts to the city's homeless. The bus was also vandalized. 

The note threatens specific sexual violence and murder against Shingoose.

A second woman was also targeted on the same street:

Later, Shingoose said she was contacted by a neighbour who received a similar threat.
"She essentially told me that she had the same symbol on the bottom of a letter after a massive stone was thrown through her window half an hour after my bus was vandalized," Shingoose said. 

"She's not Aboriginal. She's white and she had a Naheed Nenshi sign on her deck and her letter went off of that." 

Shingoose provided CBC News with a copy of the letter her neighbour received.
"You support Nenshi?" the letter says, referring to Calgary's mayor, who is Muslim.
"You are a Muslim sympathizer pig and you will pay." 

It goes on to tell the woman to either move or "have your house burned down in the next few years." 

It also offers "forgiveness" if she places a sign bearing the same flag-cross symbol on her fence for a week.

Ms. Shingoose posted a copy of the two letters as well as the vandalism done to her van on social media in an effort to elicit the public's assistance in determining who the individual is. I would ask ARC's readers to pay attention to the symbol posted to the letters as that may jog someone's memory as to who might have left the notes and vandalized the bus:

She also included the following:

So my Neighbour down the street from me ALSO had her home vandalized (huge rock through her window) for having a Nenshi sign on her house!! The guy left this threatening letter WITH THE SAME SYMBOL on it as my note!! 

Happened the same night, about 30 mins after!! 

Completely premeditated and he's been watching all over our area obviously! 

I am standing up against this RIGHT NOW and Phil and I plan to canvas the neighbourhood EVERY HOUSE in between mine and their home and around this direct vicinity with pamphlets I am making right now. They will have info regarding this cowardly person THREATENING us for simply existing in this community in a manner in which he doesn't like.

Also in Calgary this weekend, Blood & Honour members were also active leaving a flyer at the residence of Jason Devine:

Jason, Bonnie, and their children are sadly all too familiar with McKee and co as they have been the targets of vandalism, at least one firebombing, and a home invasion and assault all of which Blood & Honour (and their predecessor the Aryan Guard) are suspected of having carried out. The flyer was found only at the Devine's home; none of the neighbors received it so it is clear Jason and Bonnie were specifically targeted.

Ronny Cameron Continues Down The White Nationalist Path

On November 30, 2017, Ronny Cameron was shocked! Shocked I say! Shocked and, in fact, disgusted! So disgusted that he HAD to record the incident and then share it with all of his faithful followers so that they too could be shocked and disgusted at perhaps the most heinous defilement of a major urban center Canada.... nay, the world, had ever seen:

The video is edited to spare the delicate sensibilities of my dear readers (and more seriously to as best I can preserve the dignity of the subject of Cameron's video because he really is an asshole):

Oh deary me! Public urination?

In Scarborough?

Now I don't know what the circumstances are behind the video, aside from what looks to be some pretty repulsive and exploitative voyeurism on the part of Cameron. The woman may be homeless and/or mentally ill. Or she might be someone who REALLY had to relieve herself and said, "fuck it!" There is also no indication of the woman's ethnicity and given the time of night I'd be willing to bet that Cameron really can't be certain either, however he is SURE that this is indicative of "third world" practices, is un-Canadian, and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism:

His followers agree and know instinctively who to blame.

Muslims, immigrants, and people of colour:

 

Alberta III% Militia Claim To Be In Security and Intelligence Business. Again, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Just over a week ago ARC published a story concerning the Alberta III% militia's claim to have entered into the addictions recovery business. Aside from the likelihood that their efforts may potentially involve discriminatory practices considering their anti-Muslim biases (a bit of an understatement), there is also the danger that, like other gangs and hate groups, the Threepers would use their position to take advantage of vulnerable people for recruitment purposes.

Well, we can now add to the list of their supposed ventures the claim that they have now entered into the private security and intelligence gathering business.

To be fair we had indication of this early on in reference to the WCAI rally in Calgary on June 3:

Wait.... terrier attacks?

They continued to play make believe super spy into June likely in response to the MEGA Patriot Rally the WCAI had planned on before it spectacularly failed (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). The Threepers had planned on providing security then as well:

"Special ops."

Really. This is how they talk to each other.

In any case by July "Beau" Welling was ready to go public about their intel gathering and security efforts, something that "Vice" discussed this past June:

A Decade of Anti-Racist Canada

Hey, I'm just as surprised as you are.

When I first started the blog, it was to focus primarily on Calgary's Aryan Guard (I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this again, the original location for ARC was LiveJournal). However ARC soon began exposing the activities of racists, antisemites, bigots, and Islamophobes across the country. ARC didn't go out of the way to attract readers, but over the subsequent months and years the blog amassed a loyal readership of both anti-racist activists as well as the racists that were covering since ARC provided the most up to date information regarding the state of their movement.... and goodness knows how much boneheads like gossiping about each other.

I could write "we" at that point since ARC also gained a number of contributors who provided some of the blogs best read articles. To this day, I really do believe that "A History of Violence" which was first written by "NomDeGuerre200" and then added on to by myself is the most important post ever to be published on Anti-Racist Canada and until this past July 1 was the most read article on the site. "Free Dominion" once mockingly referred to ARC as a collective; we all liked the characterization so much that we added it to our name because the growing numbers justified it.

During ARC's existence, we have seen hate sites and groups, as well as their membership, come and go. Some of those individuals managed to break away from hate in part because of ARC and I am pleased that we were able to play some part in their redemption.

It hasn't been easy. When I first began the blog, I already had roughly 10 years of experience in anti-racist activism. I began the blog somewhat naively believing that I was mentally tough enough to expose myself to vitriolic hatred every day without being affected by it. In retrospect that was foolish. There have been times that I have suffered from insomnia and depression. Hate can wear a person down and makes it difficult to see the good in people. The work can make one cynical and jaded. And some people who had become very good friends whom I met because of this project and who became contributors decided to move on. The last to leave was "NomDeGuerre200" whom I still miss terribly every single day.

I almost quit on a number of occasions and had specific plans to wind things down by this date, with November 30, 2017 being the last entry.

That Trump was elected president and with the far right emboldened, I didn't feel right to leave the field for others to fight the battle against a new generation of racists, antisemites, bigots, and Islamophobes (now often rebranded as "alt-right") alone. 

Since then, I suppose I've managed to catch my second wind so to speak. ARC hasn't been as productive in years, which to be fair isn't necessarily a good thing. And there is a great deal information that I miss because I struggle to keep up or don't have the time to cover. Still, as challenging as these times are with the rise of the "alt-right" as well as the boneheads we were used to, it has been heartening to see a rise in those individuals who are willing to oppose these new hate groups. It makes one feel that one isn't alone fighting for social justice (and yes, I will proudly wear the SJW label proudly).

I don't know how much longer the blog will remain active. It could be online for another decade and beyond, or it could end sooner. I was speaking to a friend who noted that, should I be hit by a bus or die in some other accident, there is currently no one to take over the blog. In response I made sure that should anything happen to me, this blog may continue without me, though perhaps not quite as active.

More importantly though, I know that soon I won't be one of the very few voices exposing racists in Canada. While I won't go into detail, I've been lead to understand that there are efforts underway to create an entity to monitor hate groups and individuals in this country that will dwarf my meager efforts. Suffice it to say if the haters found ARC to be an inconvenience for them, they ain't seen nothing yet.

So with that all said, I would like to thank everyone who has made ARC successful these past ten years; our past contributors, our sources, and our readers, some of whom have been reading ARC from the very beginning. The blog is imperfect. The writing could often use some decent editing, I occasionally allow my temper to get the best of me and God knows I can't code to save my life. However I hope that those who continue to visit find the information provided to be of some use and that for as long as ARC remains active, people currently associated with the far right might continue to have that tug at their conscience and contemplate getting out.

Tension Between JDL and Ronny Cameron? Perhaps.... But Probably Not

Close to two weeks ago ARC posted a story about Ronny Cameron's embracing of the "white genocide" mantra despite his own.... uhm.... I'll say personal situation. One particular thread turned out to be of some interest since it resulted in a nearly 50 year-old "Proud Boy" Robert Jones (and really, if he isn't embarrassed about that distinction he really should be) being taken to task by a member, or at least a supporter, of the JDL:

Gee, Jones rolled on to his back and subordinated himself pretty damn fast. Not all that much of an alpha I guess.

In any case, it seemed as if there had been some tension between members of the JDL and Ronny, or at least folks associated with Ronny, since he started on the whole "white genocide" canard and his involvement with people like Jesse Sanderson became a bit uncomfortable:

His association with the Proud Boys, whom AR Davis seems to have a problem with, might also be cause for some concern in the JDL:

 

 

 

 

Then there were the claims made by Ron Banerjee.

Now, it should be noted that Banerjee HATES Cameron. I mean really, really, loathes him. I'm guessing this is primarily because Banerjee is profoundly jealous of Cameron coming upon the scene relatively late and sucking up much of the oxygen, at least in Toronto far right circles. Banerjee has been talking smack about Ronny for months now, but the following post was an interesting new entry in the war of words which ARC found on the JDL Grand Poobah's Facebook page with no contradiction:

Banerjee has had a long relationship with the JDL, though it is a relationship more akin to Banerjee's Spike to Meir Weinstein and the JDL's Chester. Still, this would be a big deal (again, all things being relative as we are talking about a fringe movement still) if this were true.

The operative word being "if" of course.

Only two days later, Meir seemed pretty cozy with a person advocating for a blatantly racist and not so subtle antisemitic conspiracy:

Yeah, I can't say that I'm all that shocked that Meir Weinstein continues to make common cause with a movement that will turn on Jews as soon as they would dispense with Muslims, the enemy of my enemy and all that.

It's not as if he's been a profile in courage for years at this point.