Saturday, January 04, 2020

UBC Cancels Andy Ngo Event; Global Platforms Ngo Without Challenge

Far-right grifter, propagandist, Patriot Prayer best bud, and fascist water-carrier Andy Ngo's talk about "antifa violence" scheduled for January 29 was canceled by the University of British Columbia.
The organizer, The Free Speech Club, which isn't funded in any part nor an official club with UBC, but instead an independent organization, reacted, and is working with John Carpay's Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. A letter was issued to UBC demanding they honour the agreement, and the university has until January 10 to respond before they take legal action. 


The Post Millennial, the far-right's favourite publication which still seems to think that the "concrete milkshake" lie in Portland is real despite being fully debunked, covered the story. They claim it was canceled due to "antifa threats." 


As an aside, we strongly suspect the cited "Antifa Facebook BC" page is a fake. 

ARC is your website? Ok. 

Andy Ngo shared the same post, and also claimed that "antifa promised violence."  

Which groups promised violence, Andy? 

In case it hasn't been made clear, the only 'violence' being mentioned are jokes about milkshakes, which comes from incidents in Britain, where Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, and others were "milkshaked." Ngo himself was milkshaked in Portland, as well as covered with silly string. While the ethics of milkshaking can be debated, the fact that it is being construed as "violent" is disingenuous. 

While a diversity of tactics is always needed, and there may be situations where force is required to prevent fascists from carrying out their own violent agenda, UBC's Students Against Bigotry has expressed no intention to initiate violence. 

So... that's it. That's the joke. "Promised violence" indeed. 

The Vancouver Sun also covered the story: 
Ron Holton, the university’s chief risk officer, said in an emailed statement that campus safety and security is the primary concern, and the school does risk assessments to evaluate the impact that event bookings could have on the campus community. 
“The assessment in this case determined the safety and security of UBC students, faculty, staff and infrastructure was at risk if the event was allowed to proceed,” he said, noting the event was cancelled “in order to safeguard the safety and security of our community.” 
No specific safety concern was cited. 
“What they’re doing is pretty anti-Charter (of Rights and Freedoms), and as a publicly funded institution, they can’t really do what they’re doing, especially given the political nature of it,” said club director Angelo Isidorou. “What I’m hoping is that they rescind their cancellation. If they don’t, we will have to pursue legal action.”
It's interesting that FSC director Angelo Isidorou is so involved and now making the media circuit. 

In December, the author of this article engaged Isidorou, who we had been on speaking terms with for some time, to ask what he thought of the Ngo talk. We have never shared a private DM before, however we feel it's relevant to this story. 






It is, therefore, an interesting turn of events that Isidorou provided the following to the JCCF: 
For the past three years, The Free Speech Club has hosted numerous public intellectuals from all over the political spectrum. I found myself shocked and bewildered to see the school take such an anti-freedom stance. I believe the school needs to not only protect free speech, but stand against violent thugs who seek to undo our freedom.
It's also not unreasonable to assume from this that they're looking to capitalize on the legal case:


To contrast these alleged "antifa threats" with what supporters of the FSC and Ngo are saying: 







Significantly more threatening than milkshaking, no? 

Andy is well known for fabricating or twisting the facts to blame antifascists for violence, like the time he claimed antifascists beat violent fascists with a hammer... except it was the fascist's hammer, and he was swinging it. 
To compound the issue, Ngo appeared on radio with Global's Alex Pierson on January 2 where Pierson proceeded to allow Ngo to share his misinformation without any challenge whatsoever. 
This is just the latest in the long line of media figures who propagate myths and untruths about antifascism and far-right violence. 

As it stands now, according to the Post Millennial, the school is waiting to find out how the January 15 event with Janice Fiamengo goes before making a hard decision. 

We will update the story as necessary.  
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Friday, January 03, 2020

Van Hamme vs. Vanderweide and Stuart: Douchageddon OR Cringefest 2020

This may be considered to be a non-canon sequel to, "Cameron vs. Van Hamme: Battle of the Douchebags" as Ronny only makes a single cameo appearance.

If there is one think that has become apparent since I first began this blog in 2007 it is that the people we monitor on these pages have a spectacular inability to get along with one another. I bring to you dear readers the most recent installment of righties behaving badly.

First, let me introduce the parties primarily involves:

Alex Van Hamme, the proprietor of Free Bird Media who seems to have become decidedly disenchanted with the troglodytes with whom he has become associated with over the years.

Chris Vanderweide, a troglodyte whose biggest life success ever appears to have been bashing people in the face with a helmet when they weren't looking because, you know, Chris is a real man.

Leigh Stuart who contributes to the conspiracy website Press For Truth who is probably best known for believing the conspiracy that Syrian refugees were butchering goats in the bathrooms of a Toronto Radisson and along with Ronny Cameron and then bf Georges Massaad trespassed to prove it. She's also now dating Vanderweide which calls into question her judgement because.... really?!?!

We also have "TrueHusky" who is giving off some Bryan Trottier vibes (though I admit that's only a guess on my part and I could easily be convinced othrwise) and special guest Gus Stefanis of the Canadian Nationalist Party founded by Travis Patron who is currently awaiting trail for assaulting two women in Regina.

Your's truly also makes an appearance as I sometimes like stirring the pot a bit.

We begin, as we often do, with a conspiracy theory presented as truth or perhaps truth by a credulous believer:


Of course it isn't true and an actual journalist would have done the requisite research before posting this but then Ms. Stuart isn't a journalist as much as she is an ineffective and somewhat incompetent propagandist. Still it is what we've come to expect from her.

What wasn't expected what Van Hamme's response would precipitate a petty argument that is ongoing as of the writing of this article when four days later Vanderweide decided to chime in:


I became aware of this slow motion train wreck when ARC was tagged:


But it wasn't deleted. It went on from there and like a horrible accident I could look away.

Though we should replace "horrible" with "hilarious" and "accident" with "circular firing squad".



This and the preceding parts come primarily from the main thread of the discussion, however I will include some of the "discussion" that branched out from it later (as well as a few of those branches to help provide context for the overall narrative). Suffice it to say it is long, painful to read (the ridiculous subject matter, Chris' inability to communicate above the level of a 5 year-old, etc), and will leave you walking away muttering to yourself and shaking your head.

In other words, enjoy the show. :)

 
There's a chance I might have been a bit of a jerk in this next exchange. I can live with myself however:


We finally have some mention of Ronny Cameron whose own ability to alienate people is second to none. It should be noted that neither Van Hamme nor Stuart seem to like Cameron at all, and yet his toxicity infects this exchange as well.


At which point Stefanis of the neo-Nazi Canadian Nationalist Party chimes in:







Hey, he wasn't wrong.

It probably isn't surprising for any of the readers to see that the whole exchange eventually results in trying to arrange a physical fight somewhere.


FINALLY Ronny makes his single appearance before seeing his shadow and heading back into his hole. This part refers to Cameron getting chased away from a protest supporting Don Cherry in front of the CBC where he hadn't worked for about a decade because 2019 was a hell of a year.


But back to the 12 year old posturing:



This part though is rather interesting:




You see, we have a discussion between Stuart and Cameron (posting as Pam Cellia which is a profile he uses when his main one is suspended) which might potentially cast some doubt on her claim not to support an ethnostate:



"Ronny, why would I debate you about something that I don't completely disagree with you..."

Why indeed? Might be interesting to get some clarification on this.

I've included a few of the threads that branched off the main one but I figure, what the hell!? Here are the rest of the ones I collected:













I have no doubt that this show will continue, however I think this is probably sufficient.
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Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Win Nay, Ryan Dean, Joey Deluca, and Urban Infidels: Edmonton Against Fascism Reports on Alberta

As ARC enters our third decade, welcome to 2020 folks!

I have to admit that I've been a little lazy with regard to keeping up with what is happening in Alberta these days. I've certainly been meaning to look back at some of the groups and individuals this blog has been monitoring for the past number of years but other projects were preoccupying me and I just wasn't able to devote the attention to some of the stories coming out of the province that I should have.

So thank goodness for the many activists who have taken up the challenge of monitoring the far right in Alberta. While there are currently a number of people and groups monitoring the far-right in Alberta one of the most prolific groups and one whose work I would like to highlight has been Edmonton Against Fascism (if you aren't following on Twitter, you absolutely should). In the month of December 2019 alone Edmonton Against Fascism (EAF) has provided some fantastic reporting on groups ARC readers are well familiar with:

Win Nay:

Win Nay has appeared on the pages of ARC a few times. Nay is a hanger-on who jumps from group to group and has in the past been present for events hosted by Onward Christian Soldiers, the Soldiers of Odin, Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, and other hate groups. Here EAF discuss some of his activities during the past month:








Ryan Dean:

While Dean has been relatively quiet at least comparatively, he and his group of three in the Clann (which is a little on the nose) have been busy taking pictures of themselves in Edmonton-area pubs and declaring it as some sort of victory for.... oh, I don't know.... reasons? I guess? 


During the month of December, Dean appears to have given up any effort to claim he isn't a racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobe:



Dean has also attempted to hinder the efforts of Bashir Mohamed in his efforts to sue Ezra Levant's Rebel Media for defamation:





Suffice it to say Dean's efforts haven't been successful as Mr. Mohamed has raised more than $26,000 from 616 people in less than a week. Dean on the other hand may find himself the subject of a civil case if he doesn't smarten up:


Joey Deluca:

Oh, Joey....

Years after founding the hate group WCAI Joey Deluca is still desperate to convince people he is relevant. Over the years he has created numerous sock puppets and dummy groups in an effort to make people believe that the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam is actually worldwide; his repeated failures put the lie to this claim. This past month EAS found yet another sock promoting the WCAI which is clearly Joey:



And given the ecosystem Joey exists in, people who live in glass houses shouldn't be tossing stones around:


To be fair, Joey doesn't strike me as someone who would appreciate poetry.

The most interesting find this month however was Joey's dating profile:


In news that shouldn't surprise anyone he is also using this effort to someone who will love him for the racist hate-monger that he is to harass Muslims and people of color. In one case he posted one of the exchanges in what can only be described as an epic self-own that he thinks makes him look good:



I don't know who the woman is but I like the others who have read the exchange would love to be her friend. Given that Joey Deluca's name will be associated with posts such as this, I have a feeling that he should probably get used to being swiped left:


Which coincidentally brings us to....

Urban Infidels:


Our readers will remember Steven Lane (aka "Heathen Steven") from both is unfortunate choice of facial hair and his participation in a WCAI organized event in Edmonton in which he was taken into custody for a time:


Other hate groups involved included the Canadian Combat Coalition and the Northern Guard.

Anyways, although the SoO was Steven's ride or die, it wasn't too long before nationalization occurred and Lane split to form the Urban Infidels.

Yeah. That's an actual name an adult decided to go with:


Remember kids, don't skip leg day.
And like other faux-biker wannabes (SoO, Northern Guard, etc) who wear ill-fitting clothing at least two sizes too large for their frames....



.... they really love their leather vests and patches:


No, you don't understand.

They REALLY love their patches:


Like, in a way that is sort of weird:

That's right. That does read "Pyscho White"

Sigh....

Then again who am I to be critical of anyone's kink?

The Urban Infidels, particularly Lane, have been a significant focus of EAF's reporting:

















For some reason they think bacon is hilarious:



Yeah.... posing with bacon to stick it to the Muslims and Jews.

Once again I remind readers that these people are ostensibly adults.



Their most recent recruit is Chris Vanderweide who is best known for assaulting people at a Pride event in Hamilton and is currently awaiting trial. And as we know there's nothing that makes a judge more happy than a person awaiting trail for assault posting images of his joining a hate group and bragging about how he will continue to assault people:


Vanderweide is a rather interesting person to recruit considering how he tends to throw his former supporters and boosters under the bus. In a movement that is often torn apart by big egos, it is hard to see Vanderweide following anyone.

In fact we've already seen the factionalization of the Urban Infidels:


While Lyons was a member of the Northern Guard prior to his membership in the Canadian Crusaders (again, they are legally grown-ups who think these names are cool) Ricky Rush is on this third in a calendar year:


There are a lot more that EAF is focused on but this represents a sample.

I once again urge reader to give them a follow. 
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