Saturday, April 11, 2020

The Walrus Interviewed WEXIT Members. We Dug a Little Deeper.


The Walrus recently produced a photo essay about WEXIT in which they interview various, including some who have previously had a relatively low profile. Photo-journalist Brett Gundlock states in the introduction:
It would be easy to fall back on stereotypes of Albertans and vilify Wexiteers as resentful, oil-spoiled rednecks. Instead, I wanted to present their voices in an unbiased fashion, to let them air their grievances without judgement. The separatists often represent the extreme side of the issue, but their views don't stray far from opinions you are likely to hear in many homes across the province.
That last line is quite the take when discussing a fringe, far-right group like WEXIT, so we felt an examination of the interviewees was in order. 

Let's get out of the way that The Walrus interviewed Peter Downing who we've already written about on ARC.

Other Wexiteers profiled include Kathy Flett, who is a member of the Yellow Vests, is a climate change denier, and shares antisemitic conspiracy theories:


Jake Eskesen, like Flett, is a Yellow Vest member, follows other far-right groups, and is friends with many figures on the far-right, including Gus Stefanis of the neo-Nazi Canadian Nationalist Party; Plaid Army member, Red Ice contributor and antisemite Derek Harrison, and Brad Salzberg of the anti-Muslim Canada Action Party. In the photo essay Eskesen claims that WEXIT includes members of the LGTBQ community, yet he 'likes' The Westboro Baptist Church Facebook page:


Also of note is that it seems Eskesen is "Deathhunter77," according to his post of the print version of The Walrus in the Unify the West Discord server:

A screenshot from the Unify the West Discord server from Deathhunter77 showing Eskesen's part in the photo essay
Eskesen/Deathhunter77 has previously been included in the blog, where he was participating in conversations with other Discord users like "MISG" and "HeftyFinesse" about "social trust," how immigrants are self-serving while only Canadians are altruistic, and how immigrants are taking jobs. Even if Eskesen doesn't share these views, he made no efforts to speak up against this racism and xenophobia.

Michael Wagner and Darren Esayenko also appear to embrace far-right ideology. Michael follows a couple of right-wing media groups and Darren seems to favour the Yellow Vests.


Todd Brown shares Islamophobic conspiracy theories on Facebook, and thinks Canada will be controlled by communists:


Sam Bell is a member of the Yellow Vests, and follows many far-right groups on Facebook:


Bell also runs a popular Facebook page called Make Alberta Great Again, which is essentially a meme page. Much of what he shares is bigoted, with plenty of dog whistles and far-right/neo-Nazi cultural references, including Kek, Honkler, Pepe the Frog, glowing/laser eyes, and Evolian concepts popular with accelerationists. His boomer audience may be clueless, but he's sending a clear message to those who know.


 
 


A concept by Julius Evola, popular with accelerationists and neo-Nazis

A concept by Julius Evola, popular with accelerationists and Neo-Nazis



A reference to "white pill" in the OP - an alt-right method of implying optimism, vs "black pill", meaning sadness or despair

 Jon Mihalich appears on 'The Myth is Canada' livestreams with known Islamophobes like Ed Jamnisek:


CW Alexander completes the list of Walrus interviewees. He is a member of the Yellow Vests, and follows white nationalist Ronny Cameron on Facebook:


I realize The Walrus was going for "unbiased" in an effort to focus specifically on WEXIT ideology, but anytime reporting is done on the far-right it's important to not gloss over the bigoted aspects. When one element of their belief systems is separated out and examined without acknowledging the rest, it runs the risk of sanitizing and legitimizing movements that, were they to gain traction, could cause real harm to many people.  
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Saturday, March 28, 2020

Racist Poster Campaigns Gaining Momentum Across Canada Thanks to Telegram

A recent article from Omar Mosleh detailed a number of racist poster campaigns across Canada, focusing on the latest shift from ID Canada towards ecofascism. From The Base to Proud Boys to ID Canada, to more generic (on the surface, anyway) posters and stickers, the issue has grown - and it proves that the international fascist movement is collaborating with each other.

Prior to the internet, flyering and postering was the norm. In 2020, with platforms like Gab, Telegram, streaming service DLive, and others, one would think a more effective method would be solely online, yet fascists around the world are opting for relatively low-tech recruitment and radicalization methods while organizing on, and driving people to, the fascist-friendly platforms that will have them. These campaigns serve as a calling card to others; at times a dog-whistle and other times overt. They are a way to signal to like-minded people and antifascists/anti-racists alike - "we're in your community."




Based in the UK, the Hundred Handers, have been around for some time, but have recently made the news for co-opting Extinction Rebellion branding as their own to promote ecofascist and hateful content. This is nothing new for them - since January 2020 they have been co-opting XR branding and putting up outrageous stickers and posters to reduce XR's credibility. Their latest archive has 11 XR fakes.

A Hundred Handers post from early January on Telegram



A Proud Boy-run Canadian Telegram channel has also promoted this tactic, within a post of this specific incident. The irony of "Prosemitic Groyper" referencing the "logical evil conclusions" of leftist efforts while ignoring the fact that calling for a "white" country means either mass deportation or genocide isn't lost on us.



The Hundred Handers been kicked off Twitter, but claim they don't care - Telegram is much more effective. 

Their MO is to release an "archive" of stickers every month. Included is regional/country specific stickers as well as "unaffiliated" stickers, such as "It's Ok To Be White," and others. It's unknown at this time how many IOTBW have been distributed by their following. They also target feminists, the LGBTQ+ community, run-of-the-mill conservatives, and others. Some of their stickers reference the JQ (Jewish Question) and "Blood and Soil." Others are rather benign, and include a QR code. Many are in other languages, such as German and Spanish. 

They have produced Canada specific content - including the demographic poster recently found in both Whitby, ON in early February and Saskatoon, SK in early March. The poster is titled "The Great Replacement," and is found in a folder titled "Canadian Demographics" in their March archive - an indicator that there is enough support here to warrant country-specific content, along the lines of Italy, Germany, and Spain. 

There are other examples, too. Recently stickers attributed to them were found in the Port Credit Go Station, which they erroneously attributed this to France on Telegram. We were able to confirm from the ad in the background that this is, in fact, in Port Credit. Also, the ad language and the train schedule is in English. 
The erroneously attributed post on Telegram 
Even more recently, stickers attributed to the Hundred Handers, and referencing The Noticer were found in Edmonton: 

The Noticer is an antisemitic, white supremacist Telegram channel that exists to antagonize and harass Jews, and they appear to have officially collaborated with Hundred Handers.



Hundred Handers often troll and mock people for calling them racist, and on a YouTube live stream have stated they give tips and make efforts to "stay on the right side of the law," and anything that goes beyond that are "bad actors" trying to impersonate them. This isn't surprising - fascists will always accuse their opposition of doing exactly what they do. 

One major problem that often occurs with these postering and stickering campaigns is that in a blind attempt to portray "all sides," media will provide these groups a platform. As a result, groups like Hundred Handers have declared that media is doing promotion for them.

Comments in the livestream in which the Hundred Handers participated on YouTube



Hundred Handers, pleased with the media attention

The Hundred Handers are one of many fascist groups happy with the attention they're provided by media. The Proud Boys were thrilled when CTV aired their full, offensive, and outrageously fallacious statement - unchallenged.

Proud Boys, pleased that CTV ran their statement during a story about their posters



This serves as a stark warning for media - by allowing a statement without challenge, you are providing them a platform.

On Telegram, the Canadian Proud Boys channel (likely run by Tim Kelly) regularly shares their postering and stickering campaigns - and boosts others, such as ID Canada. It seems ID Canada is quite reliant on the Proud Boys boosting their efforts, since their own Telegram channel is rather stagnant at a whopping 38 members.  






There is a secondary Proud Boy affiliated Telegram channel, run by Tim Kelly (aka "Rick the Man") and "Blayze," another Proud Boy, and whose members include Dean Clifford, Joey DeLuca, and Andre Chiasson.

"Blayze," one of the admins of the offshoot Telegram group along with Tim Kelly

 The group has also promoted the Hundred Handers, an international, loose collective of white supremacists that put up posters and stickers in various countries around the world. The first mention of Hundred Handers in the Proud Boy offshoot Telegram group was on March 23, 2020, however instances of Hundred Handers has been spotted around Canada in the months prior. 

A promotion of Hundred Handers with content obscured 

The offshoot Canadian Telegram group itself is a mish-mash of Canadians and some Brits, with a few of the most prolific users sharing antisemitic and racist content while complaining that people call them racist.  


A post featuring The Noticer, an antisemitic channel that collaborates with Hundred Handers
 


As always, if you come across posters or stickers, please cover them up or remove them, if it's safe to do so. Also, please keep in mind that efforts have been made to spread fakes targeting both other organizations and antifascists.
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Monday, March 23, 2020

Derek Harrison Justifies Violence Against Women in Transphobic and Misogynistic Video

In a video uploaded to YouTube on March 22, Derek Harrison (Rants) of Plaid Army framed a new clip as a being about "personal responsibility," showing what Harrison claims to be examples of people who did not take personal responsibility and therefore are at fault for what happened next. Harrison, however, uses this narrative to spread transphobia and misogyny.

Before we get to the video itself, the comments are fairly standard:

Jeremy Mackenzie showing support for a video defending violence against women and transphobia


And London, Ontario amateur comedian Dan Sleno, aka EdgyD, 
a newer member of Plaid Army, who we'll get to in a later article

That's true - it is an older video. Initially, it was posted to YouTube, which according to Harrison, deleted it. He then uploaded it to BitChute in February 2019.

I guess "personal responsibility" doesn't apply to Derek

Comments from the original BitChute upload:

That first comment. Yikes.

Yeah. 

He uses this video to poke fun at people from previous viral videos, and introduces his "new pronoun," the clever and pithy "it," before showing a horrific attack in Australia by a trans woman in a gas station. The purpose isn't to highlight how the people in the gas station were to blame by not leaving when the woman with the axe enters, although he makes that claim too.

It's clear that the purpose is to incite hatred toward trans people, as if people who happen to be trans are expected to be exempt from the gamut of types of people across the human condition, including sometimes violent ones. This is nothing new. Examples of bad, outrageous, or violent behaviour are often used to paint trans people as a whole. Harrison just plays into that.
Harrison continues on, showing a video of an attack by a man on two women in LA (which he erroneously refers to as being in New York.)

He states:
Now most people right off the bat are saying 'that motherfucker shouldn't have been hitting girls and you shouldn't hit women.'
No. Girls? That's your fault.  
If either one of these girls had ever been hit or struck before on their life they would not go after a man that size. Do you really think this guy just started laying bitches out at the hot dog stand or do you think there was something before that?

Just saying, that's your fault.

Watching these two little chihuahuas trying to attack this rottweiler reminds me of another clip I've seen. What do you think's gonna happen to it? Now you want to act surprised?


The actual story from NBC Los Angeles:
The woman, whom NBC4 is not naming to protect her identity, was out with her friend when they stopped for street hot dogs. She said they noticed a man being rude to a hot dog vendor over the $6 cost. She said another vendor offered the man a free hot dog, but when he did not stop, the woman and her friend spoke up. 
"Me and my friend said something like, 'Just leave.'" The woman said he punched both of them at least once before additional blows were recorded by a bystander's cellphone camera...
Harrison thinks that speaking up and trying to get a rude customer to leave a hot dog vendor alone and take his free hot dog is deserving of being beaten up - if you're a woman.

The last part of the video is Harrison showing various websites - including the article cited above:


Harrison knew the context of the story - he just decided that the women are at fault because women shouldn't step up to a big man, even in situations where it is reasonable to do so, and if they get assaulted, that's on them.

It's a disturbing message from a man with a university-age daughter.
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