Showing posts sorted by relevance for query soldiers of odin. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query soldiers of odin. Sort by date Show all posts

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: Canadian Media Paying Attention Part 2

Before we begin and for any new reader here as a result of the latest article abut the Soldiers of Odin published by the CBC, we thought we would provide you with the links to our coverage of the group before jumping into our commentary on Mr. Lamoureux's article:
For a while, we at ARC seemed to be one of the few groups who were keeping an eye on the Soldiers of Odin, the vigilante group that began in Finland that was founded by a number of overt neo-Nazis. The movement eventually sprang up in other countries, including Canada. As of this date, there's a branch or support group in almost every province in Canada.

Now we've always been pretty realistic about our own limited media impact, so we were very pleased when Mack Lamoureux published his expose on the SOO in Alberta for "Vice" in April. This was followed by a story by Samantha Craggs of CBC News in Hamilton who spotlighted the growth of the movement in her own city; we commented on the story a few days later. If you haven't read these articles, we would urge you to do so.

Today, Mack Lamoureux again, this time writing for the CBC, has highlighted the group's activities in Edmonton:

Canadian president says local chapters 'not affiliated' with white supremacy
By Mack Lamoureux, CBC News Posted: Sep 03, 2016 6:00 AM MT           Last Updated: Sep 03, 2016 7:25 PM MT

A few interesting points:
"At this stage, we have a group of people that have associated [themselves] with a group that are internationally extremely negative," Jones said. "In the city of Edmonton context that we have right now, we have seen no violence, no complaints, no threats, nothing criminal." 
Jones said police have spoken to the group. 
"They are reporting they are not the same type of group, that they are not anti-immigration or radical right."

Well, that might be a hard case to make when, in order to be recognized as an official branch of the international Soldiers of Odin movement, a new national branch needs the approval of the original Finish branch:


And it's tough to convince us that the Canadian SOO isn't anti-immigration or radical right when you associate with overt racists and neo-Nazis:


"People think we're some sort of white power group," Joel Agnott, the SOO national president, told CBC News in early August. "We're not affiliated with any of that. We have had a few of those members, and we've kicked them out."
Yeah, we're still able to find a lot of "those members." For just one example, a quick look at the SOO Edmonton support page brings this guy to our attention:



"Jay Cam" has been profiled on the blog briefly before. He at one time was an administrator for the Canadians United 4 Canada Facebook group. Oh, and he's associated with Kyle McKee's Blood & Honour chapter.

Perhaps our readers would like to take a closer look at his profile photo



If you were able to identify the photo as that of George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, give yourself a pat on the back.

Also Joel Agnott has some interesting ties to people we're able to link to McKee's Blood & Honour faction (we'll be addressing this in a future article) as well as to Ernst Zundel's wife and fellow Holocaust denier Ingrid Rimland which in and of itself cause our spidey senses to start tingling: 

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Sunday, September 04, 2016

Ezra Levant Not Entirely Certain Soldiers of Odin Are A "Thing"

While we were working on our commentary yesterday on Mack Lamoureux's CBC story covering the  activities of the Soldiers of Odin in Edmonton, we were also following an interesting exchange between Mr. Lamoureux and Ezra Levant on Twitter. Sadly, as Ezra isn't a fan of ours....


.... we may have been only able to see one side of the discussion.

Unless we had a second Twitter account. Which, of course, we do.



Now, from this part of the exchange, Ezra seems to be suggesting that the Soldiers of Odin are actually a figment of Mr. Lamoureux's imagination. However, Ezra does clarify his position that he believes the SoO are exist, but only as a vehicle to entrap poor, dumb, disenfranchised, "old stock" Canadians:

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Monday, August 06, 2018

Soldiers of Odin Outnumbered in Nanaimo

Yesterday the Soldiers of Odin acted as "security" in an effort to intimidate homeless people living in Discontent City in Nanaimo:












Suffice it to say, they were vastly outnumbered:












Now there's an effort to figure out the names of the SoO members who participated in this march; though the chapter president refused to provide his name, it is known:


Conrad Peach
And like former BC chapter president and short-lived Canadian SoO leader Bill Daniels, it also appears that Peachie has a bit of a criminal history which, given the accusations leveled at those living in the tent city by members of the SoO, I find to be interesting:






Did I write "interesting"?

I meant to write patently hypocritical. 
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Sunday, October 07, 2018

Soldiers of Odin Welcomed At United Conservative Party Event

There have been a number of stories in the news regarding candidates for the United Conservative Party of Alberta being caught echoing far-right talking points; some of those candidates were disqualified by the party but others remain.

It seems that is a feature, and not a bug, of the new conservative party:



The event was attended not only by members of the Soldiers of Odin, but also by the Onward Christian Soldiers pseudo-militia (leader Adam Stevenson is found in some of the photographs), Proud Boys, and other hate groups; last time we saw these groups together was last month when they attempted to claim to be working with the Mustard Seed. Leader of the fringe Alberta Independence Party touted the night as a sort of joint event with the UCP:


Progress Alberta has done a fantastic job of providing details about the evening's participants:









 
 


The UCP eventually disavowed members of the SoO:


Dave Bjorkman of the Alberta Independence Party wasn't happy:


However, it seems that the UCP were well aware that the SoO would be attending:




And the SoO were not there to attend an Alberta Independence Party event:


Sooooo, could it be that the UCP message resonates with a certain segment of the population that is explicitly xenophobic? Maybe?

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Friday, August 12, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: Canadian Media Paying Attention

We don't usually refer to ourselves as "media" though in the absolute sense, we suppose we are. We run a niche blog who's members have a realistic understanding concerning our national exposure. Still, we like to think that at least on occasion we've been able to punch above our weight by breaking a few stories before the msm have.

As far as we know, we were amongst the first, if not the first, "media" source that began covering the entry of the Soldiers of Odin onto the Canadian scene. However since we began, there has been some really good journalism focused on the SoO. Not too long after our first exposé, Vice published a story by Mack Lamoureux who was able to infiltrate a meeting by the Alberta chapter of Soldiers of Odin. And last week, CBC's Samantha Craggs wrote what we would regard as a pretty hard hitting profile of the SoO and the group's efforts to organize in the city of Hamilton.

Some members of the SoO took notice, including co-leader of the Saskatchewan chapter of the Soldiers of Odin:


In the article, the national president of the Canadian Soldiers of Odin, Joel Angott, claims that the group is opposed to racism:
The presence in Hamilton is informal right now, with about eight or nine members getting organized, said SOO national president Joel Angott. There's a lot of interest, but potential Hamilton members are being carefully vetted. 
SOO members do neighbourhood patrols, Angott told CBC Hamilton in a phone interview from Winnipeg. Right now, its Hamilton plans focus on cleaning up local parks. 
He denies that the group is anti-immigration, or anti-Muslim, although the group's bylaws lament the government "accepting refugees from countries that hate us" and "letting illegal aliens into this country and giving them the ability to vote and drive."
Denying that the SoO is not anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim sort of flies in the face of what is routinely posted on the various provincial Soldiers of Odin chapters' Facebook pages however. For example, here are a few from the British Columbia chapter group page:

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Saturday, December 17, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: Strike Three

In a recent article published here in which we briefly discussed the resignation of former national vice-president and Quebec president of the Soldiers of Odin, it was clear that there was (and likely has been for some time) a bit of an ideological struggle within the movement in Canada. One faction of the SoO wants to disassociate itself from the overt racism of the gang which was started by a well-known Finnish neo-Nazi while the other faction wishes to strengthen the connection to the Finnish movement and the core raison d'etre of the Soldiers of Odin which is anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim in nature:
But as Tregget was busy building the group's membership he was also running afoul of the national leadership as well as the movement's international leaders in Finland. 
According to his one-time second-in-command, Tregget gave a series of interviews in the fall in which he downplayed the links between the Finnish and Quebec branches of the group. 
He also insisted on patrolling the "political correct" areas of Quebec City, like St-Roch, where the group was less likely to confront the city's immigrant population, said Katy Latulippe, who is now the acting president of Soldiers of Odin-Quebec. 
There are conflicting accounts of what, precisely, happened. Latulippe said Tregget was suspended. Tregget said he quit: "Finished with the racist image of Finland," he later told CBC News in a Facebook message. 
Regardless of the details, what is clear is that with Tregget out, and Latulippe in, the group's Quebec chapter will undergo a reorientation....."Dave avoided that, on patrols, we go into areas where there are a lot of Muslims or Islamization," she said during a recent phone conversation.

We should stress that we believe that much of this soul searching is primarily one of optics and how the SoO desire to perceived by the public rather than a disagreement about the fundamental nature of the gang's motives:
SoO, which has chapters across Canada, denies, on its public Facebook page, any accusations of being racist or anti-immigrant and claims to exist to primarily protect women and children by keeping the streets safe.  
However, it’s been alleged the group’s private Facebook page is filled with racist and xenophobic comments, mainly directed towards Muslims.
However there might also be an element of self-delusion as exhibited by Regina, Saskatchewan president Ryen Ward who was interviewed by Paul Dechene for "Planet S":
“I am not accusing you of being a racist,” I explain at one point. “I am saying that this is the cultural context in which the Regina chapter of the Soldiers of Odin swims, and I’m curious as to why you would want to carry all this cultural, racist baggage if you’re really serious about being seen as welcoming and helpful?” 
But as far as Ward is concerned, his group’s negative image has nothing to do with its founder, its connections nor its imagery. It’s all the fault of the lying media. 
“The danger lies in the lies printed about us and the fear you evoke into your readers,” he writes. “For the last time, we are not racist.”
Ward contradicts himself later on though he clearly doesn't see it that way:
When our conversation moves to politics — specifically, Trump — Ward raises his concerns about immigration. 
“Our problems occur with a lack of proper vetting system in which people coming into the country should receive a face to face interview. Very similar to Kellie Leitch’s idea,” he writes. 
And when I press him on this, and on Black Lives Matter, this happens: 
“I would like them [new immigrants] to be interviewed to [ensure] that they do not have anger or hatred, as ISIS [has] stated [that] they have infiltrated the refugee camps and [they’re] sending terrorists to North America through such lame processes that we just believe everything. I would like them to be interviewed on their beliefs of Sharia Law, and other such ideologies that do not fit into our Canadian laws or way of life. 
“Black Lives Matter are not the only protestors/rioters that have caused discord in the USA. I am talking about all of the hate groups. From the KKK all the way to the Black Panthers and every group in between that calls for the death to another race.
Further indication of Ward's apparent difficulty in engaging in self-reflection can be found on social media.

Uhm, no. No it wasn't.
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Monday, June 12, 2017

Soldiers of Odin: Requiem?

There was a point when I and the then other members of ARC would keep a close eye on what PEGIDA Canada was up to, both online and when they engaged in what were ultimately fruitless "flash demonstrations" that didn't accomplish anything other than to show their insignificance. They did however garner some press coverage for a cancelled protest in Montreal and a failed protest in Toronto.

PEGIDA Canada still exists on Facebook, but I can't actually remember the last time I paid much attention to them. Many of the members who actually did protest have given up or moved on to other flavors of the moment (i.e "Suffragettes Against Silence") or formed their own group; before Joey De Luca created the WCAI, he was the Alberta rep for PEGIDA. I think this is in part because many of these people seem to want to be the head of something, perhaps as a result of a personality conflict or the feeling that "they" have the answers. Others simply seem to grow bored and drop out. In any case, the results are the same. After an initial flurry of activity, these groups inevitably lose energy and their members lose interest.

This phenomena seems to also be happening with the Soldiers of Odin.

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that the SoO is entirely a spent force. They are still able to get some numbers out in both Alberta and Ontario as evidenced by the protests that occurred in Calgary on June 3 as well as the protests that have taken place in Toronto as well as SoO members in Ottawa on both May 6 and June 3 as well. Quebec may also still be active, though provincial president Katy Latulippe is doing a piss poor job of trying to keep up the facade that the SoO aren't filled with racists:


But other than that?

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Sunday, September 18, 2016

Examining Soldiers of Odin Claims to Have "Purged" Membership of Racists

The media attention focused on the Canadian branch of the Soldiers of Odin has grown increasingly intense the past couple of weeks and the leadership is starting to feel the heat:
The last article is of interest since it indicates that as the public has become more aware of the group, the less inclined the public is to support them despite their efforts to appear as a benevolent and charitable organization:
But because of the group's name, they're being forced to strike down misconceptions that they are a fringe group looking to keep Canada white. 
"That's just misinformation that's been brought over from other countries," Agnott said. "What they do over in Finland and in Europe, they have all sorts of different issues altogether. That's not really what we are. We're an independent charter of Soldiers of Odin; we're a community watch group." 
But this bit of information isn't widely known in Canada, and it's led to the Soldiers of Odin Canada to be shut down in one instance where they tried to hold a fundraiser.
On Aug. 27, the Saskatchewan chapter tried to hold a barbecue fundraiser for STARS Air Ambulance. 
Mark Oddan, communications lead for STARS in Saskatchewan told the CBC, when the Soldiers of Odin approached the organization to see if they would attend the fundraiser, STARS declined to attend. 
"We didn't know who this group was and then did some research and thanked them for their interest and their support, but we declined their invite and said we cannot accept any funds from them as their values are not aligned with ours," Oddan said.
Of course the claim to being an independent chapter sort of flies in the face of statements by Canadian SoO leaders that chapters need the approval of the parent chapter in Finland that was founded by an avowed racist to operate.



ARC was interviewed by a number of the journalist who have written articles about the SoO and we hope that we have been able to provide some decent background on the group and the membership. One of these articles was published later this past week and contains some points that we would like to address:
The blog Anti-Racist Canada (ARC) — an anonymous group that says it is concerned by racist movements — has been tracking SoO Canada mostly via social media since at least March of this year. 
An ARC representative, who identified themselves only as ‘nos’, questions why public statements by people like Angott decrying racism don’t seem to match with the activity of its members in private and sometimes secret Facebook groups. 
ARC has also pointed to social media connections between SoO members and members of outlaw motorcycle gangs.
We've actually already written about the link between SoO members and supporters to the Hell's Angels in an earlier article, however we are currently collecting information for a follow-up article which we hope to publish some time this week.
Angott himself, ARC notes, was Facebook friends with Ingrid Rimland, wife of notorious Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. 
When asked about this, Angott told SooToday he had received a Facebook request from a profile with that name but that he did not know who that person was, who Ernst Zündel was, or that holocaust denial “was a thing” and he has since unfriended the account.
While we can't categorically refute Angott's claim that it was Ingrid Rimland who added him as a friend that he didn't know who she was when he added her, we believe this claim could be questioned given:
  • Angott has been very careful about who he has added as a friend on his Facebook profile (believe us, we've tried to add him but he seems a bit skittish for some reason) so it doesn't seem realistic that he would add Rimland whom he claims not to have known.
  • Why would an 80 year old woman seemingly randomly add some guy as a friend who lived in Gimli, Manitoba?
  • As "Holocaust revisionist royalty" through her own efforts as well as her marriage to Ernst Zundel, people who are inclined to agree with her views would be more likely to request her friendship than the other way around, though we should hasten to add that there's nothing yet that indicates that SOO Canada founder and president Joel Angott has denied the reality of the Holocaust himself.
  • If Ingrid Rimland slipped through the cracks, that would be one thing. But how might he  then explain the others we've found who have ties to racist groups?
So either Angott is naive, or there might be something else to this. We should however note that he has indeed unfriended Ms. Rimland.
Angott said that over the summer Soldiers of Odin purged some of its Canadian members for having racist views, and has deliberately distanced itself from racist groups. 
“We’ve slowed down on accepting members until we’ve fully checked them out and fully vetted them. We did have some people with ulterior motives come into our organization. We weren’t as vigilant as we should have been with these types of people. We did some research, back checking on who they are and what they stand for and we have released people that didn’t have the values that our organization carried (because) they were racist,” said Angott.
This brings us to the crux of the issue. Angott claims to have purged their membership of individuals possessing racist views.
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Sunday, May 15, 2016

Soldiers of Odin: 81 Problems and a Snitch Ain't One of Them

There are times when this writer is not only able to expose bigot to public scrutiny, but also indulge in a bit of historical geekery. Those are good days.

And this is one of those days.

When examining the Soldiers of Odin it is easy to focus exclusively on the rampant racism found amongst a number of individuals who are drawn to the group as well as the Islamophobia which is the Soldiers of Odin calling card. But it can be easy to miss the incredible hypocrisy of an organization ostensibly founded to protect "our" (read: white) women and children from the swarthy hordes at the gate:


Because sexual violence was NEVER a problem in Europe or Oz before Muslims arrived...

Then again, the misogynistic rhetoric of some members and supporters of the Soldiers of Odin sort of calls into question this claim:



Craig claims to be the Sergeant at Arms- Ontario East Division at Soldiers Of Odin Ontario

More on Arran Taylor later.

For an organization set up ostensibly to protect women, the Soldiers of Odin has a real image problem (again, that's besides the link to overt racists who are members of the SoO in good standing). That image problem begins with the name of the organization itself.
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