woensdag 9 mei 2012

Wederom Grijze Wolven-bijeenkomst in Utrecht

Op 19 mei organiseert de Turkse Federatie Nederland (TFN) in Utrecht een congres. De hoofdgast is Devlet Bahçeli, de leider van de Turkse extreem-rechtse partij MHP. Het congres vindt, niet voor de eerste keer, plaats in zalencentrum De Vechtsebanen. Naast Bahçeli staan ook een aantal vooraanstaande Grijze Wolven-musici op het programma.

De MHP is een partij met fascistische en antisemitische trekken en heeft openlijke verbindingen met het criminele milieu in Turkije en Europa. Bij de lokale Turkse verkiezingen in 2009 haalde de partij 16 procent van de stemmen. Bij de landelijke verkiezingen vorig jaar 13 procent en daarmee 53 van de 550 parlementszetels. De aanhangers van de MHP worden ook wel Grijze Wolven genoemd. In Nederland zijn die veelal georganiseerd in lokale verenigingen die op hun beurt weer aangesloten zijn bij de landelijke koepel Turkse Federatie Nederland. Grijze Wolven zijn ultra-nationalistisch. Minderheden als Koerden, Alevieten en Armeniërs vormen volgens hen een gevaar voor de eenheid van “het Turkse volk”. Ook zijn ze tegen de integratie van Turkse Nederlanders, omdat daarmee de Turkse identiteit aangetast zou worden. Het ultra-nationalisme van de Grijze Wolven beperkt zich niet tot woorden alleen. Door de jaren heen zijn ze verantwoordelijk geweest voor talloze gewelddaden, met name tegen Koerden en linkse Turken.

Nationalistische retoriek
De hoofdgast van het congres in Utrecht is MHP-leider Devlet Bahçeli. Bij een TFN-congres in 2009 in hetzelfde Utrechtse zalencentrum hield hij ook al een toespraak. Daarin benadrukte hij “de eenheid onder de Turken” en zei hij dat de Turkse Nederlanders op de steun van de MHP kunnen blijven rekenen. Op het congres werd toen veelvuldig gezwaaid met vlaggen met het symbool van de Grijze Wolven erop. Veel bezoekers maakten ook met hun hand het Wolven-gebaar en de nationalistische retoriek was niet van de lucht. Zo werden slogans geroepen als “Martelaren sterven nooit. Ondeelbaar vaderland!”, in een verwijzing naar de strijd van Turkse nationalisten tegen Koerden die autonomie nastreven. Naast Bahçeli treden ook dit jaar weer een aantal Turkse Grijze Wolven-musici op. Een daarvan is Mustafa Yildizdogan. Hij is vooral bekend geworden met zijn lied “Ik sterf voor jou, Turkije”. Ook maakte hij eerder een lied over zijn verdriet na de dood van de voormalige MHP-leider Alparslan Türkes, en maakte hij een nummer ter ere van het 40-jarige bestaan van de MHP. Yildizdogan is een fanatiek aanhanger. Al jaren staat hij op het podium bij bijeenkomsten van Grijze Wolven in Turkije, Nederland en andere Europese landen.
Een andere muzikant is Zafer Isleyen. Ook hij is een graag geziene gast op dit soort nationalistische bijeenkomsten. Isleyen onderhoudt nauwe banden met de MHP. Hij schreef op verzoek van die partij een verkiezingslied met als titel “Mijn partij MHP”. Daarin zweert hij trouw aan de partij, haar leider en de symbolen van de Grijze Wolven. Recent bracht Isleyen nog een rock-versie uit van de “Mehter Marsi”. Dat is een soort militaire kapellenmuziek die oorspronkelijk in de Ottomaanse tijd gemaakt werd om soldaten te motiveren voordat ze ten strijde trokken. De Grijze Wolven houden van deze Mehter-muziek omdat het verwijst naar “de bloeiperiode” van het Ottomaanse Rijk, toen Noord-Afrika, een flink deel van Europa en het hele Arabische schiereiland veroverd werden door de Turkse legers.
Ook Ahmet Safak zal dit keer weer zijn opwachting maken. Met zijn muziekalbum “Alleen Wolf” verwierf hij voor het eerst bekendheid. Safak is tevens schrijver. Uit de titels van zijn boeken is op te maken waar zijn politieke interessen liggen: “De wolf”, “Opkomend nationalisme en liberaal verraad” en “Bloedraad 1915”. Dat laatste verwijst naar het jaartal 1915 toen de Ottomaanse genocide op de Armeense minderheid plaatsvond. Ook Atilla Yilmaz gaat optreden bij het komende congres. Hij maakt geen enkel geheim van zijn verleden als Grijze Wolf. In zijn biografie op zijn eigen website zegt hij vanaf zijn jonge jaren actief te zijn geweest bij “de idealistische haarden”, oftewel de militante afdelingen van MHP die verantwoordelijk zijn voor talloze moorden in Turkije.

Invloed
Dit is alweer het negende congres van de TFN. Die congressen trekken doorgaans enkele duizenden aanhangers. Discriminerende en nationalistische uitingen zijn er schering en inslag. Zo worden leuzen geroepen tegen de separatistische Koerdische onafhankelijkheidsbeweging PKK, hangen er vlaggen met de Grijze Wolf erop en slaan bezoekers Grijze Wolven-vlaggen met drie halve sikkelmanen om zich heen. Die vlaggen dateren uit de Ottomaanse tijd. Middels de congressen haalt de TFN de banden aan met de achterban, en poogt in contact te komen met jongeren om zo nieuwe leden te werven. En voor de MHP is het van groot belang om invloed te blijven uitoefenen op Turkse gemeenschap in Nederland en andere Europese landen. Politieke problemen in Turkije worden namelijk ook op Nederlandse bodem uitgevochten. Zo werden eind vorig jaar na een nationalistische Turkse demonstratie in Amsterdam tegen aanvallen van de PKK in Turkije een Koerdisch cultureel centrum en haar bezoekers aangevallen.
De groei van Turks extreem-rechts wordt deels veroorzaakt door de zwakte van links in Turkije, maar deels ook door de steun van de Turkse staat. De Turkse staatsbelangen zijn veelal nauw vervlochten geweest met die van de Grijze Wolven. De MHP heeft zelfs meerdere keren in de regering gezeten. Maar de belangrijkste reden waarom de Grijze Wolven zich hier in Nederland zo makkelijk hebben kunnen organiseren, is het gebrek aan weerstand van de Nederlandse samenleving, van de gevestigde politiek en de anti-fascistische beweging. Historisch gezien heeft Nederland natuurlijk weinig te maken gehad met het Turkse fascisme, waardoor de alertheid grotendeels ontbreekt die men bij witte fascisten wel heeft. Maar de Turkse extreem-rechtsen zijn zeker niet minder gevaarlijk. De Grijze Wolven beschikken over een grote aanhang, over veel meer middelen dan de Nederlandse fascisten, en ze zijn goed georganiseerd. In 2009 protesteerde Doorbraak ook al tegen het TFN-congres in Utrecht. Toen weigerde het college van B&W bij monde van burgemeester Aleid Wolfsen in te grijpen, omdat hij meende dat het congres onder “de vrijheid van meningsuiting” viel. Daarbij liet het college zich in de luren leggen door het standaard verweer van de TFN dat deze congressen een cultureel en a-politiek karakter hebben. In werkelijkheid echter wordt er ter plekke in de Turkse taal extreem-rechtse propaganda gemaakt via toespraken, muziek en zang. Het wordt tijd om hier paal en perk aan te stellen.
Doorbraak

maandag 26 maart 2012

"A History of Violence: 1981 - 2011" by NomDeGuerre200


1981


No discussion of Canadian racist violence can be complete without reference to "Operation Red Dog."

In 1981, a number of Canadians were arrested in a bizarre plot by Canadian and American white supremacists (led by Don Black who now runs Stormfront), with Mafia funding, to overthrow the government of the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica. The plan, called "Operation Red Dog," was to have netted the supremacists a base of operations and lucrative illegal businesses. It was foiled by the FBI, and the participants were arrested. Those Canadians who were involved in the plot included Wolfgang Droege, Larry Lloyd Jacklin, Marion McGuire, James McQuirter, Charles Yanover, and Harold Woods.


On a routine traffic stop, police found two ounces of cocaine and 5000 pills in James Alexander McQuirter's car. When they went to search his home, they were threatened by another KKK member who waved a loaded shotgun at them.

1982


James Alexander McQuirter was an outspoken Canadian racist who helped start the Ku Klux Klan in Toronto in 1976. He soon became the group's "grand wizard" and opened a public office in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood in 1980. At its peak, McQuirter claimed, the Ku Klux Klan had over 2,000 Canadian members; police estimated the number at about 70. McQuirter's imprisonment was largely responsible for the group's decline in Canada. While in prison for the Dominica plot, McQuirter (then 24) was sentenced to serve eight more years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. He had paid an undercover policeman posing as a hitman $2,000 to murder former Klansman Gary MacFarlane, who he believe was interfering with Klan activities (see 3:41 of video link). McQuirter also received a concurrent sentence of five years in prison for forging cheques, passports and other documents. 

1985


After disembarking from a flight in Huntsville, AL, federal agent search Wolfgang Droege and his luggage. They find a Teflon dagger on his person and 4 ounces of cocaine (he claims the dagger had been a gift and the cocaine was for the purpose of financing “the movement”). Droege was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison, but he was released and deported back to Canada in 1989. (Kinsella, 261)

1987 

Ottawa, ON – Members of the Aryan Resistance Movement (ARM) shoot immigrant


Neo-Nazis Mark Bauer, Brian McQuaid and a 16 year-old young offender fired a weapon at the home of Jaajpe Ladan. Ladan was hit in her face but survived. In May 1988, after a Crime Stoppers segment on the crime was aired, the three men were arrested. All three would plead guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm, and were given two-year suspended sentences and ordered to stay away from one another. Bauer was the leader of the Ottawa chapter of ARM, one of the publishers of the racist magazine Canada Awake! and played in the white power band Cross. No mention was made of the perpetrator’s white supremacist views during the trial or the sentencing. (Kinsella, 311)

1988


Calgary, AB - Tearlach Mac a' Phearsoin charged with gross indecency

Imperial Wizard of Alberta’s Invisible Empire, “was charged with gross indecency, following a complaint by a mentally disabled teenager…” Mac a' Phearsoin was fined $1000.00. (Kinsella, 33)



Two members of Mac a' Phearsoin’s Invisible Empire Association’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit property damage and serious injury by use of explosives. The targets were a Jewish businessman and the Calgary Jewish Centre. The two men would be convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison. (Kinsella, 33)

Ottawa, ON – Carleton student beaten

ARM member Richard Arbic brutally assaulted a Carleton University student Michael Jeffries in an unprovoked attack. He was later convicted and sentenced to 90 days. “Evidence given in court established that Arbic had joined two other Nazi skineheads in kicking and beating Michael Jeffries at a local bar. Jeffries was left with serious head and chest injuries; when he was arrested by police, Arbic gave a false name and was concealing a knife. A weapons charge was dropped when he agreed to plead guilty to assault.” (Kinsella, 318)

1989

Chris Newhooka Heritage Front member originally from Nova Scotia, attacked a Vietnamese shopkeeper in Toronto, leaving him blind in one eye. 



1990


21-year old Kevin Dyer Lake, an ARM (Aryan Resistance Movement) bonehead, was found guilty of murdering 15-year old Tony Le and sentenced to 12 years. Le, who had come to Canada as a Vietnamese refugee, was fatally stabbed in the heart after he intervened in a New Years Eve confrontation between his friends, Dyer Lake and another neo-Nazi. Le’s friend, 18 year old Mukesh Narayan, also tried to intervene and was stabbed five times by Dyer Lake. 


Two men including 25-year old Jeffrey Paul Jusczel, a Hammerskin, attacked a fellow Toronto neo-Nazi. Juczel beat and choked the victim, stole his money and credit cards, and dragged him naked through the streets while continuing to beat him. The victim, who was left crippled by the attack, was found lying near railroad tracks with a gash in his neck. Jusczel was charged with robbery, aggravated assault, endangering a life and choking. He fled, ending up in Colorado where he would be charged in the killing of a friend who was a fellow Hammerskin. 


Daniel Sims and Mark Swanson, 19-year old members of the Final Solution Skinheads and followers of Terry Long of the Aryan Nations, attacked Keith Rutherford in his Edmonton home. Rutherford was a retired radio journalist who had 30 years prior broadcasted an expose on an alleged Nazi war criminal. He was kicked in the groin and left blind in his right eye as a result of being struck in the face with a club. Sims received an 18 month sentence and Swanson received 8 months. Rutherford filed and won a civil suit against Terry Long, alleging that one month before the beating, the attackers and several other neo-Nazis (including Cpl. Matt McKay) had been at Long’s home when it was suggested that he be hurt.





25-year old Canadian Hammerskin Jeffrey Paul Jusczel was sentenced to 27 years after pleading guilty to the second degree murder of 22-year old Norman Dale Hillier, a fellow white supremacist. Jusczel and three other Hammerskins beat Hillier to death and threw him over a cliff after he stole $25 from one of the men. At the time of the murder, Jusczel was using the name Jeffrey Paul Greszik and was a fugitive in Canada, wanted on charges of assault after crippling another neo-Nazi. 

 1991



Prince Albert, SK – Carney Nerland kills Leo LaChance

Carney Nerland
Carney Nerland, a Klan member and leader of Saskatchewan’s Aryan Nations chapter, shot Cree trapper Leo LaChance in the back as he was leaving Nerland’s gun shop. Despite Nerland telling a police officer, "if I am convicted of killing that Indian, they should give me a medal and you should pin it on me," he was charged with manslaughter instead of murder. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given a sentence of 4 years, of which he served 16 months.  The case prompted a public outcry when Nerland’s racist associations were learned, and when it was later revealed that he had been an informant for the RCMP. Nerland left prison in 1993 and entered the witness protection program. A commemorative  statue of Leo LaChance stands outside the Prince Albert courthouse.




Gordon Kuhtey, who was walking in an area of Winnipeg known as the “gay stroll,” was beaten, stoned and thrown into the Assiniboine River. Charges would not be laid until 1996, when 4 men were implicated in his murder: Matt McKay, a member of the Manitoba Klan and the Final Solution Skinheads in Winnipeg, and Northern Hammerskin members Robert Welsh, James Lisik and Gary Kuffner. One year after the murder, McKay, a member of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, would be implicated in the Somalia Affair scandal after he was caught on tape saying “we ain’t killed enough niggers yet.” The four were tried for murder in 1997, but the charges were suddenly dropped after it was proved that the star witness wasn’t in Winnipeg at the time of the murder. 


Three teenage affiliates of the Confederate Hammerskins, including one 16-year old Canadian, shot an African American man named Donald Thomas as he sat on the back of his truck. Prior to the murder, the three teenagers had gotten drunk and decided to “shoot a black person.” The Canadian teen was tried in 1993 and initially received probation. Public outrage led to a second trial and different charges including engaging in organized criminal activity, for which the teen was sentenced to 40 years.



Sean Maguire, an Aryan Nations member from Idaho and a Heritage Front affiliate, was arrested and deported from Canada on weapons violations after a car occupied by himself and Grant Bristow was searched and found to contain a 12-gauge shotgun and an assault rifle.

1992


Heritage Front member Leslie Jasinksi was connected to a plot to seriously harm Jewish community leaders in Toronto. It was reported that HF member Ken Barker had told Wolfgang Droege that Jasinksi planned to walk into the Toronto offices of the Canadian Jewish Congress and "take out some people."  The threat was investigated by both CSIS and the Metro Toronto Police. Shortly thereafter, Jasinski was involved in an armed robbery on a coffee shop in Oshawa.


Heritage Front members Ken Barker, 31, and Leslie Jasinksi, 25, were charged with armed robbery and weapons offenses in connection with a hold-up at the Gem coffee shop in Oshawa. Jasinski was affiliated with the Christian Identity movement and had been kicked out of a Toronto KKK chapter a year earlier for being emotionally unstable. CSIS had also investigated him for allegedly plotting to seriously harm leaders in Toronto's Jewish community. During the heist, Jasinksi had brandished a sawed-off shotgun and stolen $275 from the teller. Several weeks later, another Heritage Front member, 21 year old Phil Grech, was arrested when he fled to Barker's apartment after robbing a bank in a clown mask. There, police found a cache of weapons including ammunition and shotguns, a crossbow, a sword, batteries wired to a timer to look like a bomb, as well as a police scanner, neo-Nazi propaganda and a wad of cash. Barker was subsequently arrested and charged with robbery, possession of a prohibited weapon, careless storage of a firearm, possession of a dangerous weapon, use of a firearm in an indictable offence, disguise with intent and possession of an explosive device. Jasinski was arrested after he showed up at Barker's court hearing to confess to the coffee shop robbery in order to clear him. Barker was briefly jailed for weapons possession, but the robbery and explosives charges were thrown out because police didn't have enough evidence to convict him. Despite Jasinski confessing to the coffee shop robbery, police were unable to use his statement against him and he was also released with the order to refrain from possessing firearms and explosives for the rest of his life. In 1995, he would be identified as the Toronto representative of an Aryan Nations militia that never actually materialized. Grech pleaded guilty to the bank robbery and received 18 months in jail.


51-year old Yves Lalonde was beaten to death by 4 neo-Nazis while jogging in Angrignon Park in Montreal.  The perpetrators, all between the ages of 15 and 17, admitted that they targeted Lalonde because they thought he was gay, and that they routinely sought out gay men in Montreal parks to beat up.  One of the attackers said he had attended a White Power Canada meeting the night before the killing, and all of them said they belonged to a white supremacist gang.  Lalonde was bludgeoned with a baseball bat and sticks, fracturing his skull and rupturing his liver. The youths received three years of detention for second degree murder. Two weeks after these arrests took place, Daniel Lacombe was murdered at a rest stop in Joliette. Five young men aged between 16 and 19 were eventually charged with manslaughter. They too were linked to White Power Canada. (Kinsella, 350)


Hours after attending a protest against British Holocaust denier David Irving, a home belonging to 55-year old Monna Zentner, who was Jewish, was gutted by fire. As the home was unoccupied at the time (Zentner was living next door), no one was hurt, but the fire caused $100 000 in damage. Irving had been invited to speak at European Sound Imports, a Kitchener stereo store that distributed anti-Semitic hate literature.  For several weeks leading up to the incident, Zentner had been picketing outside the store to protest Irving’s scheduled visit.  The fire was ruled an arson and was suspected to have been set in retaliation by Irving supporters. Zentner’s house would again be firebombed the following year, and a former Heritage Front member would later accuse the organization of being responsible



Johnny Sharbnow, a 29-year old neo-Nazi, was shot to death by two fellow WNs on the way to the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.  19-year old Tim Biscope, of Alberta, and 23-year old Adam Elteto were charged with second degree murder. Biscope received a 19-year sentence and returned to Edmonton after his release.




Richard Manley, a security enforcer for the Heritage Front and for George Burdi, was arrested after an investigation by Canada Customs on allegations that he was importing a gun part to convert semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic. A police search of his home uncovered several weapons including an AR-15 assault rifle and an Uzi automatic pistol.

1993


Several hundred people gathered in Ottawa to protest a planned RaHoWa concert, culminating in fights on Parliament Hill that led to assault charges against 4 neo-Nazis. George Burdileader of RaHoWa and the Canadian branch of the World Church of the Creator, was sentenced to one year in prison for kicking then-ARA member Alicia Reckzin in the face, breaking her nose. Burdi has since left the movement.

22-year old Tyrone Alexander Mason, a Heritage Front member who was resigning from the organization, was kidnapped by Drew Maynard and brothers Elkar Fischer and Eric Fischer, all members of the Church of the Creator. Both Fischer brothers were members of the infamous Canadian Airborne Regiment, and Eric Fischer was a former sergeant and the head of security for the Heritage Front. During the ordeal, Mason was handcuffed, beaten, and threatened with injections of window cleaner. The attackers believed Mason had been responsible for stealing a Church of the Creator computer that contained a membership list and names of neo-Nazis in the Canadian military. In a police raid on the residence of 6 Church of the Creator members, a cache of guns was discovered and the three kidnappers were arrested. The charges against Maynard were eventually stayed because the charges took too long to come to trial. The Fischer brothers pleaded guilty to kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault causing bodily harm and threatening death, and received a plea deal sentence of 30 days.


Wolfgang Droege and fellow Heritage Front members Peter Mitrevski and Chris Newhook were charged with assault in relation to an attack on anti-racists that took place at Sneaky Dee’s bar in Toronto, following a militant ARA demonstration outside the home of HF member Gary Schipper.  Droege was charged with aggravated assault and possession of dangerous weapons and in 1995 was sentenced to 5 months in prison. Newhook was sentenced to 12 months for possession of a dangerous weapon and assaulting an officer with the intent to resist arrest. A police officer testified that he witnessed Newhook chasing an unarmed man with a sawed-off baseball bat that was decorated with swastikas and SS symbols. Mischief charges against anti-racist protestors who had been at the demo outside Schipper’s home were dismissed.


Following a RaHoWa concert in Toronto, Jason Roberts Hoolans and two other WNs went looking for a victim to beat up. They attacked 45-year old Tamil refugee Sivarajah Vinasithamby, who was left brain damaged and partially paralyzed as a result of being repeatedly kicked in the head. Hoolans’ lawyer admitted that the attack was racially motivated, and Hoolans himself told the court, "I am proud of my achievements and proud of my country. I don't hold extreme racial views. I am proud of my race."  But before sentencing he begged the court for another chance, offering to do community service speaking out against racism. Hoolans, who was described by Wolfgang Droege as a “hanger on” of the Heritage Front and had ties to the Church of the Creator, was sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated assault.


Kitchener, ON – Paul McGraw is charged with assault with a weapon and uttering threats


Neo-Nazi drug dealer and Heritage Front member Paul McGraw was charged with assault with a weapon and uttering threats in relation to an incident at the Headin’ West store in Kitchener.  McGraw, Gary Danicki and one other neo-Nazi were asked to leave the store by its Jewish owner, Elliot Eisen. In the attack that ensued, Eisen was shoved, had cowboy boots thrown at him, one man tried to punch him, and McGraw told him that “he was going to kill me and kill all the Jews.” Eisen’s 18-year old son was also spat at and two merchandise displays were overturned. While in court on the charges, McGraw gave a Nazi salute as he exited the prisoner’s box and was greeted outside by his pregnant 16-year old girlfriend (McGraw was then 20 years old). At the time of the charges, McGraw was on probation for a 1992 assault in Toronto and had outstanding charges in Nova Scotia for theft, possession of stolen goods and assault.


In August of 1993, a home owned by Jewish anti-racist activist Monna Zentner was destroyed in a second arson. The first attack on the home occurred in 1992 when it was firebombed after a protest against Holocaust-denier David Irving who was speaking at the European Sound Imports Store. In May, Zentner was an observer at a Nazi gathering in the store during which the owner, Michael Rothe, handed her a copy of “Did Six Million Really Die?”  That same month, Zentner received a phone call in which “he (the caller) said there would be a second fire on Nov. 7 (the anniversary of a previous fire at her house) and he hopes the Jews would burn and he hoped I would die too in the fire.”  90 people marched through Kitchener in support of Zentner. Later that year, Elise Hategan, a former member of the Heritage Front, testified that the organization had been responsible for the fire.


The Somalia Affair was a military scandal that began with the death of Somali teenager Shidane Arone at the hands of peacekeepers in the Canadian Airborne Regiment who found him hiding near the Canadian base and accused him of planning to steal supplies.  Arone was subsequently tortured by Cpl Clayton Matchee and Trooper Kyle Brown, who were on guard duty. Cpl Matt McKay, a white supremacist, suggested that Matchee use a ration pack or phone book to beat Arone so that it wouldn’t leave a mark. Matchee and Brown proceeded to beat Arone, sodomise him with a broomstick and take “trophy” photos of the torture. Burn marks were left on his genitals. Matchee, who is Native, also told another soldier, “now the Black man would fear the Indian as he did the white man.” Arone died as a result of the beatings, his last words reportedly being “Canada! Canada! Canada!”. The killing took place weeks after Canadian soldiers shot two unarmed Somalis in the back, killing one of them. In that incident, allegations were made that the victim had been killed while lying on the ground, and that trophy photos of his corpse were taken. Two other Somalis had also been killed on that tour of duty. Matchee and Brown were arrested and charged with murdering Arone. Matchee attempted suicide, leaving him with brain damage and unfit to stand trial, while Brown was convicted of torture and second degree murder and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

One year later, a lifted publication ban led to the release of the photos of Arone’s murder, causing a public outcry and inquiry into the Canadian Airborne Regiment. The investigation uncovered a culture of racism and white supremacist activity in the CAR, including a Confederate flag being used to decorate 2 Commando’s barracks and a video of racist hazing rituals in 1 Commando which showed a black soldier being walked like a dog on a leash, the phrase “I Love KKK” written on his back while soldiers screamed about white power. It was alleged that hate literature floated around the base camp and that soldier Mike Abel, who died in Somalia, was a member of the KKK. Pte Brocklebank was also videotaped making racist and violent statements. Cpl Matt McKay, who was an associate of Aryan Nations Canada leader Terry Long, was photographed making a Nazi salute in a Hitler t-shirt.  McKay had also hung a swastika in his army barracks and was a past member of the Manitoba KKK and the Final Solution Skinheads in Winnipeg. He was quoted as saying that he went to Somalia to “shoot me a nigger,” and was caught on video saying, “we ain’t killed enough niggers yet.” He later told Global News that CAR soldiers had set up a trap for Shidane Arone. McKay would later be implicated in the 1991 homophobic murder of Gordon Kuhtey (charges were dropped). The Canadian Airborne Regiment disbanded in 1995 as a result of the Somalia Affair.

1994


22-year old neo-Nazi Darryl Wesley Sutton was sentenced to life in prison for killing an 18-year old street kid named David Murray Quesnel. Quesnel was beaten, stabbed and left in a bathtub to die during a party at a Toronto rooming house. 


Northern Hammerskin member Sacha Clouatre was arrested for firing blanks at employees at Carlos & Pepe’s Restaurant in Montreal. When police showed up, Clouatre pointed a gun at an officer and was subsequently shot by the officer in the shoulder. Clouatre pleaded guilty to 4 counts of assault with a weapon and received a suspended sentence.



Brant Smith, a member of the Northern Hammerskins, spent 60 days in prison after he pleaded guilty to pointing a firearm at someone. In 1998, he would also be charged in a series of attacks on patrons at Montreal bars. 

1995


A violent brawl in the subway between neo-Nazis and members of Anti-Racist Action ended with a 19-year old ARA member being stabbed in the stomach and jugular vein. Two neo-Nazis were charged in connection with the attack: 22-year old Adrian Kaddie, charged with attempted murder, and 19-year old Kristian Brandes, charged with aggravated assault, possession of dangerous weapons and assault with a weapon. 


Paul McGraw was arrested in Toronto after fleeing assault charges in Kitchener-Waterloo, where he had broken a woman’s arm with a bat.  During the incident he also attacked two other people and was charged with break and enter and assault.


Chris Newhook assaulted two black women on a public bus in Toronto.

1996


17-year old Michael Amann-Ewaschuk was fatally stabbed in the subway by 22-year old Frank Chisholm during a confrontation over neo-Nazi symbols on the bomber jacket of one of Amann-Ewaschuk’s friends. Amann-Ewaschuk was identified by the Metro Hate Crimes Unit and several classmates as being a racist skinhead, and before being killed he reportedly was planning to attend a white power concert in London later that month. During the concert, several bands dedicated songs to Amann-Ewaschuk, and George Burdi claimed that a WP compilation CD would be released in his memory. During the trial, a reporter had his nose broken after being attacked outside the courthouse by several of Amann-Ewaschuk’s neo-Nazi friends. Chisholm, who at the time of the murder was on probation for slashing a man with an Exacto knife, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 9-year sentence.

1997


Chris Newhook was sentenced to three years in prison on ten charges including assault, assault with a weapon, and issuing death threats to young people.


Nirmal Singh Gill, a 65-year old Sikh caretaker at the Guru Nanak Temple in Surrey, was beaten to death in the temple parking lot by neo-Nazis Nathan Leblanc, 27, Radoslaw Synderek, 24, Robert Kluch, 26, Daniel Miloszewski, 22, and Lee Nikkel, 18. During the investigation, plans to murder more Sikhs were uncovered, including what was referred to by the assailants as “Plan B” – killing hundreds of Sikh school children. Miloszewski told undercover agents that the group needed money to start a racial holy war and that he wanted to kill thousands of non-whites. While in prison, Nathan Leblanc wrote a letter to John William King, who had been convicted in the brutal racist slaying of James Byrd Jr.stating, “you should have been given a medal ... [the victim] should have been left by the side of the road as an example to those who would cause the destruction of our glorious white nation." Nikkel and Kluch were sentenced to 15 years in prison; Synderek, Miloszewski and LeBlanc received 12 years.


Neo-Nazis Richard Stack and Steve Lavallee were arrested for an attack on two anti-racists. Stack, Lavallee, and 4 of their friends waited outside a Montreal bar and attacked the anti-racists as they left. The anti-racists successfully repelled their attackers, even breaking the arm of one of them, and were charged with disorderly conduct. Stack and Lavallee were charged with assault. Outside the courthouse during proceedings, bonehead Steve Legault, who had come to support his friends, was filmed attempting to attack an anti-racist. One week later, Steve Lavallee would also be charged in connection with a series of planned attacks on Montreal bar patrons.
Steve Legault trying to attack an anti-racist outside the courthouse

Paul McGraw was charged with break and enter, assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon. McGraw, then 24, and 28-year old Christopher Watt broke into an apartment and assaulted a man for a drug debt, kicking him in the head, face and shoulders, and stabbing him in the stomach with a butter knife. Charges were stayed after the victim couldn’t be found. McGraw has a history of intimidating witnesses. 


Four planned attacks on patrons took place at the Montreal bars Blizzarts, Biftek and Roy Bar, injuring an estimated 30 people. The attacks were carried out by 8 members of the Vinland Hammer Skins and Berzerker Boot Boys. Arrested in connection with the attacks were Brant Smith, Claude Brunet, Daniel Brunet, Sylvain Quiron, Mathieu Dubois, Jonathan Cote, Steve Lavallee and Alain Letarte,. When police made the arrests, they uncovered caches of knives, switchblades, mace, pepper spray, assault rifles, telescopic sights and silencers. The arrests resulted in 240 separate charges. Although charges were only laid for 4 attacks, other attacks by neo-Nazis had taken place at various Montreal bars for over a year, and typically involved rushing the bar and attacking people from behind using weapons like pepperspray, baseball bats, crowbars and batons.
1998

Calgary, AB - White supremacist is charged in commando-style raid on bank 


Paraphernalia found in Patrick Ryan's home
31-year old Darnell Bass, a Sergeant in the Canadian Airborne Regiment, and 30-year old  Patrick Steven Ryan, a white supremacistdressed up as security guards and staged an armed heist on a Brinks armored car at the CIBC branch of a Calgary mall in an attempt to steal $400 000. The robbery, which ultimately failed, involved the use of tear gas and a hail of almost 90 gunshots, and has been described as “the most violent hold up in Calgary history.” Bass and Ryan had been childhood friends in Saskatchewan, who met when they were both members of the Royal Regina Rifles cadet corps. Bass would go on to serve 7 years as a combat soldier in the CAR before it was disbanded in 1995 due to the inquiry into the Somalia Affair  and accusations of rampant racism in the unit. Ryan, who was a former Brinks employee, was alleged to have been the mastermind of the plot. Two months earlier, Ryan’s girlfriend, a Brinks guard, had helped him steal $134 000 from a CIBC branch in exchange for promising her money to pay for breast implants. After the second robbery, Ryan immediately fled to Europe, allegedly leaving behind instructions to Bass to kill his (ex-) girlfriend if he was imprisoned. A police raid on his apartment uncovered a host of neo-Nazi literature and paraphernalia, including an Aryan Nations flag, a David Irving book, and a number of white supremacist films. He was eventually caught by French police and extradited to Canada, where Bass testified against him. Bass blamed his own involvement in the robbery on the disbandment of the CAR and the end of his military career. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an armed robbery and received a 7-year sentence. Ryan, who had originally been charged with robbery and attempted murder, was convicted on robbery and weapons charges, ordered to pay Brinks $74 000, and sentenced to 8 years in prison, ultimately serving less than half of that.

   
1999


Paul McGraw was charged with conspiracy to commit assault, conspiracy to commit extortion and obstructing justice.  McGraw had tried to arrange for an inmate to be beaten after he allegedly identified him as the owner of a sawed-off shotgun that police had discovered in McGraw’s car in 1997. He also attempted to have the inmate falsely identified as a sex offender so he would be assaulted in prison. The conspiracy to commit extortion charges were laid against McGraw and his girlfriend for trying to enlist a man to settle a drug debt through intimidation.  The plans were discovered after police wiretapped McGraw’s phone on an unrelated matter in which they feared he might try to intimidate witnesses in an ongoing murder investigation.


Source: Kitchener-Waterloo ARA
2000


Dwayne Finlayson
Dwayne Finlayson, who was an organizer for the Heritage Front in Prince Edward Island, and fellow neo-Nazi Jonathan Petrie attacked two Japanese women and one Canadian woman of Japanese ancestry in downtown Charlottetown.  They smashed pizza into the face of one woman, shouted racist insults and physically attacked a bystander who tried to intervene.  Charges of inciting hatred were dropped in exchange for Finlayson, who has a history of violent offenses, pleading guilty to assault and causing a disturbance. He received four months in prison and 24 months probation. Petrie also pleaded guilty to assault and causing a disturbance, and was additionally charged with failing to appear for his sentencing.  Dwayne is the cousin of Carl Finlayson who committed suicide in 2010 and had previously been involved with the Heritage Front in PEI and the Brotherhood of Klans in Regina.


Chris Newhook beat an aboriginal man who asked him for a cigarette.

Sacha Montreuil
Montreal, QC – Christian Thomas is beaten to death by neo-Nazis


39-year old Christian Thomas was beaten into a coma as he was leaving the bar Chez Helene in Montreal, and later died from massive head trauma. Charged in connection with his death were neo-Nazis Sacha Montreuil, 26, Adam Guerbuez, 25, and Frederic Morin, 22. Also at the bar that night were fellow neo-Nazis Mathieu Carriere, Jonathan Cote, Isabel Forget, Steve Lavallee and Stephen LePage (Cote and Lavallee had previously been convicted in a series of Montreal bar attacks in 1998 and were not supposed to be in a bar). Though witnesses claimed that up to 10 people were involved in the attack, only Montreuil was charged with murder, with Guerbuez and Morin being charged with assault and the remainder of the Nazis testifying as witnesses against Montreuil.  Guerbuez and Morin were ultimately acquitted. Sacha Montreuil was convicted of manslaughter.

Victim Aylin Otano-Garcia
Two 15 year old boys were charged with first degree murder after they bludgeoned to death 15-year old Aylin Otano-Garcia, a classmate they had lured to a secluded sandspit. Otano-Garcia had immigrated to Canada from Cuba when she was 6 years old. The teen responsible for planning the murder was fascinated by Adolf Hitler, made reference to his “racist, Nazi beliefs” and said that he killed Otano-Garcia because he didn’t like immigrants. He received a 7 year sentence, while the other youth received 10 years.

Donna Marie Upson

22-year old Donna Marie Upson, a KKK and Aryan Nations member who was also known as “Baby Hitler”, was sentenced to two years in prison for threatening to kill Elias Mutales, a black pastor. Upson was also convicted of threatening to kill black people and threatening to destroy property at the Victoria Road United Baptist Church. Upson reportedly had 5 previous convictions for racially motivated crimes, including assault with a weapon and uttering threats, and had ignored a previous court order to receive anger management counseling. On appeal, her sentence was reduced to 13 months.


Victim Christelle Lavigne-Gagnon
15-year old Christelle Lavigne-Gagnon was stabbed to death on the street by her ex-boyfriend, 20-year old neo-Nazi Richard Germain. Germain had been harassing and threatening Lavigne-Gagnon for months. After the murder, he attempted to kill himself twice by slitting his wrists and jumping into a river. While in detention awaiting trial. he attempted to hang himself in his cell, landing in a coma for several days. Jean-Sebastian Pressault,  
then head of the Laval KKK, came to the trial to show his support for Germain, stating, “he’s our buddy and we respect him like this”. Germain was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 11 years.

Richard Germain




















2001


An arrest warrant was issued for Donna Marie Upson, aka “Baby Hitler” after she failed to appear in court on charges of assaulting two prison workers at Springhill Prison in Nova Scotia. The assaults occurred while Upson was incarcerated for threatening to kill a black pastor.  She was arrested and then released after promising to return to court to face the charges.


One month after being released from a Nova Scotia prison on charges of assault and failure to appear, Donna Marie Upson was arrested and denied bail in New Brunswick after an attempted arson at a homeless shelter. Upson had been refused a bed at the shelter, after which she was seen trying to set fire to the exterior of the building. 


James Frederick Hanley, 19, and Matthew Charles Duncan, burned a cross on the lawn of a black family in Moncton. Hanley had a history of making derogatory comments about black people and had previously been suspended from school for possessing hate literature. Duncan had racist tattoos and had previously assaulted a friend after he refused to return a Nazi salute and proclaim “Heil Hitler”.  Both men were charged with willful promotion of hatred and received four months in jail. Hanley additionally received three years of probation and an order to undergo sensitivity therapy.


James Scott Richardson, operator of the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team website and a member of the Tri-City Skins, was charged with making death threats against Jews and Muslims. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the CECT stated in their internet newsletter, “B’nai B’rith offices, Mossad temples and any Jew [or] arab Temple, building, house and cars. There are no innocent Jews especially in a time of war.” . The website also contained other hateful messages about Jews and non-whites.  Lawyer Richard Warman filed a human rights complaint against Richardson and Alexan Kulbashian, a co-operator of the website. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that the two websites encouraged violence against immigrants and visible minorities and fined Richardson and Kulbashian penalties totaling $13 000.

Neo-Nazi Steve Legault pleaded guilty to attacking an anti-racist at the courthouse during proceedings against his friends in the beating death of Christian Thomas. Legault had also attempted to attack an anti-racist in a separate case outside the Montreal courthouse in 1998.


About 10 neo-Nazis gathered on the corner of Queen and Lansdowne in Toronto, after which a fight broke out between them and others on the corner. The neo-Nazis ran into the nearby Green Dolphin bar, hurling racist abuse at patrons and shooting random people with pepperspray. They then fled before being arrested by police.

2002


Neo-Nazi Christopher Broughton attacked a gay woman in London, Ontario.  The 23-year old woman was standing outside holding hands with her female partner when Broughton hurled homophobic epithets at them, told the women to perform a sex act on him,  punched the victim, grabbed her by her ponytail and threw her on the ground, then kicked her in the head. Broughton served 3 years for the assault. He had previously accumulated 14 convictions for violent offences and served two years in prison for a 2000 offense.


Daniel Laverdiere
26-year old Evens Marseille, who is Haitian, was stabbed and beaten by two neo-Nazis outside the Montreal  bar Champlain. Daniel Laverdiere, 23, and Remi Chabot-Brideault, 21, had taunted Marseille with Nazi salutes as he sat inside the bar. When he left, the pair followed him and Laverdiere stabbed Marseille in the stomach while Chabot-Brideault punched him in the face. Both men then gave Nazi salutes and ran away. Laverdiere had been on probation for mischief at the time of the attack, and was described in court as a “hard-core neo-Nazi extremist”. Chabot-Brideault was given a one year conditional sentence which he served at home, and was forbidden from associating with “skinheads” for three years. Laverdiere was sentenced to 4 years for aggravated assault, and was ordered by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal to pay Marseille $35 000 in moral damages and $10 000 in punitive damages. Laverdiere is a member of the Vinland Front Skinheads, whose members came to the trial to support him.

Vinland Front Skinheads at the courthouse
2004


En-route to a rally in support of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, Tomasz Winnicki and three others was stopped by police, who found throwing knives, a bow and arrows, and body armour in the car they were driving. Winnicki was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, having weapons at a public meeting and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He pleaded guilty in 2006 and received a conditional discharge with 6 months of probation.


Chris Newhook attacked a man with a piece of plywood and threw him through a plate-glass window during an argument over rent. He served two years for assault with a weapon.

2005


Wolfgang Droege, founding leader of the Heritage Front, was shot to death by a mentally ill man named Keith Deroux.  Droege had been Deroux’s cocaine dealer. Deroux stated that he believed Droege was sending him messages through his computer and that he had hired bikers to watch him.  In 2006 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 


Over a period of several weeks, Chinese students at the University of New Brunswick were targeted in a series of racially motivated attacks. Students were screamed at and told to go back to China, had lit fireworks thrown at them and were pelted with eggs. One couple was assaulted with a cup of ice. 


Neo-Nazi Christopher Garvey, 25, and his friend, 27-year old Russell McMahen, were charged with assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats and forcible entry after attacking victim Daniel Schwass. Schwass had attended a party earlier that night where he had narrowly escaped getting into a fight with Garvey and McMahen. After he returned home, the two men showed up at his apartment, forced their way inside, and began kicking him in the head and face with their combat boots, which was reported by Schwass’ roommate to have looked like “a game of soccer and his head was like a soccer ball." One man attempted to drag Schwass out of the apartment, and when his roommate intervened, Garvey threatened to hurt him too. Blood matching the victim was found on the boots of the assailants, and it took three men two hours to clean up the trail of blood left outside the front door. Garvey and McMahen pleaded not guilty. The victim moved to B.C. and did not show up to court proceedings.

2006


Stephen Long, a 22-year old white supremacist who belonged to the racist Hammer Heads gang, was killed by Christopher Broughton, 29, of Hamilton, who was hoping to be accepted into the gang.  While sleeping, Long was attacked by Broughton with a baseball bat belonging to Vaughn Newman which was called a “nigger stick” by its owner and engraved with white power symbols. The murder may have been in retaliation for an incident earlier that night when Long had slapped Broughton in the face and called him an embarrassment. Another white supremacist, Richard Howlett, was also attacked with a bat but managed to escape. Broughton had previous assault charges, including a conviction for a hate crime against a gay woman in 2003. Before his death, Long’s parents had approached the Ottawa hate crimes unit for help with getting Long out of what his father referred to as the “vortex of hatred,” also stating, "I find it an incredible irony that he is murdered by someone in a group he identified with and someone he thought was a friend in that group.” In 2008, Broughton was sentenced to life in prison.


In 2006, Jean-Sebastian Pressault had been charged with willfully promoting hatred through a racist website he operated. While out on bail, he threatened to kill the judge presiding over his case if he was given an exemplary sentence.  Police searched his home and discovered a loaded gun. He was charged with threatening the judge and with procuring a firearm. 


Nathan Fry (below)
19-year old Nathan Richard Fry was convicted on 5 counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder after he killed a Congolese family and another woman in a fire. Fry used 25 litres of gasoline and a blowtorch to set fire to the family’s residence, killing Adela Etibako, 39, and her children, 12-year old Edita, 9-year old Benedicta, and 8-year old Stephane, who were witnessed screaming for help from an upper-floor window but were too scared to jump out. 19-year old Bolingo, one of the other children in the house, escaped the fire with serious burns, but his girlfriend, 17-year old Ashley Singh, was killed. Fry set the fire because he believed Bolingo had ratted him out for a stabbing that they both faced charges for. Fry reportedly had been interested in Nazism for many years, called himself “Hitler,” and had a swastika tattoo on his shoulder. He told an undercover police officer that while he was in prison for the stabbing incident, he had joined a skinhead gang to get back at Bolingo and because white supremacists had “fought the niggers and won.” In reference to the arson, Fry also told an undercover officer, “somebody burned down the little nigger’s home and burned up the whole nigger bunch,” and smiled as he stated that Bolingo has been burned so badly that “he even turned white for the first time.” Fry received life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.



In September of 2006, Kyle McKee and Dallas Price of the Aryan Guard were charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon or imitation for a dangerous purpose, in connection with a brawl where one victim was stabbed and another was hit with a wooden club.

Kyle McKee was arrested on assault and hate crimes charges after a North African cab driver was attacked. Later, he claimed that he was not responsible for the attack but was rather taking the fall for a friend who had almost taken an attempted murder charge for McKee the previous year. The case was eventually dismissed, which McKee bragged about as follows:  “they had said that I had assaulted this black cab driver from north Africa. so one year later I have trial and had it thrown out of court today. The reason being was that they couldn't make a positive ID on the person because apparently every one there were all dressed in combat boots with white laces black flight jackets and all had shaved heads. So let this be a lesson to everyone that wonders why on earth all us skinheads dress so similarly. this is another great reason. Lol”


Robert Reitmeier of Western European Bloodlines and formerly the Aryan Guard, was charged with attempted murder in connection with an incident in which a man in his 40s was beaten into a coma and suffered skull and facial fractures. Charges against Reitmeier were later stayed.


Neo-Nazi drug dealer  Paul William McGraw beat a 27-year old man who was also a drug dealer, leaving him with brain injuries. He was later convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 15 months. Three other people were also charged in relation to the incident. McGraw was described in news reports as the leader of a violent gang known as “The Family”.


18-year old Renaud Emard, known as necro99 on Stormfront, was arrested on weapons charges after being investigated for making racist threats on the internet and posting pictures of himself posing with guns. A police raid of his home uncovered 20 firearms and other weapons, hate literature, an “ethnic cleansing” manual, and a ‘hit list’ featuring the names of schoolmates. He pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon (brass knuckles) and five counts of careless storage of firearms. After undergoing therapy, Emard received a conditional discharge and one year probation, and has no criminal record.

2007


20 year old Jason Belfiglio was charged with mischief after three windows at a Jewish daycare centre in Toronto were smashed, which was witnessed by a TTC bus driver.  Belfiglio claimed to not be a neo-Nazi, despite the fact that he was arrested near the crime scene wearing a neo-Nazi t-shirt (a Celtic cross intertwined with a swastika). He was give a 90-day conditional sentence, 3 years of probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to make restitution and stay away neo-Nazis.

Four Chinese University students were attacked with baseball bats and wooden sticks in Saint John. Days later, two more Chinese students were attacked in the same manner. Within weeks, a bus stop was spray painted with the words, “Gooks go home.” The assaults took place in the same neighborhood where in 2005 Chinese students had been attacked with eggs, ice and fireworks.  3 neo-Nazi teenagers were charged in connection with the 2007 assaults – Jonathan Clifford Martin, 19, and two minors aged 17 and 15. A white couple who had been walking in the same neighborhood were almost attacked from behind by the trio, who were carrying steel pipes. They apologized, stating that they were doing random beatings on Chinese people and thought the couple was Asian.  Martin was charged for the bus shelter vandalism and for possession of a knife for a purpose dangerous to the public peace. The minor youth, who cannot be named, were charged with assault and possession of a dangerous weapon. The 15-year old is still heavily involved in the white power scene.


Two weeks after two violent attacks on Chinese students in the city, a threatening telephone message was left for  Saint John city councilor Jay-Young Chang, who is of Korean origin. The message included racial slurs, threats to harm Chang with a weapon and threats to kill him.


Chris Newhook was convicted of stabbing a man in the forehead during a rent dispute. It was not the first time Newhook had violently assaulted someone over rent


Aryan Guard supporter Layton Bertsch was arrested for throwing a bottle at an activist during an anti-racist demonstration in October.


After a 3-hour standoff with police, neo-Nazi Paul William McGraw was arrested in connection with a series of violent offenses that took place in Guelph. McGraw and two women were charged with assault, kidnapping, sexual assault and forcible confinement in relation to an incident that involved 7 male and female victims. McGraw was also charged in relation to a separate assault which took place in Orillia days before his arrest. The charges in that incident included assault, assault causing bodily harm, forcible confinement and uttering death threats. In 2009, McGraw was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which he appealed in 2011. His appeal was denied and he is eligible for parole in 2016.


19-year old neo-Nazi Tony Laviolette was sentenced to 30 months for eight charges including sexual assault, uttering threats, two counts of arson and break and enter. Laviolette was found guilty of having sex with a 13-year old girl and threatening to kill her if she saw anyone else. He was also sentenced for setting fire to a building and a vacant home, and for three break and enters including one at a skating rink which Laviolette vandalized with a swastika and racial slurs.  

2008


A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the home of Anti-Racist Action members Bonny Collins and Jason Devine while their four children slept inside. The firebomb missed a window but burned a fence and patio furniture.  No one was injured and no one was charged in the incident, but Collins and Devine believe they were targeted for their anti-racist activism by affiliates of the Aryan Guard. About a month later at an Aryan Guard rally, John Marleau taunted Collins about the firebombing, stating, “How’s your house, Bonnie?  Is it nice and toasty in there? How’s Jason and the kids?”


Julien LeClerc
Neo-Nazi Julien-Alexandre LeClerc, 20, and a minor youth, attacked several people in a series of racially motivated assaults in Montreal.  The pair first confronted a group of seven young men of Arab origin, directing racist insults at them.  Two men were stabbed, one requiring multiple blood transfusions and 50 stitches in his head. The assailants fled in a cab, then hurled racist slurs at the Haitian cab driver, punched him, and smashed his windshield.  They then attacked a second cab driver who was of Arab origin. The minor was sentenced to two years in closed custody for aggravated assault, assault and possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to public peace. LeClerc was convicted of the same charges.



Jensen-Huot
While entering his car after celebrating a 29th wedding anniversary with his wife, 77-year old Hans Alberts was attacked and stabbed to death by 23-year old Haldane Alexander Jensen-Huot. Jensen-Huot then fled and boarded a Greyhound Bus headed for Montreal, but was arrested during a stop in Regina and charged with second degree murder (later upgraded to first degree murder). He was described by detectives as “an angry individual who definitely has some issues,” and assaulted three officers at the Edmonton Remand Centre, injuring one of them. Jensen-Huot had a history of mental problems and violence. In 2006, he was convicted of assault causing bodily harm on his father, and served 60 days of a 3-month sentence. In Facebook exchanges between Jensen-Huot and a friend, he described selling crack, being on anti-psychotics, and beating up his mother. He repeatedly talked of “going postal” and made reference to the Kimveer Gill shootings. A few months before the murder, police were called to his workplace after he said he wanted to break the record of the Virginia Tech shooter and shoot 33 people.  He showed interest in the Aryan Brotherhood, claiming to have met a member in jail, and self-identified as a National Socialist and Satanist. One hour before committing the murder, he posted videos on Facebook which included documentaries about the Aryan Brotherhood and a U.S. white supremacist on death row. Jensen-Huot was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 13.5 years.
  

26-year old Asako Okazaki was attacked by a 17-year old Aryan Guard member, R.N.  R.N. made disparaging comments about Asians before following Okazaki as she left a bar and drop-kicking her in the back of the head with steel toed boots. After she had been knocked to the ground he continued to kick her. He was charged with assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm and three counts of breaching probation from previous convictions. A former friend who witnessed the attack testified in court that the “Aryan Guard is going to want to kick my head in. There are some people trying to find out where I live.” R.N. served 230 days in jail before being released on a 500-day Intensive Support and Supervision order. While in jail, he had been disciplined for possession of hate propaganda and for a comment made to an Asian staffer.  



Robert Reitmeier was shot in the stomach by Roland Warawa in his Calgary apartment, apparently after he kicked Warawa out for smoking crack.  Days later Warawa was involved in another shooting that left a bystander blind in both eyes.  Reitmeier didn’t report the incident or seek medical attention until several hours after the shooting, claiming that he didn’t realize he had been shot.  Warawa was charged with attempted murder, pointing a firearm, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and knowledge of unauthorized possession.


William Grosvenor was ordered to pay civil rights lawyer Richard Warman $50 000 in damages for defamation and assault. For two years, Grosvenor made internet posts calling for Warman’s murder while providing photos of him, his home address and Google maps showing how to get to his house. The death threats included posts referring to Warman as a “Dead Jew walking” (although Warman is not actually Jewish), and statements such as,  "I AM GOD AND I HAVE A RUGER P-90 AND IT'S BULLETS HAVE YOUR NAME ON THEM FAGBOY WARMAN”.  Grosvenor had previous charges for assault.

2009


A Russian memorabilia store in Toronto was targeted with arson, vandalism and graffiti by neo-Nazis Richard Martin and Andrew Benson. A Soviet Union flag that was hanging in a window was set on fire, and pictures of Martin committing the act were postedon his Facebook profile. Nazi graffiti was painted on a window, a window was smashed and some shop collectibles were broken.  The shopkeeper, who lived in the back of the store, expressed fear for his safety, stating, “It’s kind of escalated. What’s next? A grenade in my window?”  It is unclear if charges were ever laid. 

Richard Martin put photos of himself  committing the arson on Facebook


Jay Phillips, who is half black, was attacked by three men hurling racial epithets in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. During the attack, which was caught on video, Phillips reported that the men yelled “they were going to lynch me and kill me and my whole family and this is a white town and get the f--- out of here.” Pictures later surfaced of two of the accused at a cross burning, and with other racist imagery such as nooses and racist drawings.  Adam Huber, Robert Rogers and David White were all convicted of assault, with only Huber serving time in jail (one day). White was sentenced under hate crime provisions and was ordered to undergo counseling and community service.  

22-year old Lacey Dawn Snyder and 23-year old Dylan Alfred Trommel were charged in a racist attack on 32-year old Congolese student Valentin Masepode. The victim was in a convenience store when Snyder and Trommel confronted him with racist comments, including repeatedly calling him a “nigger” and telling him, “This is our country nigger.” After a customer told them to leave him alone, the pair left the store and gestured to Masepode to come outside. When he refused, they came back inside and Snyder said, “I have something for you nigger,” before blasting his face with bear spray, which was caught on the store’s surveillance video. Trommel, who at the time had a swastika tattooed on his back, claimed that he harassed the victim because he was intoxicated. Snyder sent an e-mail to the Edmonton Sun complaining about the press coverage of the incident, stating that she was too intoxicated to remember what happened the night of the attack and writing, “But who’s to care about my feelings on the whole issue right? I’m just the big mean attacker who hates blacks!” Trommel pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. Snyder pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and assault with a weapon and was sentenced to 6 months in jail and counseling.  She also faced charges for impaired driving and drug charges for an incident that occurred a year after the attack which has been called one of the largest-ever busts of the “date-rape drug” (GBH) in Alberta. 



Fort St. John, BC - Man Convicted in 1999 Bombing

Peter Anthony Houston, 32, was convicted of building a potentially deadly pipe bomb that was planted in a highway restroom in northeastern B.C. in 1999. The bomb was left at a rest stop on Highway 29 between Fort St. John and Hudson's Hope, B.C. Packed with black powder and rocket fuel, it was set up to explode when the washroom door was opened, but it failed to detonate. Houston was eventually arrested and charged with attempted murder and intent to cause an explosion, but the case was never made public and took years to go to trial. Houston was known to have been involved in the Canadian racist movement.

Calgary, AB – ARA members’ home is attacked

The home of ARA Calgary members Bonnie Collins and Jason Devine was attacked. A cinderblock was thrown through their living room window, and a smaller projectile was thrown through the bedroom of their three sleeping children. The front door was spray-painted with “C-18” and a swastika.  


Nanaimo, B.C. – Jeff Hughes is shot and killed by police

Jeff Hughes, a white supremacist who had been involved in the Canadian branch of the Northwest Imperative, was shot to death by police after they arrived at his apartment in response to a noise complaint. Several years earlier, Hughes has also been visited by the RCMP in response to hate propaganda he had been distributing.  RCMP testified that Hughes had been shot after he threatened officers and came out of his apartment holding a weapon (later determined to be a flare gun) and pointed it at an officer.  Hughes reportedly had a history of violence, including assault and bomb threats.  As of 2011, a coroner’s inquest into his death is ongoing.


Kyle McKee being captured in Winnipeg
Tyler Sturrup of Western European Bloodlines, and Carolyne Kwatiek, who is also a white nationalist, were targeted by two homemade pipe bombs that were left outside Sturrup’s home and detonated in a parking lot. Aryan Guard affiliate John Marleau, who had dated Kwatiek before her relationship with Sturrup, was initially arrested but later released.  Warrants were issued for Aryan Guard founder Kyle McKee and a 17-year old male neo-Nazi on charges of attempted murder, possessing, making or controlling explosives and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Both of the accused attempted to escape the charges by skipping town. They were stopped by police in Regina where they managed to evade arrest but were later arrested in Winnipeg.  Attempted murder charges against McKee were later withdrawn. He pleaded guilty to possessing explosive devices that were found in his apartment (which he claimed were for a white pride celebration and not connected to the bombing), and to fleeing police. Charges against the minor were also dropped.

2010


John Marleau, who is affiliated with the Aryan Guard/Blood & Honour, was arrested after attacking a non-white operator on the Calgary C-train. Someone in the train had pressed the emergency button, prompting the driver to come into the car where Marleau lunged at him with a knife.  The driver locked himself into the cab while Marleau fled and was later apprehended by police, who he also threatened with a knife. He was subsequently tasered, arrested and charged with three counts of assault with a weapon, and one count each of possession of a weapon, carrying a concealed weapon and causing a disturbance.


Daniel Atkey, who is linked to Volksfront Canada and the Creativity movement and goes by the moniker CanadianSkin88 on Stormfront, was given 9 months probation for domestic assault and ordered to submit a DNA sample. On a separate charge of domestic assault, he agreed to abide by a 12-month peace bond in lieu of sentencing. 


A cross was burned on the lawn of interracial couple Michelle Lyon and Shayne Howe, who is black. Howe reported hearing someone shout, “Die, nigger, die,” before his daughter saw a 2-metre cross burning on the family’s lawn with a noose hanging from it. Charged in the crime were brothers Nathan Rehberg, 20, and Justin Rehberg, 19, who are distant cousins of Lyon.  On charges of inciting hatred and criminal harassment, Nathan received 6 months, while Justin received two. Both brothers were given 30 months probation, ordered to do 50 hours of community service, undergo substance abuse counseling, submit DNA samples, and refrain from owning firearms for 10 years. 




After spending half of his life in prison and accumulating roughly 50 criminal convictions including several for racist attacks on minorities, Chris Newhook was declared a dangerous offender and imprisoned indefinitely. Newhook is a long-time white supremacist and was one of the first members of the Heritage Front.  During his dangerous-offender hearing, Newhook yelled at the crown prosecutor, “I hate your fucking guts. I wish I could cut your fucking head off with a rusty hacksaw blade.”


Edmonton, AB – Dave Burns murders Garth Radon before killing himself 

Dave Burns shot and killed his co-worker Garth Radons before killing himself. A second co-worker was also shot and critically injured, but survived.  Burns had been suspended from work for making racist remarks and posting a sexually explicit photo on a staff bulletin board in order to taunt a South Asian employee. He was known as “The Nazi” around the office, and staff described him as a white supremacist and someone who didn’t get along with visible minorities. 36 years earlier, Burns had fatally stabbed an 18-year old boy and served 4 years for manslaughter. He had also made the news in 1994 when he reported that his firearms collection and 1300 rounds of ammunition had been stolen from his house. 

Calgary, AB – William Miettinen is charged with assault with a weapon
Willis

William Kaiser Miettinen, aka “Willis”, was charged with assault with a weapon after he assaulted a camera man with a skateboard during an anti-racist demonstration. During court proceedings, Miettinen attempted to distance himself from the neo-Nazis who attended the demonstration, stating, “I am not a skinhead,” and "I was not part of that (neo-Nazi) demonstration," despite the fact that during the rally he had ripped his shirt open to display white supremacist tattoos.


Two weeks after activists held an anti-Nazi rally in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, the family home of an organizer was targeted by a bomb set remotely with a long fuse. The bomb caused a fire that damaged the home’s exterior, but no one was injured. The RCMP bomb squad and Abbotsford Police Major Crime Unit were called in to investigate. While the investigation is ongoing, some speculate that the home was targeted by neo-Nazis, as the organizer’s name and photo had been widely circulated in news coverage of the rally.


An arrest warrant was issued for Aryan Guard  affiliate Mitch Fancey after he attempted to escape charges of uttering threats.


Richard Martin
23-year old Richard Martin and 38-year old Shane Gill were arrested for threatening a woman and an 11 year old girl for being black. Martin, who lived near the victims, had been harassing them for weeks.  The first incident occurred when the woman saw Martin standing outside making gunshot sounds and shooting gestures at her house.  Days later, Martin and another man stood near her bedroom window singing racist songs and yelling, “Go back to Africa.” The last incident occurred as the woman was walking with her friend’s 11-year old daughter and was confronted by Martin and Gill. Martin made gunshot sounds and the sign of a gun in her direction. As the victims turned and began to flee back to the woman’s home, Gill and Martin chanted, “We hate niggers.”  They followed the victims home and Gill pounded on the door.  Martin was sentenced to 9 months in jail and 3 years of probation, and Gill received 6 months in jail and 3 years of probation.  They were ordered to submit DNA samples and to refrain from possessing weapons, ammunition and explosives for 15 years.



The home of Anti-Racist Action members Bonnie Collins and Jason Devine was invaded by five masked men armed with bats and hammers. Devine was beaten on the head, back and arms, sustaining serious back injuries. A friend who was in the home had his arm broken.  A few months later, Kyle McKee would be charged with uttering threats after he asked Devine if he’d like another visit to his home. 



An 18-year old girl was beaten at a party by 3 members and affiliates of Aryan Guard/Blood & Honour Calgary, leaving her with broken teeth. Kyle McKee would later be charged as one of the assailants and ordered to pay part of her dental bill. The two other alleged assailants were males in their late twenties and thirties.

2011


After being identified through a DNA sample, Robert Reitmeier of Western European Bloodline was charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement of a woman at a party in 2009.


Victim Mark Mariani
Western European Bloodline members Robert David Reitmeier, 24, and Tyler William Sturrup, 26, were charged with second degree murder in the 2010 death of 47-year old Mark Mariani.  Mariani, who was ill and frail from Chrohn’s disease, was attacked and beaten to death in an alley. Although a swastika was found spray-painted at the crime scene, police believe the murder was a random attack that was unrelated to Reitmeier and Sturrup’s white supremacist affiliations. They believed there was a third attacker who is still being sought, and are also seeking two men who may be witnesses. A preliminary hearing for the accused will take place in May 2012.


Tyler Sturrup and Robert Reitmeier

B&H flyers that were distributed before attacks
Several people were physically assaulted and over 10 people were verbally abused by a group of four neo-Nazis. Jason Anthony Anderson, 32, Keith Virgil Decu, 32, James Andrew Brooks, 25, and David Roger Goodman, 18, are affiliates of Blood and Honour Calgary.  After distributing flyers for a Blood & Honour march that was scheduled to take place in Calgary, the men went to a bar where they sang racist songs, talked about hangings, and yelled racist and homophobic insults at patrons. They went to a second bar where they made racist comments to a 25 year old man before punching him several times. At a third bar, a bouncer was punched after refusing to let them in, a 20-year old woman who was with a black friend was punched in the face repeatedly and a 23-year old man was kicked and punched after coming to her defense.  As the men left the scene, they yelled out “white power!” All four were charged with assault, criminal harassment, mischief and causing a disturbance. Brooks was also charged with assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon, and Goodman was additionally charged with uttering threats. Goodman was sentenced to 15 months, a year of probation and ordered to get counseling for a drinking problem. Brooks was sentenced to 13 months. Anderson and Decu are scheduled to appear in court in November and April. 

James Brooks and Jason Anderson

Kyle McKee of the Aryan Guard/Blood & Honour Calgary, pleaded guilty to uttering threats and possession of a dangerous weapon in relation to an incident involving ARA member Jason Devine.  McKee, clad in a ski mask and holding a baseball bat, had pulled up to Devine in his vehicle and yelled, “Hey Jason, what's going on? What are you doing?” and asked him, "Do you want to say hello or goodnight? while beating the bat menacingly against the car, and "Do you want another visit? Do you want another visit at your home?"  A few months earlier, Devine had been the victim of a home invasion in which he and a friend were seriously injured. McKee received a 60-day sentence and was ordered to provide a DNA sample. He also pleaded guilty to assault for being part of an attack on an 18-year old girl at a party in 2010, and was ordered to pay part of her dental bill for broken teeth.

Prince George, BC -  Peter Anthony Houston Convicted of Possessing Explosives

Peter Houston, having been convicted in 2009 of building a potentially deadly pipe bomb which was planted in a highway restroom in 1999, was found guilty of being in possession of an explosive substance without lawful excuse and possession of a weapon contrary to an order, sentenced to 247 days in jail and received a lifetime prohibition on the possession of firearms.


A white supremacist gang called “True White Boy” was reported to have been involved in a series of assaults in Kitchener. 19-year old Matthew Armstrong was charged with assault after an incident in which he elbowed, punched and kicked a man in the head because he thought the victim had spread rumours about another True White Boy member. Police investigating a break-in also found seven members of the gang in an apartment with a cache of weapons including a machete and knives, bandanas and drugs. 


Two men were charged with sexual assault after being accused of raping an inmate in prison. The victim said that at the time, he wanted to join Western European Bloodline and had Nazi symbols cut into his hair before being placed in a cell with two men who were not white and subsequently harassed him. He reported being sexually assaulted by both men after waking up in the middle of the night with a towel over his head and a weapon pointed at his neck. The two defendants claim that any sexual activity between them and their accuser was consensual. A doctor testified that the alleged victim’s injuries were consistent with being raped.  Samar Sigar, 20, and Ali Sanghar, 31, are charged with sexual assault with a weapon.  



28-year old Ian Michael Butz, a neo-Nazi, and his brother, 26-year old Jason Avery Butz, were charged with two armed robberies at gas stations in Peace River, Alberta.  A shotgun and camouflage clothing were used in the robberies.  The pair were apprehended when an off-duty Canadian Border Services Agency officer found them walking along the highway. They are charged with two counts each of armed robbery. 


Vancouver, BC - Blood & Honour Associate Convicted of Bodily Assault

Jan Arron Korinth, a Hammerskin and associate of the Shawn Macdonald led Blood & Honour faction who was one of the early founders of the Aryan Guard in Calgary, was convicted of assault causing bodily harm. He received 12 months probation.

Vancouver, BC - Members of Blood & Honour Arrested, Accused of Serious Assaults.

Shawn Macdonald, Alastair Miller, and Rob de Chazal are arrested for a series of assaults in Vancouver between 2008 and 2011. MacDonald was charged with three counts of assault for allegedly attacking two men and one woman, RCMP said. Chazal was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly setting a man of Filipino descent on fire. and with assault causing bodily harm in connection with an incident in which he attacked a man who was black. Race was a factor in each attack.

2012

Surrey, BC - Blood & Honour associate killed during home invasion

Jan (January) Korinth was found dead as a result of a stab wound he received during a home invasion. Korinth was a friend of Shawn Macdonald who, along with Rob de Chazal and Alastair Miller, were charged in December 2011 with carrying out a series of assaults against minorities in Vancouver. There is no indication that Korinth's death was related to his activities with Blood & Honour, though it does appear that he was engaged in a criminal act.

Sources Include:

Kinsella, Warren. Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network. Revised Edition. Harper Collins: Toronto. 2001.