Hate goes to high school

The death of Michael Amann-Ewaschuk seemed like a tragic case of random violence. So how did he end up as a martyr to the cause of white supremacists?

 

BY DAWN AGNO

On a warm evening last June, Michael Amann-Ewaschuk, a 17-year-old student at Sir Wilfred Laurier Collegiate, was standing with friends on the bus platform at Main subway station when another group of youths attacked them.

Amann-Ewaschuk was stabbed with a knife that cut into his pulmonary artery. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Toronto East General Hospital at 11:35 p.m.

It seemed like another case of senseless youth violence, one in a string of such incidents that shocked Toronto last year. But while Amann Ewaschuk's parents, the mainstream media and some police spokespeople portrayed him as an innocent victim of random violence, Amann-Ewaschuk may have died because he was a skinhead who identified and associated with white supremacists.

The nasty truth of the continuing attraction of white youths like Amann Ewaschuck to the virulent 'racialist' youth movement has become a fact of life in Metro schools. The result is a potential for violence that begs for more scrutiny by school authorities, police and the media, instead of pretending it can't happen here.

Last month 22-year-old Frank Chisholm pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Amann-Ewaschuk's death and received a nine-year prison term. Crown prosecutor Phil Enright stated that the fight started when Chisholm identified "neo-Nazi insignia" on a bomber jacket worn by one of the group Amann-Ewaschuk was with; Chisholm had confronted them, shouting, "skinheads, racists, white supremacists and faggots."

On the day of Chisholm's sentencing, Stephanie Stanton, the dead youth's girlfriend, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident, stood at the bottom of the courthouse escalators displaying the Michael Amann Ewaschuck memorial patch sewn on the left breast of her bomber jacket. It is large and emblazoned with a black, red and white runic drawing with a German eagle in the centre, outlined with the date of his death.

In a discussion in late November of last year, in Guildwood Plaza across from Wilfred Laurier, where she was also a student, Stanton was reluctant to talk about the patch. "There are none left... only close friends got one."

Amann-Ewaschuk has become a symbol -- as a martyr for the white supremacist youth movement. Amann-Ewaschuk had planned to attend a racist gig in London on June 30, according to an article in Resistance magazine, a Detroit-based monthly that espouses neo-Nazi propaganda and profiles bands such as RaHoWa (short for Racial Holy War).

According to the magazine, "During the show, many bands dedicated songs in Mike's memory." In a telephone interview last November, George Burdi, a/k/a George Eric Hawthorne, the editor of Resistance Magazine, said a tribute CD compilation in was being put together by bands from North America and Europe in Ewaschuck's memory.

Burdi is currently serving a 12-month prison term for aggravated assault on an anti-racist demonstrator following a RaHoWa appearance in Ottawa in May, 1993. To Burdi, such incidents -- and the death of Amann Ewaschuk -- are part of a "politically correct race war."

"These are people who are white and being attacked," he says, referring to Amann-Ewaschuk, saying the time has come for white youths to stand up and take battle positions.

The Toronto media had proof of skinheads' eagerness to fight back at their perceived enemies during Chisholm's trial -- especially CFTO TV reporter John Lancaster, whose nose was broken when he was assaulted outside the court house by skinheads.

WHAT WOULD WILFRED LAURIER SAY?
Was Amann-Ewaschuk really a skinhead, or is he just being used as a symbol by white supremacists?

Bill Oliver is principal at Scarborough's Sir Wilfred Laurier Collegiate Institute, where a majority of the 1,300 students are non-white. He describes Amann-Ewaschuk as a "quiet youth," saying "Mike caused us no trouble."

Some Wilfred Laurier students share Oliver's view that Amann-Ewaschuk was not racist and got along with everybody. Others, however, say he hung out with skinheads exclusively. The most damning testimony comes from a female Wilfred Laurier student of European descent who, like other students interviewed for this story, prefers not to be identified.

She describes a Scarborough party attended by Amann-Ewaschuk and his skinhead buddies four months before he died. She recalls Amann Ewaschuk, apparently drunk, taunting her by saying in a lewd fashion, "I bet you haven't seen a real Nazi's balls."

"They were playing their music, and they were getting louder and louder, chanting Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil and all that stuff. And that thing with their arm," she says, indicating a Nazi salute.

"It was 20 guys and me alone," she says. "Nobody wanted to confront them. They were being really racist. Mike was saying, 'Let's go kick some nigger's ass.' "

In a growing multicultural school environment, the presence of "white" T shirts, white laces, patches depicting the logos of white-power rock groups or Canadian, German or Polska flags, all are used as signs of identity by white supremacist youth, and are often the cause of confrontations.

Oliver does admit that there are skinheads among the student population, but says there is little he can do to intervene: "As long as they're not wearing hate symbols, I'm all right with that." When told of complaints by students at the school about youths wearing white power T-shirts, Oliver points out that he can't check his students' undershirts. "If they're wearing them under their jackets, how the hell am I supposed to do it? Besides, I can't be everywhere at once. "

"The principal should stop them wearing the clothes," says another student. "They walk around with a big white power symbol on the back of their shirts... It's quite obvious."

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
While police and school board authorities say they are doing the best they can to combat youth violence linked to racism, they tend to play down its seriousness. And incidents continue.

Last Nov. 14, 17 skinheads held up a local cafe hangout in the Guildwood Plaza across from Wilfred Laurier. The chain of events apparently started days earlier, when a white student who was wearing an anti-swastika patch was confronted by the local skinhead crew on the school grounds.
"When I bought the patch, I didn't expect this to happen," says Michael. "I thought they would hate me even more, and they'd try to talk me out of wearing it, but that's it." Instead they tried to rip off the patch. Racial tensions heightened at the school -- the next day a fight took place involving a black student and a white student, also on school grounds. The following day skinheads showed up in force.

Detective Tom Archibald of the Street Crimes Unit in Scarborough confirms that "there was an altercation with a black youth who was assaulted" and says that the following day "100 to 150 some odd skinheads showed up in the area of the school."

When asked why so many, Archibald says the skinheads were "showing support for a fellow 'brother,' and it builds a fear factor when they show that they can bring greater numbers to any one location."

On Nov. 14 excited rumors flew through the student grapevine that there was going to be a fight. Immediately after school between 200 and 300 students rushed over to the plaza, where, inside the donut shop, skinheads were brandishing chains and various other homemade weapons, such as a cue ball in a sock, for all to see through the windows of the cafe, daring those outside. The proprietor locked the doors, trapping customers inside, while trying to restore order, fearing his establishment would be trashed.
"There were students banging on the windows, I couldn't believe it. Then I heard they arrested two or three skinheads, one with a chain," says Michael.

"There were students trapped inside with them, and they were very terrified," says Archibald, who investigated the incident. "With the weapons that they had, they could have done some serious damage. It had the potential to explode, but it didn't."

"Three skinheads were charged right off the bat," with weapons offences, he says. Laurier students witnessed the other skinheads being escorted by police to the bus stop and urged to go home. Even after the police dispersed, students were confronting the skinheads across the street as they were waiting for the bus.

One student who participated in the altercation said he taunted the skinheads with comments such as "white trash and all these names to insult them and stuff" -- the same kind of taunts that preceded Amann Ewaschuk's murder.

SAY NO EVIL
Shortly after his death, Michael's parents launched the Michael Amann Ewaschuk Memorial Fund for Youth Crime Prevention, which collected $10,000 for a program they call Stop The Madness. Willy and Patricia have created a "Stop the Madness" package containing a T-shirt and "booklet of crime prevention tips." Patricia Amann-Ewaschuck says "there are quite a few people involved" and that the Stop the Madness program is "in schools and a lot more in-depth" in heightening awareness about youth violence. They are backed by a Metro Police program called Chill Power, which promotes non-violent ways of dealing with potentially violent situations.
Willy Ewaschuck, Michael Amann-Ewaschuk's stepfather, was contacted for this story, but refused to answer questions about Michael's association with white supremacists.

One of the sponsors of Chill Power is the Raptors Foundation. The foundation, associated with the professional basketball team, directly commented on the Amann-Ewaschuk case, donating the Raptors name to Stop The Madness, helping make the youth a tragic symbol of random violence.

When asked about Amann-Ewaschuk's white supremacist links, foundation spokesperson Dave Haggis says he has no knowledge or proof of that. "He was somebody who was murdered... on the streets and the parents created a fund to try and help youth, to make sure that it doesn't happen again... teaching the consequences of violence. The two programs together were working together to stop youth violence.

"Define a skinhead to me. Willy had a son murdered and we shouldn't trouble him about things like this."

Constable Dino Dario of the Metro Police hate crimes unit is one of the primary organizers of Chill Power. "Michael was a skinhead," he says
And, although few want to talk about white supremacist youths, where there are skinheads there is violence. "If they go underground they are harder to detect," says Dario. "To be honest with you, I'd rather know who these people are. Otherwise, before you know it, you have a whole house of termites."