Who Supports Kellie Leitch's Canadian Values Test? A Case Study

When we wrote about Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's call for testing would-be immigrants to determine if the possessed "anti-Canadian values" that should disqualify those immigrants as potential citizens, we noted that this proposal had all the hallmarks of dog whistle politics; she could claim that her proposal didn't target any particular group while appealing to people who hear the whistle as targeting Muslim immigrants as well as Muslims who were already citizens either by birth or naturalization. We also noted the irony that many of those who support Ms. Leitch's proposal, by their own rhetoric, often embody the anti-Canadian values that the proposal aims to eliminate such as intolerance towards other religions and homosexuals as well as violent and misogynistic behavior.

With this in mind, we decided to examine the views of one specific individual who supports Ms. Leitch and her proposal and who is a familiar character profiled here on the blog, albeit one whom we haven't mentioned in some time since the demise of Free Dominion, as a sort of case study:

Ed Kennedy has remained quite busy since his regular stomping grounds at Free Dominion ceased to provide him an avenue for his bigotry. He actually started his own website a bit before Free Dominion shut down, perhaps because he could see the writing on the wall (or perhaps because even the folks at Free Dominion were growing weary of him). In any case, he has continued to provide his limited readership with his wit and wisdom.... usually involving attacking "lieberals", "feminazis", African-American protesters, Muslims, homosexuals, and his own extended family in a series of bizarre rants regarding an inheritance he believed he should have received from a diseased aunt of whom he has nothing positive to say about.

Kennedy believes Leitch's proposal is "common sense" though he doesn't seem to realize that, given Leitch's criteria, Kennedy's own views could be deemed to be anti-Canadian. In fact he appears to violate the value of religious tolerance in his explanation of why he supports Ms. Leitch's proposal:

The Aftermath of a Tragedy

One would have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the horrific attacks in Paris that occurred on November 13. A total (as of this date) of 130 dead and 368 injured in what must be described as an act of cowardice by people subscribing to a twisted and evil ideology. A day before a car bombing in Beirut, Lebanon killed 43 people and prior to that 18 people attending a wedding were killed in Baghdad, Iraq. On November 17, 37 people were killed in Nigeria in a bombing that experts suspect was the handiwork of Boko Haram (who have pledged intelligence to Daesh). Just yesterday we learned that at least 21 people were killed in Mali. And today in Cameroon at least 5 people have been killed in a suicide bombing.

Those killed and injured run the gambit of ethnic, national, and religious origins and include Muslims among their numbers. Looking at the names and countries of origins for those victims of the Paris attack indicates a number of Muslims were killed and injured by extremists. In fact, the religious group most adversely affected by Daesh and their affiliates are Muslims, which is why so many refugees are fleeing Daesh in Syria.

The Canadian government is still admirably committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the calendar year. This writer hopes that is just the beginning of Canada's commitment to help refugees. But, despite the good will of the Canadian government (thus far) and most Canadians, there have been a backlash against both the idea of helping refugees as well as Muslim-Canadians.

Much of the backlash comes from places that are not at all unexpected. For example when a mosque was set on fire in Peterborough, Ontario, Kyle McKee and the folks at Stormfront were pleased as punch:

Bits and Bites: August 2015 Not Belated Edition

It's sometimes a tough call on whether or not we should discuss certain individuals on the blog. There are those like "the Goudreau" who seem to court any sort of attention, positive (rarely) or negative (much more frequent) as if the attention validates their importance. Usually the significance that individual places upon himself is in inverse proportion to the actual significance the individual actually has.

Such is the case of Ron Banerjee who, as the head (and likely only member) of Canadian Hindu Advocacy, has been able to fool a number of conservative media types into treating him with a degree of deference that would not necessarily be afforded to him if they realized how insignificant he really is.... to say nothing of the really disgusting things he writes and says about Muslims, Sikhs, LGBTQ, women, and a host of other groups an individuals.

Case in point, last week Banerjee and other members of Rise Canada, the newest hate group that Banerjee has created, protested outside the building where Olivia Chow accepted the NDP nomination to run in Spadina—Fort York.

But to refer to "members" of Rise Canada is perhaps a bit generous of us:

Yep. Two. That's all he was able to muster.

Banerjee later posted a video of himself (or at least the dulcet sounds of his slightly slurred voice) and the other dude harassing the folks entering the building. We won't play the entire video, but this part is somewhat interesting:

"It's Not Us. It's You."

Back in March 2013 we noted that after attacking yet another fellow Free Dominion posted and precipitating yet another flame war, Edward Kennedy had been banned from Free Dominion. We had speculated that the ban may very well be temporary; our speculation was soon confirmed by Ms. Fournier:

 

Kennedy didn't return immediately and initially when he did he posted sporadically, however for the last few months he has been posting on Free Dominion at the same pace he had been before he was banned for a single day.

Edward Kennedy continues to be a member in good standing at Free Dominion.

So, Connie, how's that working out for you now?

• JB Stone - RIP
• Creatures of the Right
• Is 'Civil War' civil?...

But we digress.

The Far Right's Reaction To Mandela's Passing

"Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God." -- Benjamin Frankin

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I don't know how many we shot. It all started when hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way." -- Colonel J. Pienaar,local area police commander, Sharpeville

We include the quotes above to illustrate a point. Please bare with us.

Nelson Mandela, Madiba, was buried today.

Nelson Mandela's death can't be considered a surprise. He was a 95 year old man who had been in ill health for much of the last three years. He had also more than 27 years in prison, much of it in exceedingly difficult conditions, before being released at the age of 72. But his loss was still felt by much of the world who truly did value freedom and justice and his fight to achieve these goals in South Africa. Mandela was eulogized by world leaders and human rights activists and his passing cause for almost universal mourning.

Almost universal. A small, but relatively vocal, minority have used the passing of Mandela to attack the man himself and in particular the armed struggle that the ANC began in 1960. Most of the attacks is couched in the fact that Mandela spent 27 years in prison after being convicted of terrorism and the ANC had been outlawed as terrorist organization. And to be sure the ANC did engage in bombings of government institutions and other business associated with the apartheid regime as well as targeting the infrastructure of the country. But then it might also be useful to provide some context that could

provide a rationale for these actions.

Prior to March 21, 1960, the African National Congress had been, for close to 60 years, a civil rights organization that used non-violent means to fight for the rights of the majority African population of South Africa. They used methods similar to that of other civil rights organizations; strikes, sit-ins, and, perhaps unique to South Africa, the burning of pass books.

In South Africa under the apartheid regime, Africans living in South Africa were required to be in possession of a passbook regimenting their movement and where they could live. Failure to be in possession of one's pass book would result in arrest. Being in an area deemed off-limits would result in arrest. Any white South African could demand to see the pass book of an African citizen. No white South African was required to be in possession of a pass book.

If you have ever watched to movie, "Gandhi" you might be familiar with this particular law, as well as the means of fighting against it.

The goal of groups such as the ANC and the splinter group Pan-Africanist Party was to refuse to carry the pass book. They would then go to jails throughout the country and demand to be arrested for not following a just law. Eventually, the prisons would be packed forcing the government to address the concerns of the ANC and other similar groups. And it could be achieved in a peaceful manner. The desire was to shame the government, not overthrow it.

Such a campaign began in March of 1960 when the Pan-Africanist Party organized a pass book protest in the South African township of Sharpeville:

There is some debate as to how many arrived at the Sharpeville jail to protest; numbers range from 5,000 to 20,000. What isn't debated is what happened next to protesters who had been engaged in a peaceful action:

Prior to Sharpeville the South African apartheid regime had been engaged in systematic state-sponsored violence to quell the legitimate concerns of the majority African population as well as the Indian and "colored" populations. And even as the violence continued to escalate, the ANC believed that they could, Sharpeville, and the subsequent crackdown on Africa civil rights groups and leaders, altered this view. After Sharpeville, the once non-violent ANC believed the only way to force the South African government to negotiate was through an armed struggle.

through non-violent means, achieve the goal of a multi-racial democracy.

But even during the armed struggle, it might be instructive to read the manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe:

"Our men are armed and trained freedom fighters not terrorists. 

We are fighting for democracy—majority rule—the right of the Africans to rule Africa. 

We are fighting for a South Africa in which there will be peace and harmony and equal rights for all people.

We are not racialists, as the white oppressors are. The African National Congress has a message of freedom for all who live in our country."

As we noted though, the attacks on Mandela and the ANC were merely couched in condemnation of the armed struggle as terroristic. What seems pretty clear though is that condemnation is merely a pretext for the real rationale for their attack on the man and his legacy.

Yep, Ed Kennedy has been back posting on Free Dominion for a while now.

Free Dominion Creeps Ever So Slowly Towards Sanity

Not that using "sanity" and "Free Dominion" in the same sentence shouldn't still be considered with a grain of salt.

Over the last few months, it has become increasingly apparent that a number of individuals, including moderators, have grown very tired of Edward Kennedy's rantings, much of which have been virulently racist and increasingly violent (he has been most recently writing about how he could sympathize with men who murdered their wives during divorce proceedings). A tiny sample of recent examples:

Okay, this one is from a few years ago, but still, Ed is not a nice man.

Civil Disobedience and, "White Privilege"

During the Idle No More protests of the past month we at ARC have been, well, idle. We've been following the coverage in the msm and reading progressive blogs that have been doing a much better job of providing relevant commentary than we here could hope to do. We've generally focused our attention more on the level of what is happening, "on the street" as it were and not as much on systemic racism, though considering the lull in the activities of overt racist groups in the country we're thinking that this may now be an area that we need to explore in more depth.

This doesn't mean though that we haven't made a few observations ourselves regarding the INM movement.

Not surprisingly, the INM protests have been fodder for.... uhm.... well, what passes for discussion on Stormfront:

We might however note that promoting a boycott of the First Nations' economy on Stormfront might not be all that helpful for this fella's cause.

Let's just say we don't think the average Stormfront user does a lot of business with First Nations:

Gun Violence: Reality vs. Perceptions

You would have to be living under a rock to not hear about the tragedy that occurred in Colorado last week when a gunman murdered 12 men and woman (and a child) during the screening of the latest Batman movie. In Toronto, there have also been high profile news stories involving guns in which people have died, including one that occurred at the Eaton's Centre and another at a community block party.

It's natural that people would ask themselves, and aloud, why these terrible events happen. It's also natural to feel for the victims and their families. We want to find solutions that will prevent anyone else from having to feel what must be terrible anguish (this writer lost a loved one as a child and can well understand how the survivors feel). But there is no clear cut solution, no panacea that will make things right. This isn't to say that we shouldn't work to ending violence in our communities, but to warn against the desire for a, "quick fix."

There are individuals, however, who do offer quick fixes.

Answering Free Dominion: Part II

The way you deal with Nazis is to, “break their heads.”

The JDL fundraiser for Free Dominion took place about a week ago and was attended a who's who of the Canadian right-wing blogosphere as well as some of the more active members of Free Dominion. Prior to this, Connie responded to our last article:

Well, we really don't have to paint the JDL as violent, Connie, since your own membership seem to agree:

Now, our Free Dominion friend here couches the violence of the JDL in more respectable terms; they represent the "warrior race" that is befitting of the Jewish people. Our Free Dominion friend also goes on to claim that the reason why we or anyone else would be concerned about the JDL is because we are closet anti-Semites who want Jews to be powerless in the face of those who would harm them.

It's a ridiculous accusation (especially directed at us) but this is sort of Free Dominion's schtick.

It  might be instructive, however, to learn how the JDL earned the honor of being referred to as warriors since the Canadian branch of the JDL has engaged in the very activities that Free Dominion has accused (and condemned) us at ARC of engaging in.

But we begin at the beginning.

Blast from The Past: Nationalist Party of Canada and the Western Guard

UPDATE 3 (replacing UPDATE 1): Never mind. :)
A little while ago we spoke of our interest in documenting the rise and fall of the Heritage Front (and yes, Grant Bristow and CSIS play a significant role in that history, "Narrow Back"). We have received some information and photos, but we thought we would take this opportunity to remind our readers that we would still like your help.

Some of the information we have received actually goes WAY back. Those who know the history of the Heritage Front are aware that it was created by disaffected members of Don Andrews' Nationalist Party of Canada. Nationalist Party members Droege, Bristow, and Lincoln founded the Heritage Front soon after they returned from Libya after attending the the twentieth anniversary celebration of the invitation of the Gaddafi regime, as they felt that the Nationalist Party was no longer an effective means of pursuing their goals. In that sense, the Nationalist Party (according to their own family tree) might be thought of as the Heritage Front's daddy:

Hmmm, we guess then that the Western Guard would be the grand daddy and Paul Fromm's Edmund Burke Society would be the great grand daddy.

Free Dominion and JT Ready: Missing the Point. Again.

It didn't take too long for one of our most faithful readers to report back to our friends at Free Dominion regarding our post on their reaction to the JT Ready murders/suicide here:

And here.

And the reaction? Inevitable:

Free Dominion Reaction to JT Ready Murder-Suicide

Before we get to the meat of the article, we thought we would share something we found when looking at a link posted by BCL:

It doesn't say who are the ones who are making the requests, but given the word choices, we might suspect that it is our good friends at Free Dominion.

But hey, we could be wrong.

Speaking of Free Dominion, some of their members chimed in on the JT Ready murder-suicide which occurred yesterday. In response to original post which stated Read was neo-Nazi, FD member "shiva" posted the following:

The relevant sections are as follows:

Terrible. My condolences to the families.

Now, on to a frank discussion if we might.

My first question (and it is a question since I readily admit knowing nothing about this man other than what is in this story SmallL posted); is the "White Supremacist" attribution a proven fact?
I see nothing in the Facebook post which directly suggests this is a race issue for this guy although of course it could be.

As for his Facebook post, tell me which part of what he said here doesn't have some truth to it? 

We have traitors in office, an apathetic population, hostile media, narco-terrorists, cartel invasion, narco-insurgency, street gangs the size of armies, vicious prison gangs - if not fight back now while we have a chance then when? The decent patriots will arise and take the helm if we lead the way. Long live the Republic!" 

Same as I said when Breivek committed his horrendous massacre in Norway, I offer JFK's quote, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable". 

To be clear SmallL, by making this comment I am NOT saying this justifies what he did but am remarking on the fact that when politicians are not responsive to the people when they are being reasonable, they will give crazy people like this guy the justification for extreme actions.

Followed by:

Since I'm the kind of person that prefers to know more before I speak (unlike our friend(s) on the left), I followed some of the links SmallL provided. I found this article both touching and telling as it appears that already the media is trying to paint this a certain way.

The man who made this statement, Russel Pearce, appears to be a former Arizona state Senator and a Republican of course:

Hey, a healthy skepticism is a good thing. And someone should absolutely check into things before making a snap judgment (and if one were to check into JT Ready, one would note that he was, indeed, a White Supremacist as well as an anti-Semite). However it is more than a bit disturbing that "shiva" uses this tragedy as a means to make two claims:

1. While murder is not justifiable, JT Ready's "reasonable" views should be acted upon.... or else we might expect more of this.
2. "Conservatives" like shiva and (we presume) the folks on Free Dominion would NEVER make snap judgments. Only leftists ever do that.

On the second point, we ask, really?

Our friend "shiva" here mentions the Anders Breivik thread on Free Dominion. Hey, seems like a great place to look at Free Dominion members not jumping to conclusions.

Uhm.... this is going to take a while. Might as well pour yourself a coffee:

The Vilification of Trayvon Martin

Our friend Dr. Dawg has referred in the past to "conservative" as not being politics, but a diagnosis. And certainly in the demonization of Trayvon Martin on the right, we are loathed to disagree with him. Smears such as the faked photos depicting Martin as a "gang banger", accusations (unfounded) that he sold drugs, and that he, not Zimmerman, was the aggressor and that Martin got what he had coming to him have proliferated the Internet as racists have attempted to smear in death Trayvon Martin.

By the way, if Martin felt threatened by Zimmerman and did put up a fight, then isn't he protected by the same law that Zimmerman is now seemingly protected by? Just a thought...

President Obama made brief mention of the case when specifically asked. A normal person might think, upon hearing what Obama said, that he was trying to comfort a grieving family while at the same time stating while he hoped that there would be an investigation, it wasn't the federal government's place to interfere. In today's hyperpartisan atmosphere though, he was accused of, "race baiting."

We'll see plenty of that ahead here in this article.

Since we focus on Canada, we thought we would focus specifically on the reaction of Canada's far right. Starting with the hyperpartisanship angle, our friends at Free Dominion attacks Obama because his campaign happens to sell hoodies as a means of fund raising for the upcoming campaign:

Yep. They're making the case that Obama is attempting to profit from the Trayvon Martin tragedy. They don't seem to realize that the Obama team has been selling this hoodie well before the shooting took place and it has nothing to do with Trayvon Martin now.

Still, if they decide to criticize Obama, perhaps they might also decide to criticize the Republican front runner:

Perhaps Duane will condemn the folks running this particular website for selling these hoodies?

Or maybe Ron Paul supporters:

Want to take bets on if the guy modelling the hoodie in the above screen shots would have been shot in the chest in Florida?

But these are the side-show.

We're going to post a representative sample of screen shots from Free Dominion's thread dealing with Trayvon Martin. If you wish, you might choose to pick your way through the entire 21 pages (as of now) of ugliness yourselves, but we decided to limit the scope and focus on a few. And while not every person posting in the thread should be described as a bigot, the entire thing is as bad as anything you might read on Stormfront, Blood & Honour, or VNN forums.

We're going to limit our commentary. Let us know what you think and if our designation of Free Dominion as a hate site is accurate or not?

Free Dominion Chimes in on Yesterday's Events

If you pick a thread on Free Dominion, it seems like the posters there are a little schizophrenic in that they will hold any view, even if it might contradict what they or others have already written, simply it seems to contradict their ideological opponents.

We now offer such an example.

Instead of posting screen shots in a linear, chronological manner, we decided to do it in such a way as to group them into distinct, but overlapping, narratives. Feel free to take a look at the original posts on their own site. We'll provide a link here, but not a direct one.

Hey, Edward Kennedy! Penny For Your Thoughts?

BCL covered this, but as Free Dominion's own cranky old man is a proponent of the Crown Land Patent scam, were were wondering if he still hearts Randy Hillier:

Crown Patents- I Wish It Were True 

Dear friends in the Landowners;

There has been much written and said regarding Crown Land Patents, but most, if not all, that you have heard is either false or misleading. As the founding President of both the Lanark and Ontario Landowners, I feel I have an obligation to caution you regarding much of the information that is out there, and provide you with some facts and informed positions on Crown Patents.

Below are three informed, factual accounts of Crown Patents from respected people.

- Randy Hillier

We realize that this is a bit outside the field we normally cover, but Ed Kennedy is a nasty, hateful bigot (one of many examples of which can be found here) so there is a link there. That, and since the Crown Land Patent scam seems to have some parallels to the Freeman movement scam, we thought that it was worth mentioning here too.

By the way, still planning on writing that Freeman article focusing on our good friend "Sovereign" from stormfront (hi Dean!!!).

But mostly, we sort of enjoy watching Krazy Ed blow a gasket.

Love Is Louder.... Than Free Dominion (We Know. We Took the Bait. Meh.)

Well, "Nosferatu" was a silent film, so strictly speaking Connie is correct:



A haunting musical score, however.

But if Ms. Fournier wishes to look for intolerant bullies, she might look think of taking the log out of her eye before looking for slivers in others:

Occupy Movement: Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

Oh, how we loves us our Free Dominion!

The folks at Free Dominion present themselves as principled defenders of speech. This is, on the surface, a noble sentiment. Principled men and women from Voltaire to Gerry Spence have defended speech that they personally found abhorrent, but that they still believed was necessary to defend for the sake of everyone's freedoms.

The folks at Free Dominion are not Voltaire or Gerry Spence. They aren't even a poor man's Lenny Bruce or George Carlin (NSFW, FYI), though the members are often inadvertently funny.

Okay, We'll Bite

Alright. You're fishing for a response, here ya go.

Don't worry. All will make sense soon enough.

More of the msn, including "The National Post",  have now commented on the most recent Terry Tremaine decision. And so have our friends and benefactors at Free Dominion.

The reason for this decision, in the minds of the members and promoted by the proprietors of Free Dominion, is starting to become a tired, old refrain:

October Bits and Bites: Goudreau, Ontario Election, Ed Kennedy and Blood & Honour

We received a bit of fan mail regarding one of our recent article that dealt with the sentencing of two men involved in a mini hate crime spree in Edmonton earlier this year:

Great intel guys. Kyle wasn't even there that night. You think you're so fucking smart because you pulled the picture off of Kyle's facebook photos. Nice try, who's the bonehead now? 

Oh you! Of course you're right. At the time these boneheads were engaging in behavior that would end getting them sentenced to a lengthy stay in jail, McKee was (for not even the first time) a guest of the Canadian judicial system, at taxpayer's expense. The reason why the photo was used in the article is twofold:

Rationalizing Violence; Mainstreaming Hatred

We made a conscious decision not to write about Anders Breivik and the tragedy in Norway which was the inevitable result of overblown rhetoric and xenophobia. His act of terrorism is something we had been warning about on this blog for some time and, in all honesty, the emotions have been a bit raw.

That being said, it might be time to begin discussing this event soon, as well as the circumstances that led to the deaths of so many people, as well as the people who continue to fan the flames. This realization was brought home when we were sent a link to Free Dominion and a thread complaining about "left-wing media bias" in Norway. Norwegian media outlets are critical of right-wing political commentators who, while not supportive of Breivik's actions, helped to create a climate in which such an event could occur.

And sadly, this is the first response, one that rationalizes future murders: