Aftermath of Anti-Muslim Rallies on March 4

We spent much of the day compiling reports about the protests that took place in a number of cities across the country. In the vast majority of the cases, anti-Muslim protesters were outnumbered considerably by counter protesters who favored M-103. In some cases the anti-Muslim protesters decided to leave when they noticed the space had been taken earlier by the counter protesters.

So, all this means that, at least in the mind of Kevin Goudreau, the protests were a wild success with no opposition to be found:

Sort of makes one wonder if the Goudreau actually participated or, perish the thought, was again all talk and no action....

To be fair though, at least he was honest about exactly what the protests were truly about.

This writer made a point of looking at the various anti-Muslim social media sites currently active online to see what the reaction to the protests would be. For example, WCAI Canada promoted the event on it's page:

And if the attitude of those posting on this thread were not clear enough about what their real views are, here's another short little excerpt we found:

Not exactly subtle.

There were more posts like these on PEGIDA Canada, Canadians United 4 Canada, Canadians Against Justin Trudeau, III% Canada, and all the others, all equally enlightening.

Since criticism of M103 from the Conservative Party was based on what they claimed to be the obscure and vague notion of what Islamophobia actually means, I decided to focus on a few of the personalities who attended one of the anti-Muslim events or who were heavily involved in promoting it.

Soldiers of Odin: Infighting, Drug Arrests, Accusations of Corruption

UPDATE: The Alberta chapter of the SoO appears to have defected as well according to an article in the "Edmonton Examiner" dated February 8, 2017.

When we posted our article our article regarding the defection of the entire Saskatchewan Chapter of the Soldiers of Odin from the national and international movement, there was one part of the exchange between the former co-president of the Saskatchewan SoO and another individual who apparently also has some position of leadership within the SoO:

We'll deal with the second portion of the party we highlighted first.

This past October, the former co-president of the Saskatchewan Soldiers of Odin was arrested on drugs and weapons charges:

Resident of Estevan Charged with Multiple Offenses Following Search Warrant

The Estevan Police Service (EPS) has made another significant drug bust in an ongoing effort to keep the city safe. 

On the morning of October 20th, the Estevan Police Service Drug and Intelligence unit performed a search warrant, which lead towards the arrest of a 35 year-old resident of the city of Estevan....."As a result of the search six firearms, a pair of brass knuckles, eight containers of tannerite explosives, approximately 200 rounds of ammunition, 220 grams of marijuana with a street value of $2,200, and six grams of essentially mushrooms, as well as a quantity of cash were seized." added Police Chief Ladouceur.....The Estevan resident was recognized as David Tierney, who is facing one charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking; possession of psilocybin; possession of the proceeds of crime; nine counts of possession of firearms and explosives contrary to a court order; two counts of unsafe storage of firearms; and one count of possession of a prohibited weapon.

A rather problematic charge considering the claims that the SoO was established to keep "the streets" safe. One would presumably be justified in asking, "protection from whom?"

But Tierney countered by noting that current BC President and National Sargent-At-Arms of the SoO has his own legal issues to deal with, including a 2011 arrest and subsequent conviction on similar drugs and weapons charges:

Conditional sentence issued for marijuana grow op 

Mark NIELSEN / Prince George Citizen
June 4, 2015 09:43 PM
....
Crown prosecution had been seeking six months in jail for William Coady Daniels, 47, but provincial court Judge Randall Callan agreed with defence lawyer Fred Fatt that a conditional sentence was more appropriate.
....
Daniels was arrested in November 2011 when police seized 203 marijuana plants from a barn on his farm as well 11 baggies, each containing a half pound of marijuana ready to be sold. 

A .22 calibre rifle was found by the front door of Daniels' home and a .45 calibre pistol was found in a safe, both loaded, along with $10,730 in cash. 

But the court also heard Daniels turned to growing marijuana after injuring his hand. Despite eight surgeries, he was unable to regain his fine motor skills and had lost his job as a marine engineer at B.C. Ferries as a result. 

Moreover, Daniels' worker's compensation payment were not enough to cover his mortgage so he was also in danger of losing his farm. Following his arrest, his wife left him.

Soldiers of Odin Collapsing? Entire Saskatchewan Chapter Breaks Away

We've been understandably focused on the tragedy in Quebec City -- an event that we consider to be a terrorist attack in which a white nationalist murdered six Muslim men and wounded several others -- however another interesting event occurred during the past 24 hours that will be of interest to our readers:

It seems that one of the conflicts that has emerged over time is the collecting of dues. The national leadership of the SoO decided that they would start collecting dues from members having never previously done so. These dues are to be submitted to SoO National President Joel Angott. A portion of money collected would then be sent to Mika Ranta in Finland. There's more to this story and we intend on digging into it in more detail, but suffice it to say that this newish rule (we're not certain how recently it was made) was the straw that broke Jörmungandr's back.

We see that Dave Tregget, formerly of the SoO as Quebec chapter president and national vice-president, now leader of another break away faction (along with the former Alberta and New Brunswick provincial SoO leaders) Storm Alliance congratulating the former SoO leadership for this move. On January 1 we published an interview with Mr. Tregget who voiced similar misgivings about the national leadership of the SoO.

The fallout from David Tierney's post announcing he and Travis Stovin, now former co-presidents of the Saskachewan chapter of the SoO, were taking the entire Saskatchewan chapter with them has been a fascinating car wreck and includes posturing and threats of recrimination from current members and leadership in the SoO, especially emanating out of British Columbia which is perhaps the most active chapter in Canada (though Saskatchewan was perhaps a close second):

Former SOO Moose Jaw President Jody Issel Throws Some Subtle Shade on National Leaders

That's right, former Soldiers of Odin Moose Jaw president.

More on that later.

It seems that our article on Jody Issel, who at the time of it's publication WAS the president of the Moose Jaw chapter of the Soldiers of Odin, resulted in quite of bit of interest:

It also resulted in some SoO members and leaders deciding to offer their $0.02, though some were a little confused by standard English:

Kazimir is referring to our brief article on Kevin Goudreau that preceded the Issel article. He evidently doesn't understand that this part meant that BEFORE we publish our SoO article we would FIRST publish an (implied unrelated) article on another subject:

We're currently working on collecting information for an article on the Soldiers of Odin in Saskatchewan, specifically the leadership in Moose Jaw and the connection to the neo-Nazi movement in this country and abroad, however we thought we'd share something that came across our desk and caused us to collectively giggle.

But then perhaps we shouldn't be unkind as even the best of us can miss certain nuances of language when reading online article, though we aren't sure what language this person is trying to communicate to us is:

And then there was this person who denied that Issel was even associated with the SoO:

Yeah! How dare we believe our lying eyes!

In any case, when the subject turned to Issel's involvement with the SoO, Mr. Kazimir (who was still confused by the Goudreau post) offered the following excuse which sort of flew in the face of some of his earlier claims:

Well, the truth will out, won't it?

Jody Issel, Soldiers of Odin Moose Jaw President, Isn't Even Trying Anymore

You know, if there's one positive thing about Trump's election is that the racists we've been covering here for years have become refreshingly honest about their views. Take this guy for example:

Now this is admittedly an older photo of Jody Issel, but it does sort of capture a particular moment in time, specifically the time he tried to start up an unauthorized chapter of the Aryan Nations' in Saskatchewan. That effort didn't pan out so well, so he threw in his lot with Kyle McKee and the Aryan Guard in Calgary for a while, attending at least one of their "White Pride Day" marches.

A few months after we reported Issel's efforts to start an Aryan Nations' chapter, he contacted us to first beg, then threaten us, to remove his information. We didn't and we still haven't, but at that time he seems to have recognized that being associated with the racist movement wasn't good for his career prospects.

Over the years we kept an eye on him. He was careful, locking down his Facebook from our prying eyes, but there were still a number of times he forgot himself:

Then when the Soldiers of Odin movement found it's way across the Atlantic, Issel found himself in an interesting position in that he lived in Moose Jaw, the SoO were looking for a Moose Jaw city president, and the SoO doesn't actually seem to vet their members or individuals aspiring to positions of leadership. Thus:

Recently, Issel and his merry band of SoO members (four by all accounts) decided to take a stroll about Moose Jaw (at least long enough to snap some photos) to protect the fine folks of that particular prairie community:

The problem here is who will protect the fine folks of Moose Jaw from the people who claim to want to protect them?

Bill Daniels, SOO Provincial President in BC

It's funny, because although he claimed that he wasn't hiding, at the time Issel posted these messages on his other profile, it was locked up tighter than gnat's chuff.

But things have changed on both of his profiles, although this one is the more interesting of the two right now:

So why does Issel feel more comfortable openly expressing his racism?

Take a wild guess:

Neo-Nazi Members/Supporters of the Soldiers of Odin

Back in March we ran an article linking Canadians United 4 Canada to the Soldiers of Odin, a movement that started in Finland but which has spread to a number of other countries including Canada.

Among those Finnish members are this guy:

Mr. Johansson's friend list might be of interest to readers on this side of the Atlantic:

Our original article on the SoO focused specifically on the Quebec wing and noted the Quebec group consisted of a number of overt neo-Nazis. Not surprisingly SoO members and supporters denied being members of an overt hate group, going so far as to print leaflets promoting their non-bigoted bona fides:

Later, a journalist writing for VICE picked up on the story (while also kindly linking to our article on the SoO) resulting in some concern from at least one provincial SoO wing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Btw, if Blake Cunliffe is concerned about how SoO might be portrayed in the media, he might decide to desist advocating political assassinations:

While we are no longer privy to the Soldiers of Odin's BC wing as they appear to have removed our dummy Facebook profile, we did notice that no one really ultimately challenged the underlying claims made in the article. Had they done so though, they might have had to explain this fella:

PEGIDA Canada: "We're Not Racists" (UPDATED)

Earlier Sunday PEGIDA Quebec participated in a protest against Bill 59 and were met by anti-racist and antifascist groups. When one is challenging groups such as PEGIDA Canada the accusation that the membership and supporters of similar groups hold racist views is countered by the statement that, "Islam is not a race." In our view, there's a lot of parsing of the terminology going on here, however when we refer to the views held by the membership and supporters of groups like PEGIDA Canada who target Muslims we usually refer to them as bigots to avoid that argument. That term is challenged as well, as PEDIDA Canada suggest they are not against Muslims, but are in fact opposed to Islam. That claim is frequently made on the PEGIDA Canada Facebook group page, examples of which follows:

Not found on the PEGIDA Canada page, but on the page of a member.
More on Diane Hunter in the update at the bottom of the article.

Really?

A second statement found on the Facebook group's page also makes a similar claim lamenting the accusation of racism, but the underlying message seems clear enough to all who can read it:

We decided to take a closer look a PEGIDA Canada to test their claim that they are not in fact racists or bigots. Though we will inundate you, our dear readers, with screenshots from the PEGIDA Canada Facebook page that dehumanize Muslims (foreign, immigrant, refugee, and Canadian citizens) and which celebrate violence against Muslims (and anti-racists for that matter), we really could summarize the collective will of the members and supporters of PEGIDA Canada with this single post:

Yeah, they are racists and bigots, though we don't think this will really come as a significant revelation to many.

Paul Fromm: "Their day will come."

Paul Fromm (pictured on the left after having beached himself on the shores of the Dominican Republic; local Greenpeace members diligently poured water over his body to keep him moist until he was finally rolled back into the ocean), who's libel appeal to the Supreme Court was just rejected with costs which will result in him having to pony up more cash, promotes himself as a free speech warrior (and, if you're FOX News, you might actually buy his claim). In addition to his anti-immigrant diatribes, Fromm has stated on his vanity Internet radio show on Stormfront, as well as some of his writing, that he has nobly thrown himself into the free speech debate for the good of all freedom-loving Canadians. In fact, he's so magnanimous that he supports free speech for not only the Aryan Guard, Marc Lemire, Tomasz Winnicki, Brad Love and a host of other righties, but also for those who disagree with him even if he finds those views objectionable.

And if you believe that we have a bridge in Pokemouche we'd like to sell you.

Fromm made a few new friends when he attended the Aryan Guard organized march this time last month in Calgary, among whom numbered Jody Issel of Saskatchewan and R.L. from Calgary (R.L., a pudgy teen with delusions of adequacy, is a minor and shall not be named). Recently, Issel posted the lyrics to a rather unimaginative entitled song, "Left Wing Scum" by a White Power music group, Day Of The Sword (who's member, Scott Stedeford, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his involvement in bank robberies committed by the Aryan Republican Army). R.L. certainly liked the song's message (though we suspect when actually confronted with carrying out the threats therein, he would run as fast as his stubby legs would carry him). And, apparently, so does Mr. Paul Fromm:

Would Mr. Fromm like to explain what exactly he means by his statement when given the context of posted message that he's commenting on?

Pictures

Selected pictures taken of the events on March 21:

Paul Fromm marching with neo-Nazis while sporting a smart, red man purse.

Aryan Nations in Saskatchewan? Not so fast.

At one time the Aryan Nations had a more high profile presence in Canada. The Canadian branch of the Idaho-based hate group was led by Terry Long. After staging a rally in Provost, Alberta (AryanFest) in 1990, the movement in Canada fell apart due to some high profile criminal incidents. In Saskatchewan, the Klan member and who was leader of the province's Aryan Guard group was named Carney Nerland. Nerland was arrested and convicted in the death of Leo LaChance, a Native trapper who was shot by Nerland in January 1991. That same year Long was implicated in an attack against Keith Rutherford by skinheads that left Rutherford blind in one eye.

After leaving prison Nerland disappeared and hasn't been heard of in the media. Long moved from Alberta to BC, was divorced by his wife, and except for his relationship with Todd Conroy, former leader of Volksfront Canada, has also remained silent since the mid 1990s. There were some half-hearted efforts to start up the Aryan Nations in Central Canada in 2003 (Andrew Talbot and Joe Subic were the only two active members at the time) but all have appeared to have been for naught.

Then, we came across this:


So, what's the story?

Jody Issel of Regina, Saskatchewan looks as if he's trying to restart the Aryan Nation's in Saskatchewan based upon the poorly constructed website he set up. Unfortunately, he's run into a few problems. First, there doesn't look like there's more than a handful of people associated with his little gang. That's minor compared to the other issue. It seems that none of the groups in the United States who claim to be the true Aryan Nations (as the hate group splintered after losing it's Idaho compound in a law suit and the death of Richard Butler) know who this group is.

Not that we care, but if you're going to claim to be an official branch of the Aryan Nations, shouldn't you let the head office know about you? There are reports that the various factions in the United States aren't pleased that their name is being used without their permission. Also, we're interested to know how long this hate site will be hosted by GeoCities which has a policy of not allowing hate sites to use their system.