Trump Supporters: A House Divided

Like most structures built by Donald Trump which outwardly appear sophisticated and finely constructed, but under the surface are primarily composed of particle board with a mahogany veneer and gold-colored paint, the coalition of alt-right racists, resentful whites frightened by changing demographics and a loss of power, and Republican supporters who support the candidate come hell or high water isn't looking so gilded as a result of his decision to reverse course and bomb a base in Syria.

In short, his alt-right supporters are losing their shit.

Richard Spencer who once literally hailed (or heiled) Donald Trump has denounced the invasion and held what he styled as an anti-war rally to oppose him.... and was glitter bombed  for his troubles.

Ann Coulter, always a nasty piece of work, is tweeting about how depressed she is about the attack and hoping that his supporters will reign him back in.

Frog faced (and you know I'm right about that description) Nigel Farage, Brexit architect and Trump's choice as UK ambassador to the United States, has spoken out against his actions as has fascist French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

The alt-right and conspiracy theory spreading news has also criticized Trump's decision to bomb the Syrian base. My personal favorite is Paul Joseph Watson, editor of Infowars.com who stated he was "off the Trump train" over this issue, then after being attacked by Trump supporters stated he was never off the Trump train and that such claims constituted fake news, thus impugning himself further in the process:

Fringe media personalities in Canada are also of a similar mindset. Ezra hasn't said anything specifically, though his re-tweets of Ann Coulter indicate displeasure:

Faith Goldy is similarly quiet herself, though her views seem fairly clear:

Formerly of The Rebel, Lauren Southern is willing to be a little bit more outspoken in her disappointment:

However, Rebel contributor and self-identified antisemite Gavin McInnes seems a little more forgiving (though coincidentally, he still wants Trump to get rid of his most prominent Jewish advisor and keeping a guy who also isn't a big fan of Jews):

But while many "alt-right" Trump supporters feel betrayed, many other Trump supporters are tickled pink as they believe that this shows, "America is back!" and further hope for an even more robust, interventionist, foreign policy.

Not one that involves any actual diplomacy and alliance building, of course. Just one that involves dropping lots of bombs on people because when you view your military as a hammer, every problem is a nail.

I see this struggle between Trump-supporters and erst-while allies on a number of social media sites. As is see it, those opposed to the bombing those who support it provide the following rationales:

Oppose:

• Assad is our ally fighting ISSIS and is protecting Christians (a rather dubious claim, but there it is).
• Trump was tricked. He's being manipulated by Obama holdovers or neo-cons such as his son-in-law (Kuchner's Jewish faith is often also mentioned.... I wonder why?).
• It's a false flag. There was no chemical attack or, if there was, it was carried out by the jihadists.
• Bombing the Syrian base might result in more icky refugees.

Favor

• Assad targeted children! Of course he targeted them before and we didn't care, nor do we want them here now.... but think of the children!
• 'Merica! Fuck yeah!
• A Muslim is a Muslim so why bother making distinctions?
• Kill 'em all and let God (our Lord and Savior all praise to Him and his mercy) sort them out!

Oh, and George Soros is also blamed by both sides. As are Clinton and Obama who are accused of either not doing enough to stop the horrors to supplying the bad guys to manipulating Trump. And Trudeau is a pussy and a Muslim too apparently because why not.

The clearest indications of these sentiments can be found on the main WCAI Facebook page. While the founder of WCAI and operator of the Facebook group Joey Deluca is fully on board the Trump train still....

.... there's a little bit more conflict within the membership:

Right. I'm not going to subject you to all 469 comments and additional responses, but here are a few representative samples:

Soldiers of Odin: Terrorist Organization Supporters?

On Sunday, I reported on the April 1 anti-Muslim protests that occurred in both Toronto and Calgary. At the protest in Toronto was this fella:

Zaza Vili, pictured here with Sandra Soloman, has attended at least two of the anti-Muslim protests in Toronto with Canadian Jewish Defence League leader Meir Weinstein. Vili himself serves as the Canadian JDL's Head of Security:

This blog has written about JDL violence in the past and the reason why it is considered a terrorist group in the United States. If anyone is interested, that article can be found here.

Vili also recently attended AIPAC in Washington D.C. where fellow Canadian JDL member Yosef Steynovitz assaulted a Palestinian-American college instructor (and because she's drawn to anything the is even vaguely anti-Muslim like a moth is drawn to a flame, Sandra Soloman was also in attendance).

Also at the three Toronto anti-Muslim events, the last two in some force and acting far more aggressively, were the Soldiers of Odin, an organization founded by a Finnish neo-Nazi and which is Canada has become increasingly strident in their targeting of Muslims and refugees.

And the SoO loves them their JDL:

I'd suggest those are faces only a mother would love, but (a) I've been admonished already about being mean when writing about fascists and (b) I'm not entirely convinced that the sentiment is actually true.

In any case, the mutual love-in sort of presents a bit of a problem for the SoO in that one of their key claims is that refugees from Muslim countries, and really Muslims in general, are a Trojan Horse and that by their very nature Muslims either are terrorists or support terrorist organizations, with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood acting as the key boogeymen.

Here is Zaza Vili while in Israel visiting the grave of Meir Kahane, founder of the original JDL as well as the Israeli political party Kach.

Actually, to be more precise, here is Zaza Vili while in Israel visiting the grave of Meir Kahane, founder of the original JDL as well as the banned Israeli political terrorist organization Kach.

April 1 Anti-Muslim Protests and Counter-Protests: Calgary

The last article focused on Toronto. In this one I focus on the situation in Calgary.

I would be remiss if I didn't first address the act of sabotage and vandalism that Jason and Bonnie Devine were again subjected:

Regarding the incident, Jason noted:

It's been four years since we've been attacked in the night, and even longer the night before a rally, but here it is.  

One again our tires have been slashed, but this time there is graffiti. 

Was it really the Guardian of Alberta (GOA)? Or was it Blood & Honour (B&H) posing as them?  

Who knows? But it's standard practice by racist scum to engage in vandalism in the middle of the night.

Jason and his family have been hit a number of times, the most serious being the late night home invasion that left him and a friend badly injured. To their credit, neither assaults, vandalism, fire bombs, or slashed tires have stopped Jason or Bonnie from speaking out.

More on this incident in a moment.

As for the rally, Jason provided ARC with the following details:

We met early and got to city hall by 10:15-10:20. From then on members and supporters trickled in. Near the end we had about 50-55 people in attendance. There was a heavy police presence, but no conflicts that I saw. As I mentioned before three people who I think were boneheads showed up and stood to the side.  

The GOA lady (although now with talks of split I guess she may be with CCC) Karyn Draper showed up to talk her crazy shit at the end. Finally Merle Terlesky and I think two other guys with Trump hats showed up to protest, but they stayed on the other side of the street and didn't come over so I couldn't see as well.

In fact, both Terlesky and Draper both mentioned they would be attending, even while the WCAI, Guardians of Alberta, and (get this) the Canadian Combat Coalition (because they are running out of names that sound intimidating I guess) claimed that they would be sitting this one out:

It's nice to see WCAI founder Joey Deluca so concerned about respect. I mean, he couldn't possibly to anything to undermine this noble sentiment? Right?

Right...?

Sigh....

April 1 Anti-Muslim Protests and Counter-Protests: Toronto

We're going to focus on Toronto and Calgary in two separate articles since there's a fair about of information to unpack.

We received the following information from a friend who knew some of the people who participated in the counter-protest:

Reports from those who were attended indicated that the Soldiers of Odin and Jewish Defence League were both present, though there were not more than 20 people on the fascist side. One carload was confronted by antifascists in an underground parking garage and, “literally burned rubber” leaving, though it seems that they might have been able to make it to the protest some time after this occurred. As it was, the fascist protesters had a significantly less productive day than they did on March 19. 

The antifascists showed up in significantly larger number than they did on March 19 (though still less than on March 4). The fascist protesters, who could only seem to hold their position for a bit more than an hour, weren’t able to get their speakers working and any chants they may have engaged in were drowned out by the larger group antifascists. All of this contributed to a significant amount of frustration and demoralization on the fascist side 

Unlike March 19, the fascist protesters were unable to march and needed not only the bike police to act as escorts back to the underground parking garage, but also a full riot squad. It was also reported that of the arrests, two were fascists though there aren’t any details concerning who they were or what charges, if any, they will be facing. It is clear though that the SoO were especially aggressive based on some of the photos and videos we’ve seen.

We've seen videos of the scrimmages and it looks like SoO members initiated the violence, an assessment shared by another group who documented the protest:

Soldiers of Odin initiated physical violence to assert themselves as soon as they got to the square. A member of the JDL urged police to "smash her ****ing face" in an openly hateful and sadistic display directed towards a petite female-identified protester. She was aggressively detained by police after approaching the JDL and shouting "shame on you!" She did nothing threatening or violent and only voiced her own opinion.  

Moments later, a Soldiers of Odin prospect wearing a "Sons of Anarchy" Television show hoodie can be seen singing "I love me, I love me, lets gang up and kill Commies." Make no mistake, calling for violence and death towards people for exercising their democratic right to oppose you is an explicitly hateful position.

One of the SoO thugs arrested was this guy, though his name isn't yet known:

Fallout from the Kellie Leitch Presentation in Brampton

First, before I continue to far, I will be writing about the events that took place in Toronto, Brampton, and Calgary on April first, though in the meantime we direct our readers to the CBC which covered the event in Toronto.

So, it's been a rather eventful week in Canadian politics.

• Video shows Kellie Leitch at meeting with controversial critics of Islam
• Kellie Leitch didn't know anti-Islamic group was part of Brampton event, campaign manager says
• Kellie Leitch Campaign Says It Rejects Anti-Muslim Group Now Promoting Her

ARC broke the story that Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate was courting a group in Brampton that included Ron Banerjee and Rise Canada. I'll talk more about Banerjee and Rise Canada in a moment, though I would be remiss if I didn't note that Ron must be feeling at least some heat in that he deleted both the video from YouTube and the article promoting Leitch on the Rise Canada website:

Good thing I saved a copy I guess.

But the reality is that there were other items in the video that I should also have focused on:

Ron Banerjee and Rise Canada Hate Group Meets With Kellie Leitch

I'm just going to cut to the chase here and show the video. Leitch appears at the 6:43 mark:



UPDATE: Also noticed that the man who tore apart the quran at the Peel School Board meeting was also present.

Our readers are already well familiar with Canadian Hindu Advocacy, Rise Canada, and Ron Banerjee who founded and leads both hate groups, but we understand that those coming to this blog for the first time likely have no idea who Banerjee or these groups are. For those people, here are a few relevant links:

• Ron Banerjee, André Drouin, and Rise Canada
• Rise Canada and Other Islamophobes Celebrate Their Islamophobia At Toronto Mosque
• Ford Fest Fallout: Ron Banerjee Alleged to Have Assaulted LGBT Rights Protester
• More Ford Fest Fallout: Ron Banerjee Focus Of Criminal Complaint
• PEGIDA Canada Rally Meets With Opposition: Banerjee Demands Opposition Be Shot
• Immediate Aftermath of PEGIDA Canada Rally
• Strange Bedfellows: Canadian Hindu Advocacy's Relationship with Social Conservative Christians, the JDL and the EDL
• April 2016: Bits and Bites

Banerjee also operates Twitter accounts for both Canadian Hindu Advocacy and Rise Canada in which he celebrates the deaths of Muslims and Sikhs, post misogynistic diatribes against women, and attacks the LBTGQ community. While it looks like Banerjee was not the organizer of the event, he was certainly a prominent figure who was speaking at the podium when Ms. Leitch arrived.

Kellie Leitch has become infamous during her campaign for the Conservative Party leadership for advocating immigrants be tested to determine if they conform to acceptable, "Canadian values." Below are some of the twitter posts from Banerjee on both the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and Rise Canada Twitter accounts that provide some insight into the, "Canadian values" of these two groups and Banerjee himself:

And more....

A Closer Look At The WCAI Canada Chapter

Last week it was reported that a visiting Jordanian imam, Sheikh Muhammad bin Musa Al Nasr, conducted a sermon at the Dar Al-Arqam Mosque in Montreal in December 2016. Video of the sermon showed Musa Al Nasr calling for the death of Jews. Upon learning of the video, B'nai Brith Canada filed a complaint with the Montreal police's hate crime division.

The reaction to the video was swift. The sermon was condemned by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian organizations, municipal, provincial, and federal politicians, and most right-thinking Canadians.... the folks who post on Stormfront notwithstanding. The negative reaction to what seems to be a clear cut case of hate speech directed towards a religious minority is what we would expect in a civil society. In fact, it is what we would come to expect of a country who's political leaders, both in government and in opposition, unanimously passed a motion condemning antisemitism in 2015:

a) there has been, in the words of the Joint Statement issued following the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on January 22, 2015, “an alarming increase in Antisemitism worldwide,” including the firebombing of synagogues and community centres, the vandalizing of Jewish memorials and cemeteries, incendiary calls for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, and anti-Jewish terror; 

b) this global anti-Semitism constitutes not only a threat to Jews but an assault on our shared democratic values and our common humanity; 

Therefore the House: 

a) declares its categorical condemnation of anti-Semitism; 

b) reaffirms the importance of the Ottawa Protocol on Combating anti-Semitism as a model for domestic and international implementation; 

c) reaffirms, in the words of the Ottawa Protocol, that, “Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium – let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction – is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest;” 

And the House further calls upon the government to: 

a) continue advancing the combating of anti-Semitism as a domestic and international priority; 

b) expand engagement with civil society, community groups, educators, and other levels of government to combat anti-Semitism and to promote respect, tolerance, and mutual understanding.

There was nothing at all controversial about this motion. And yet, a similar motion regarding Islamophobia that passed last week, well....

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should:  

(a) recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear;  

(b) condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it; and  

(c) request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertake a study on how the government could  

(i) develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada, while ensuring a community-centered focus with a holistic response through evidence-based policy-making,  

(ii) collect data to contextualize hate crime reports and to conduct needs assessments for impacted communities, and that the Committee should present its findings and recommendations to the House no later than 240 calendar days from the adoption of this motion, provided that in its report, the Committee should make recommendations that the government may use to better reflect the enshrined rights and freedoms in the Constitution Acts, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

.... lot's of people have lost their shit:

Demagogues such as Ms. Leitch as well as Canada's baby Breitbart, Ezra Levant's, "The Rebel" have been stoking the fears their base that this non-binding motion is merely the first step towards introducing shariah law into Canada. Some of these people have started protesting at mosques and have already organized two national protests, the first of which was less successful than the second (at least in the cities of Toronto and Calgary). Our reporting of the event's have brought us to the attention of the organizers who have a rather interesting take on this nearly decade-old blog:

That's right, we formed Anti-Racist Canada in November 2007 in anticipation of M-103 in 2017. We are crafty mofos, ain't we? George Soros is very forward thinking.

Which allows me to segue into the topic of the day:

WCAI, or Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, is an anti-Muslim Facebook group with over 65,000 members in Canada and internationally. The Canadian chapter alone has nearly 10,000 members at this point. Now, while only a handful of people seem to be particularly active on either page, these aren't numbers that we should discount, especially when it seems that some members of WCAI have decided to take their bigotry off social media and apply it to the real world:

March 19 Anti-Muslim Rallies: Some Victories, Some Hard Lessons

By this point ARC readers know that any time we mention Kevin "The Chairman" Goudreau on the blog, it is probably because he did something profoundly stupid or embarrassing but isn't self aware enough to realize that this is the case:

Yep, the Goudreau held a rally in Peterborough while wearing an ill-fitted suit because he now wants to project gravitas.

Though really, to refer to what the Goudreau held as a rally is sort of like polishing a turd and calling it a diamond:

Still, despite holding his "rally" (word is they were there for less than 5 minutes) in what looks to my uneducated eye as a relatively empty street with few people to witness it, and what few people who did witness the event simply mocked him and his merry band of short bus passengers, the Goudreau appears to see it as a massive success and his first step towards his inevitable rise as der Kanadisch Führer:

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At least one person however, seemed to imply that the Goudreau was sort of gilding the lily:

That's right folks. There were more anti-Muslim rallies in select Canadian towns and cities this past week.

Kevin's explanation for the pathetic nature of his rally is flimsy at best, but it is telling in that he really believes (and is likely correct) that some of the kind of people who would attend a "White Pride" march would also be attracted to an anti-Muslim protest. It's sort of a Venn Diagram, but of hatred. For example, Goudreau has some prominent anti-Muslim activists amongst his own friends:

Brad Salzberg, the leader of the Cultural Action Party of Canada, isn't just anti-Muslim but is also anti-immigrant in general. He held a very small anti-Muslim protest in Vancouver this past Sunday. And Sara Smith is better known as Sandra Solomon, an especially vocal and virulent anti-Muslim protester associates with Eric Brazeau and Ron Banerjee; she was a key speaker at the anti-Muslim event that took place Sunday in Toronto.

When analyzing the anti-Muslim protests that took place this past Sunday, I think it is important to look not only at the victories scored by those who opposed the xenophobes and Islamophobes, but it is equally important to recognize that there were some setbacks.

Gavin McInnes' Bad Week

I have to admit to the readers of this blog that I have derived from Twitter what might be considered somewhat of a perverse joy concerning this particular feature:

Yes, ARC has been blocked by Kevin "The Chairman" Goudreau. This occurred a few years ago after Goudreau realized that we were getting screen shots from his account and we were making fun of him and his obviously fake followers. At the time we guessed we hurt his feelings since he has continued to sporadically threaten to have the members of ARC killed.

Such thin skin.

Goudreau wasn't the last to block us. Connie Fournier blocked us for a time before unblocking us to send a message to relay to Richard Warman whom she believed we had contact with in some way (because reasons). And we were also blocked by this handsome fella a little over a year ago after sending a few tweets in his direction:

Later, Ezra preemptively blocked us from his other Twitter account:

There's actually sort of a club on Twitter of people Ezra has blocked without having engaged in any actual two-way exchange. That's certainly his right, though the practice does call into question Ezra's claims to be a courageous crusader for free speech.

Oh, we don't mean that he's denying us free speech by not allowing us to read or comment on his Twitter page. No, we totally mean the "courageous" part since he seems really frightened by being challenged with alternative viewpoints.

In any case, we can announce that as of today, we've been blocked by another individual of.... er.... courage. One might even say that this person is a very proud boy:

No! Really? Gavin McInnes?

Surely this prime example of a man's man wouldn't be so much of a "pussy" as to block lil' old me, would he?

Oh Gavin! My heart breaks! Whatever did I do to deserve your scorn?

Oh, right.

All those things I wrote about him earlier in the week.

Fair play Gavin. Fair play.