Canadian Freeman Movement: Ties to Extremism

We had intended on writing this article almost a year ago. We were even issued a preemptive threat from the individual who was to have been the subject of the article. However things in real life always seemed to get in the way and we just didn't get to it in a timely manner. But with the recent media attention on the Freeman movement in Canada we thought this was an issue that we could weigh in on now.

The Freeman movement could be said to have first manifested itself in a very public manner through the actions of Gordan Kahl. Kahl, who was philosophically aligned with an early version of sovereign citizenship, murdered three police officers before dying himself (killed by Sheriff Gene Matthews before he succumbed to his own injuries). The Freeman movement, or sovereign citizenship movement as it is better known as south of the border, is inexorably linked to the militia movement of the 1990s; the most famous event involving American sovereign citizens was the Montana Freeman standoff that lasted 81 days. More recent cases include Edward and Elaine Brown, Jerry and Joe Kane (who murdered Officers Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans during a routine traffic stop), and Joseph Stack who, while not necessarily a Freeman himself, has been raised to the status of a martyr for his suicide attack on Austin, Texas IRS building which killed one person and injured 13 others.

Although it might be thought of as primarily an American phenomenon, the Freeman movement is active in Canada. A recent article gives voice to the concern of the police regarding the Freeman movement in Canada:

Smack [Our] Ass And Call [Us] Sally! We've Been Nominated For An Award!

First, happy New Year all!

The ARC Collective is currently enjoying a nice vacation from the blog. This writer, for one, is currently relaxing with daiquiri on a perfect beach somewhere in the Caribbean (¡Viva la Revoluci籀n!) which also, remarkably, has WiFi.

But today, on a whim, one of the members took a look at our neglected Twitter account and found this:

Not sure who nominated us, but thanks for the nomination. And to the good  folks with the Ninjamatics Canadian Weblog Awards, thank you for the consideration.

Looks like we'll have to step up our game again. Time to dig a little into the detaxer/"Freeman on the Land" issue like we said we would do some months ago, paying particular attention to a few individuals who are prominent in the movement and who have connections to racist groups and/or organizations.

But not today.

Today, we dance!

But mostly drink.

Response to the Demise of Sec. 13 in "Maclean's"

Earlier today, we were contacted by "Maclean's" and asked about our take on the demise of Sec. 13. We responded as follows:

We think that the government was incredibly short sighted in their decision to eliminate Sec. 13. It was a useful and cost-effective tool in the effort to eliminate some very vile, hateful, and potentially dangerous rhetoric online and in the public sphere. Now we have only the criminal code which, in a few cases, is like using a machete when a scalpel would have been more prudently utilized.

Those individuals and groups who were called before the Human Rights Tribunal and who were found to have violated Sec. 13 were not innocent lambs who were victimized by Big Brother. They were people and groups who were causing real harm in their communities. Their words did result in harm, and I don't mean hurt feelings. People's homes were vandalized. People have been assaulted. And these criminal acts had, in many cases, began with the dehumanization of fellow Canadians for no other reason than their ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

The people who are celebrating this are the extremists on Stormfront and VNN and a host of other racist webforums, but as we wrote on our blog they should consider that now there is only the criminal code and the penalties are more severe than anything Sec. 13 dished out. It should also be noted that racists aren't content with only Sec. 13. Paul Fromm, for instance, has said he and his group will next focus their attention on the criminal code sections regarding hate crimes.

We get the impression that the "Maclean's" in which Sec. 13 will be discussed is coming out this week. We don't expect that our entire response will be published, or if any of it will be for that matter, but if it is we thought we'd include the entirely of our response here.

And as for the responses from the boneheads, we present a small selection:

Bill Noble Update

We knew it was only a matter of time before Noble decided to violate the terms of his parole. In truth, he violated them months ago as he has been active on White Pride/Power Facebook groups since soon after his release from prison. Of course that wasn't enough for Noble so the seductive siren song of Stormfront was finally too compelling to ignore. What follows is his first Stormfront post since February: