Does Paulie Fudge His Numbers?

Paulie has been a busy boy, traveling around Canada promoting nativism and xenophobia regarding the Tamil migrants. And Paulie, the self-promoter that he is, has been tooting his horn all over Stormfront. Says Paulie of his Hamilton rally:

Two dozen concerned Hamiltonians and supporters of the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee gathered today in the late afternoon at the War Memorial in Gore Park (King and John Streets) to gather signatures on a letter to the Prime Minister to protest the government’s decision to allow a boatload of illegals to enter Canadian waters last. This was part of a nation-wide series of such rallies.

And here they are:


Hmmmm, that doesn't seem like two dozen people. Well, perhaps they weren't all photographed, just as the 20 people he claims attended his and the Northern Alliance's protest in London didn't all make it into the photograph) Still, given the report we received about his efforts in Ottawa, we have to question the numbers he's claiming:

Today, August 25th, around 12:30:

Paul Fromm and two racist supporters were confronted in Ottawa today as they tried to hold a (tiny) protest against rights for the Tamils of the MV Sun Sea. They were shouted down and promptly scampered away before a larger crowd of anti-racists had time to arrive at the scene of their (tiny) protest.

Their (tiny) protest was to be held today, two days after No One Is Illegal Ottawa held a much larger demonstration in favor of letting the Tamil migrants stay on Monday August 23rd.

"from one community of resistance to another, we welcome you" said one Anishnabe member of NOII-Ottawa, speaking at the pro Tamil rights protest of monday.

“To those who say that immigrants are a burden, we ask you: Who cleans up after you? Who picks your fruit and vegetables? Who serves you food? Who drives you around? Who builds your houses, your schools, your hospitals? Time and time again, immigrants are scapegoated for the problems of capitalism.” said another NOII spokesperson to the enthusiastic crowd that had assembled in front of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices downtown Ottawa.

As NOII and other migrant justice groups continue to fight to dispel racist and xenophobic myths about Tamil migrants, it is important to keep the pressure on, especially when we are up against known Nazi supporters.

For more info on No One Is Illegal: www.nooneisillegal.org

So we can't help but question if Paulie is being honest about the groundswell of support that he's receiving, or the claims being made about the numbers signing his petitions:

A similar rally in Calgary netted several thousands of signatures, “a hell of a lot of sheets filled,” said organizer Kyle McKee.

Still, if this were true, we wonder if those who signed are aware that the Aryan Guard is spearheading this effort in Calgary. But back to Hamilton:

Residue of both drugs and explosives were found on their clothes.

Well, that's a bit of a lie at this point as well. Back in November 2009 when a group of Tamil refugees made it to Canada, the government claimed that two articles of clothing tested positive for chemicals that could be used in the making of explosives. Then again, if you tested the clothing of the average Canadian farmer, there's a good chance that you would find residue of chemicals that could be used in making bombs... or fertilizing their fields. Either way, right?

Paulie is using something that occurred in 2009 and trying to say it applies to this case as well. Right now there's no indication that this claim is true at all (and, like the claim that the ship was filled with people infected with TB, may prove to be absolutely false). Besides, Paulie himself associates with people convicted of possessing bomb making materials.

Then again this refugee case is rife with lies and half truths. Not long ago, a "Toronto Sun" article claimed that most Tamil refugees returned to Sri Lanka for vacation during the civil war, calling into question their claims of persecution. Paulie jumped on it immediately:


However, as the fabulous Kady O'Malley pointed out on her blog, context is pretty damn important:

First of all, what exactly is a "secret government survey"? Does that mean a poll? A focus group? A voluntary questionnaire? Were respondents randomly selected from the total Tamil immigrant population - not that I'm sure how, exactly, one would do that -- and then weighted so as to be representative of the whole? How was it conducted -- and by whom? What was the margin of error?

According to the Sun, CBSA refused to release the full study, although it did confirm the numbers obtained by QMI. The story did not, alas, provide any further detail on the methodology, so I sent a query off to CBSA to see if they'd be willing to give me a little more information. Less than two hours later, I received the following response:

Per your request: travel patterns of Sri Lankans returning to their homeland after being granted refugee status in Canada, we can confirm that a small sampling was done (50 persons) and here are the results:

Of the 50 files reviewed the following information was identified:

*Number of sponsors not previously deemed Convention Refugees - 19
*Number of sponsors formerly deemed Convention Refugees - 31
*Within the aforementioned subset of 31 sponsors formerly deemed Convention Refugees who, according to the FC1 applicant, had subsequently returned to Sri Lanka - 22

As this review was done based on statements applicants made during their immigration interview and not based on any formal entry control system, this information must be considered anecdotal in nature.

Numbers were counted within the sample group and no statistical modeling or statistical process was applied. As such, CBSA has no ability to state that this sample is statistically representative of any pattern that may or may not exist beyond this sample. Rather, these numbers are solely indicative of an observed pattern within the small sample reviewed.

Since there has been no analysis beyond what was on the immigration file in Colombo, these findings should be considered as context only.

Additionally based on the size and statistical validity of this sample, it should be noted that no conclusions should be reached on the comments/observations made on this file.

So it seems that this was not, in fact, a "secret government survey," but a review of a sampling of files from Sri Lankan nationals, some of whom were formerly found to be Convention refugees, who now want to sponsor family members to come to Canada. No weighting was done, and no claim has been made that the findings are representative of the total population. In fact, as far as CBSA is concerned, it "must be considered anecdotal in nature."

All of which may not make for quite as snappy a headline, but does, at least, provide some much needed context -- and when it comes to a public policy debate as emotional as this, it's hard to see how that could be a bad thing.

Our friend BigCityLib also provides further context by providing information from the Canadian Tamil Congress which indicates the trips back to Sri Lanka likely occurred during the four year cease fire.

“Send the illegals back!” shouted one young unemployed man from Hamilton as he grabbed a sign and joined the protest.

Perhaps this young man wouldn't be unemployed if he didn't stop to protest. Get a job you long-haired hippy!

See what we did there? You see, it's funny because when we protest, they tell us to get jobs. Funny, right? No? Oh, well, we'll move on (though we do have to wonder how Terry Tremaine, for whom Paulie cries poverty, managed to foot the bill to attend a protest in at least Hamilton and London).

Okay, while that might have been funny, this is hilarious:

Foreign ships engaged in human smuggling operations should not gain admittance to Canadian waters on principle: human smuggling is illegal. Other grounds include what is in the best interest of Canadians - what is in the best interest of human cargo destined to be utilized as sweated labour, or more chillingly, as operatives - and what is in the best interest of an ethnic community that has long endured Tiger fundraising shakedowns without recourse to Canada's legal remedies.”

Right. Paulie is deeply concerned with the welfare of the Tamil community in Canada. And we have a bridge to PEI we'd like to see you.

Update on Willis (a.k.a "I'm not a Nazi")

As Paulie travels around Canada (lock up your daughters) to try an capitalize on the current strain of xenophobia targeting the Tamil migrants, we thought we'd provide our dear readers with an update on someone closely aligned with the Aryan Guard, who Paulie proudly marches with and promotes:

Video of little use in beating case

By KEVIN MARTIN, Calgary Sun
Last Updated: August 23, 2010 5:06pm

Videotape involving a suspected white supremacist charged with assaulting a cameraman at an anti-racism rally does little to shed light on the case, his representative said Monday.

Student-at-Law Shamsher Kothari said he and defence counsel Adriano Iovinelli have reviewed the footage supplied by the Crown.

“We received what we were looking for, which is a video, and the video doesn’t help, or hurt the file,” Kothari told provincial court Judge Bruce Millar.

Kothari said the defence team is still in discussions with Crown prosecutor Harout Haladjian to determine if the case can be resolved without a trial.

William Kaiser Miettinen is charged with assaulting a photographer with a weapon, his skateboard, at an anti-racism rally in Calgary last March.

At his bail hearing shortly after his arrest, the prosecution alleged Miettinen attacked photographer Jason Beers when his picture was taken.

The incident occurred during an anti-racism rally in response to a white supremacist march.

Miettinen told court he wasn’t part of the racist group, despite allegations he ripped open his shirt to display what the Crown said were white supremacist tattoos.

“I’m not a skinhead,” Miettinen said at the time.

“I was not part of that (neo-Nazi) demonstration,” he said.

Miettinen said the chest tattoo he displayed to demonstrators isn’t a white supremacist symbol, but simply a Celtic cross.

Kothari told Millar there may be other footage of the incident and he may ask Haladjian for further disclosure.

The judge said any such request should be made by the end of the week.

Miettinen, who is free on bail, did not attend the court proceeding.

The case returns to court on Sept. 7.

kevin.martin@sunmedia.ca

Of course our readers are very familiar with Willis, a man who seems have a severe allergy when it comes to t-shirts.

We actually do agree with Willis. He's not a skinhead. Skinheads aren't racists, as our friends here will tell you. But when he then tries to claim that he isn't racist and not associated with the Aryan Guard, well....

Paulie Protests in London

We don't think that it's too much of a stretch to suggest that some boneheads and their enablers are using the current anti-refugee xenophobic hysteria in an effort to drum up some mainstream public support.

Not long ago Paulie marched with the Calgary-based Aryan Guard (who's leader Kyle McKee was released from the Calgary Remand Centre a few months ago after pleading guilty to possessing bomb making materials but after attempted murder charges were dropped) to protest the then upcoming arrival of Tamil refugees. Then he was of to BC where Paulie and about a dozen people, some of whom look like they might have been alive to protest the MS St. Louis, protested the arrival of the refugees and demanded that they be kicked out of the country. While in BC he was afforded the uncritical attention of the media who failed to mention his long, long history with racist extremism in this country.

Thankfully, some of the media has made a point of examining the views of Paul Fromm as well as the people with whom he shares an ideological home with:

• Canadian media clamouring to give well known racist/neo-nazi a platform
• 'White supremacist' puts a genteel face on racism
• Immigrants and Canada: Time for a National Debate
• Don't listen to racists about Tamil refugees, says group
  

Yesterday, Paulie was back at it in London, Ontario and boy, oh boy, was the cast of characters (though small in number) ever a motley crew:

Hmmmm. Terry has really let himself go.

So we now have Paulie with:

• Terry Tremaine, disgraced university lecturer as well as the founder and leader of the tiny neo-Nazi group the National-Socialist Party of Canada
  
• Davie Ruud of the Northern Alliance
• Tomasz Winnicki who proudly describes himself as London's biggest hater.
• Someone who we believe is Louis Morin, an old Heritage Front member
• Assorted boneheads
  

Wow, talk about the company you keep.

We Can't Believe We Missed Dead Nazi Day!

We've been a bit preoccupied, but we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the passing of ole' Ruddy Hess.

Then again, we are also basically lazy people, so here's how we made fun of him last year.

Ya, you're right. We'll do better next time.

Boat People and Paul Fromm Circa 1981

As we continue to follow the manufactured hysteria concerning the Tamil migrants who made their way on what was essentially a rusted out tramp steamer, as well as Paul Fromm's efforts to capitalize on the issue for his own benefit (be sure to donate, and donate often, right Paulie?) we were struck by the similarities this most recent refugee situation has with another that occurred more than 30 years ago:

Strangers by sea: A tale of Canada’s boat people

...

The great boat-people success story in Canada, of course, has been the refugees from Indochina – the Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese, Lao and Kampucheans who now number a quarter of a million people, most of them originally sponsored in the late 1970s and early 1980s by church and community groups with federal government assistance after the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese government fell to the North Vietnamese communists. Most of the refugees were highly educated professionals who fit quickly into Canadian society.

...

Although the integration of Vietnamese Boat People is considered fairly uncontroversial today, such was not always the case. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, some of the concerns we hear today about the Tamils were directed also at Vietnamese refugees.

They're diseased. They'll be supported on the taxpayer's dime through welfare. They'll take jobs away from real Canadians. They're criminals and radicals found amongst their numbers. They are so foreign to Canadian culture and values as to be unassimilable. They will upset the, "racial balance" of Canada.

These views are in evidence on CBC radio programs from 1979 (found at number 8, 16, 17), one synopsis which can be found below:

Phone-in callers comment about the influx of immigrants. Not everybody is happy. Some people are worried about the multi-million dollar price tag. Others are worried that land and gas prices will skyrocket and unemployment will increase. They worry that Canada is ignoring its own poor and unemployed. They worry that the immigration screening process is too lax. And they worry that Canada will suffer what Doug Collins refers to on CBC Radio as a "racial imbalance." (Note: explicit language.)

Hmmm, we've been told repeatedly that Doug Collins was a respectable journalist. Such a potty mouth! But at least we know that some of his best friends were Jews.

We would urge our readers to examine all of the audio and video in the CBC archives concerning the boat people. Seems not a lot has changed in 30 years.

Interestingly, one of the voices of those opposing the Vietnamese boat people is the same one who is now opposing Tamil migrants. And like his opposition to the Vietnamese, Paul Fromm's reasons for opposing the Tamils haven't changed in 30 years:


We know that none of the claims made by Fromm, Collins or the people opposing the entry of refugees into Canada actually came to fruition. The Vietnamese boat people integrated into Canadian society, their children becoming doctors, teachers, tradesmen and women, and community leaders. Yet the anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric hasn't changed at all.

We'll keep that fact in mind as the latest group of refugees are processed.

Paul Fromm: The Genteel Face of Racism?

Our friends BigCityLib and Dr. Dawg posted articles excoriating CTV for giving Paulie a forum yesterday during his BC protest to attack the Tamil migrants and for failing to mention his rather sordid past (and present) in the White Supremacist movement. Nary a word of Paulie's links to the Heritage Front of the past, nor the Aryan Guard now, was mentioned. Paulie is instead introduced as an immigration reform activist.

Criticism of the media white-wash of Paulie's views and associations came from another, somewhat unexpected, source:

'White supremacist' puts a genteel face on racism

Joseph Brean, National Post · Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010

Paul Fromm's efforts to rouse public opinion against the Tamil migrant ship began last month from his home in Ontario, with impassioned messages posted to Stormfront.org, the Florida-based neo-Nazi website of which he is a "sustaining member" and radio host.

It continued last week in Calgary, when he led a group of Aryan Guard skinheads to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's constituency office, and so terrified the receptionist that she locked the door and would not accept Mr. Fromm's delivery of a letter until police arrived.

But for Canada's best known racist agitator, things did not really get going until he reached the Pacific shore at Esquimalt, B.C., on Saturday, where the boat was docked.

There, accompanied by Doug Christie -- famous as the go-to civil liberties lawyer for every top Canadian racist of the last 30 years -- Mr. Fromm got himself front and centre on the national weekend news, flanked by his small group of two dozen protesters.

Mr. Fromm, whose license to teach high school in Ontario was revoked in 2007 for his activism against non-white immigration and ties to groups like the defunct neo-Nazi Heritage Front, appeared in reports by three major news outlets, identified only as the leader of a group called "Canada First," or "Canada First Immigration Reform Committee."

“If we do need immigrants, the public opinion polls show that the majority of Canadians don’t want the ethnic balance upset,” Mr. Fromm said, according to the Toronto Star story.

The media exposure for his message recalls an episode in 2008, when Fox News was criticized by a U.S. anti-hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, for allowing Mr. Fromm to appear as a "free speech activist."

Fox News is one thing, but to score prominent coverage offering comment on a national refugee crisis to the Toronto Star, Canadian Press, and CTV indicates that Mr. Fromm's nose for media is especially refined.

No outlet responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Fromm said he was "pleasantly surprised at the amount of press interest."

"I did find it unusual," he said. "I took it to mean that some of the journalists have actually gone to journalism school."

The Victoria Times-Colonist reported on the protest and identified Mr. Fromm as a "white supremacist."

The others are not the first media outlets to be fooled in this way. On the surface, "immigration reform" has the same kind of naive appeal as "historical revisionism," a euphemism for Holocaust denial, and a field in which Mr. Fromm is highly regarded as a free speech champion.

Dressed as he was in a suit and tie on a sunny summer's day, Mr. Fromm made an obviously professional spokesman for the media pack. His manner is typical of the public pose struck by other elder statesmen of Canadian racism, such as Don Andrews, a fellow traveller back to university days in Toronto, whose conviction for the wilful promotion of hatred against blacks and Jews was upheld in 1990 at the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Andrews has a similar attention-grabbing prank of getting municipal governments across Canada to declare "European Heritage Week," without realizing that the sponsoring organization, his Nationalist Party of Canada, is explicitly white supremacist.

It is a winning strategy, to put a genteel face on racism for the unsuspecting public, as Jared Taylor of American Renaissance discovered in Halifax in 2007, when he challenged an unwitting Black studies professor to debate him on multiculturalism, then basked in media coverage when the professor realized he was an avowed racist, and cancelled.

In the case of the Tamil migrants, all Mr. Fromm had to do to seize the spotlight as a voice of dissent was to gather a few people on a roadside outside of Victoria, B.C., and just start talking.

"The only way to really do something about people smuggling is to make sure that if you come in through the back door illegitimately like this, you don't get in," he said in the CTV report. For balance, his remarks were followed by the more welcoming sentiments of a group of native women from a nearby reserve.

For the modern "immigration reform" activist, that is how to play the publicity game -- think like the media, get to the scene, and get on camera. And if success if measured by exposure, it is also how to win.

"I'll talk to anybody," Mr. Fromm said.

National Post

jbrean@nationalpost.com

We have to applaud Mr. Brean for being able to see through the veneer of respectability that Paulie has created for himself over the years and label Paulie as the bigot he is.

One part of the article that struck us and which we want to explore a little more is that Paulie puts a "genteel face on racism." Exactly how genteel has Paulie actually been since the late 60s when he became active in the White Supremacist movement?

Those who are aware of Paulie's past know that he was one of the founders of a group called the Edmund Burke Society. The Edmund Burke Society has always been presented by Paulie as a group of young college kids who were opposed to communism and the shift to the left in the country as a whole during the Trudeau era. To listen to Paulie, it was a group dedicated to free speech and engaging their opposition in a vigorous intellectual debate over the direction of the country and would attempt to sway Canadians through the strength of their ideas.

The reality paints a different picture of the Edmund Burke Society. The reality seems to be these were thugs who physically attacked their opposition and shouted down and attempted to intimidate those they disagreed with.

In June 1970, William Kunstler who was at the time defending the Chicago Seven, was speaking to students at the University of Toronto. Soon after he began his speech, a contingent of the Edmund Burke Society began to heckle Kunstler in order to drown him out and prevent him from speaking to the assembled students. Kunstler invited one of the group, Paul Fromm, to come to the podium to voice his groups concerns about his visit. Long story short, Paulie ended up all wet and Kunstler was attacked by the Edmund Burke Society members in attendance:


So much for free speech.

Another even more serious case involved visiting Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin. Kosygin was attacked by a member of the Edmund Burke Society Gezan Matrai. Rather than disavow the attacker, the membership expressed pride in Matrai's efforts. Later, on a tip that there was an assassination plot against Kosygin, the homes of Edmond Burke Society members were raided resulting in a number of weapons being removed (it doesn't appear that charged were layed in the alleged assassination plot, however).





In the early 1970s, the Edmund Burke Society was re-named the Western Guard, becoming a more overt racist group with a National Socialist bent. As a member of the Western Guard, Paulie and some of the other members attempted to take over the Ontario Social Credit Party:


Finally, though Paulie now styles himself as a free speech advocate, such was not always the case. We've already noted how he and the Edmund Burke Society tried to shut down those who they disagreed with. As a member of the Western Guard, it appears that he may have targeted art as well:


After a few months, Paulie left the Western Guard. In the early 1980s he began presenting himself as an immigration reform advocate, garnering a fair amount of press in the process. He was even referred to as a political analyst, so we suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when the media are taken in by his rhetoric.

We used to wonder why Paulie would support and defend groups like the Aryan Guard. Perhaps the answer is he sees a little of himself in them.

Hal Turner Convicted

Sure, this is more of an American thing, but as Turner made not too veiled threats against Canadians he didn't care for, we thought we'd provide a link to our friends at the One People's Project which discusses the conviction:

HAL TURNER GUILTY!

OPP have been watching Turner for the better part of a decade, as well as Bill White.

We imagine it must feel pretty sweet to see karma finally bite these two in the ass.

Oh, Richard Martin, You Are A Special Kind of Stupid

When Andrew Benson moved to Calgary in July, his best friend and life partner Richard Martin didn't accompany him on the journey. It's not as if Martin wouldn't have made the trip if he could, but he was a bit preoccupied being in jail at the time. Still, he had an open invitation to move out to Calgary once he was released.

Looks like he might have to hold off a little longer on those plans:

Racial epithets lead to charges
John BurmanThe Hamilton Spectator(Aug 11, 2010) 

The woman called police when two men, who had been taunting her, arrived at her door. 

She'd seen them around her Westdale neighbourhood over a couple of weeks since the start of July -- two men she did not know yelling racial slurs at her. The last straw was July 16. The two men followed her home and pounded on her door. She called 911. 

Hamilton police identified two suspects in their investigation and last week arrested Shane Gill, 38, of no fixed address, at an address in St. Catharines. They also arrested Richard Martin, 23, of no fixed address, at the Hamilton- Wentworth detention centre where he was in custody on an unrelated matter. Both men have been charged with criminal harassment with hate/bias overtones. 

The two men appeared in Hamilton court Friday for bail hearings but were remanded until they can obtain counsel. 

Though both suspects were of no fixed address, they were apparently living in the woman's neighbourhood at the time of the alleged offences. Police will not identify the nature of the racial remarks or what ethnic community the woman identifies with. 

Police Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings said the case is an alleged hate/bias crime that went beyond the kind of thing usually seen in Hamilton because there was repeated contact. 

The incident is relatively rare because it meets the criminal harassment test in that it caused someone to fear for their safety. 

Collings could not recall similar charges being laid in Hamilton in recent years. 

"We don't often see this," said Collings, adding that could be due to a number of factors including having enough evidence to lay such a charge and having a witness willing to take the case through the court process. 

Collings said Hamilton Police victims services and community relations staff will be assisting the complainant each step of the way. 

jburman@thespec.com

Of course Martin isn't a stranger to the readers of this blog. In March 2009 we posted an article pointing to Martin's involvement in the vandalizing of a Toronto store. Sadly, it doesn't appear that Martin was ever even questioned, much less charged, in that case. In addition to this, it also appears that Martin is aware of other acts of racist vandalism that had occurred in the Toronto area; he either knew of the individual or individuals involved or he was had actively participated in the act himself:


We've also used these pages to childishly make fun of Martin and his friends.

Over...

...and over again.

Oh dear! However did that picture of Martin with Paulie show up here? Well, we might as well leave it there. Considering whom else Paulie associates with, it just confirms what we all believe already about him.

If the Aryan Guard and Paulie Hold a Protest in Calgary....

.... does anyone notice?

What is the use of a protest if no one pays attention?

Earlier this week, Paulie was in Calgary with McKee and whatever elements of the Aryan Guard still exist to protest in front of Jason Kenney's constituency office, as well as triumphantly announce the reorganization of the Aryan Guard:

CFIRC was helped by a strong contingent of young men and women from the White National Aryan Guard. After a year of organizational problems, the AG is reorganizing. |”The AG is back and active,” leader Kyle McKee explained.

So the AG is now the WNAG. That's certainly an acronym that we won't be able to make fun of.

Paulie and the Aryan Guard members who are currently not (a) in jail, (b) not on probation, (c) not under no contact orders, (d) actually still willing to associate their good... er.... their names with the scandal plagued gang were protesting Kenney's handling of the Tamil migrants currently on their way to Canada:

The door was abruptly locked, as an ashen face employee looked out at the protesters who chanted no slogans and were entirely peaceful. “I thought a constituency office was supposed to be open to the public,” a bemused protester observed... Twenty minutes into the protest several cruisers from the Calgary Police Service showed up. One officer inquired what the purpose of the protest was and how long it would last. Mr. Fromm indicated that he wanted to hand a letter for Mr. Kenney to the staff at his office. The officer disappeared inside the office. The door was locked. About 10 minutes later, he emerged. Apparently, Mr. Kenney’s employee would come out and accept the letter. The exchange was made under the watchful eye of the policeman. “It really shows how terrified our rulers are of the people,” Mr. Fromm observed.


Once again, Paulie makes it appear as if a bunch of concerned Sunday school teachers came out to voice their mild concerns and were treated as pariahs for their efforts. In reality, the people who did show up to this protest made a point of being intimidating:


But here's the thing we find interesting. No one knew of this protest, and we only found out a few hours ago. There was nothing announcing it to the media. There was no mention of it in the mainstream media. It's as if it didn't happen, or it might as well not have happened.

The point of a protest is sort of to get your cause known through the media, otherwise you're really not much better than the crank who used to shout sexual obscenities outside the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. No one cares.

Of course they did this because they didn't want a counter protest to confront them (and why would they, since the last protest the full Aryan Guard contingent was involved with was outnumbered by a factor of 5 to 1?). As such, their efforts were wildly successful, however it was at a bit of a cost. In reality this is the closest Paulie and McKee have come to mainstream recognition, and we are hardly mainstream ourselves.

But even though the Aryan Guard has reformed, there are a few flies in the ointment. There seems to be a bit of remaining tension between McKee and his group and the much smaller, but more crazily tattooed, WEB:

Should we start taking bets on another implosion again?

Terry Tremaine Has Some Interesting Friends

The blog is always a little slow during the summer as people are off on vacation or just enjoying the weather. Sure, we could post something about the latest Aryan Guard/W.E.B. online spat, but even we're a little bored with that (one can only make fun of the same thing for so long before becoming a bit stale). Instead, many of us who are holding down the fort are using this bit of downtime to work with our friends in British Columbia on gathering and organizing our collective intel into something that will be less fragmented.

Still, we do continue to receive information from our dear readers. Recently a news article was sent to us that has nothing to do with what we cover on this blog, however a person of significant interest is mentioned in the story in relation to a convicted serial stalker:

Convicted stalker Gerald Klein banished from Regina for a year

By JANA G. PRUDEN, Leader-Post August 10, 2010 8:28 AM

REGINA — A man who has stalked a woman for 35 years has three weeks to get out of Regina, after being banished from the city for a year by a Regina judge.

"The world's a large place," Judge Dennis Fenwick said in imposing the rare order on Gerald Klein Monday afternoon. "There's lots of places for Mr. Klein to go."

It is an unusual decision befitting an extremely unusual case.

Klein, 63, has been stalking Cathy Kaip since the two were briefly acquainted in 1974.

In his sternly worded decision, Fenwick called Kaip "a shattered woman," and likened Klein to "a toxic gas swirling around Ms. Kaip's shrunken world," looking for ways to get into her life no matter what she does.

Klein's harassment of Kaip has lasted decades and spanned several cities, and has included stalking and unwanted phone calls, flowers, letters and gifts. Klein has also launched several nuisance lawsuits against Kaip, including one for failing to marry him.

After years of lesser sanctions, Klein served a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of criminal harassment in 2003. After the prison term, the Crown obtained a peace bond barring Klein from having any contact with Kaip or members of her family, or being in the area around her home. The order expired two years ago, and the Crown then applied for another, which Klein fought at a hearing last month.

The matter had been adjourned until Monday for Fenwick's decision on whether to impose another peace bond.

After reviewing some of the history of the case, Fenwick opted to impose a new order, but he questioned whether the conditions requested by the Crown went far enough.

He noted that Klein has been able to skirt along the fringes of previous orders, and Fenwick wondered aloud whether it is fair that Kaip should continue to live in fear, unable to move about the city without being afraid of running into her stalker.

"Hasn't the time come that the worry should fall on him and not her?" Fenwick asked. "That's really the question here, isn't it?"

He noted that, "When Mr. Klein loses, he still wins."

Fenwick said Klein has conditioned Kaip to fear routine parts of everyday life, such as the ringing of the telephone, a knock at the door or a trip out of the house

"Sadly, 3 1/2 decades of abuse have allowed Mr. Klein to put Ms. Kaip in fear, even when he does nothing," Fenwick said.

He also noted that Klein continues to believe that it is he who has been wronged by the situation.

Klein sat listening to Fenwick's comments with his lips pursed and downturned, his arms crossed tightly across his chest. He was joined in court by his son and Terrence Tremaine, a Regina man who is facing his own charges for spreading hate on the Internet.

Fenwick said there is legal precedent for banishing someone from their home community, though he did acknowledge that it is rare, and should be approached with caution.

He asked defence lawyer Brad Tilling how it would harm Klein to be banned from Regina, noting that Klein is unemployed, has no property, and has no one willing to act as a surety for him.

"I have no idea where he would go, where he would stay..." Tilling said. "I don't know what would happen to him."

But it was not enough to convince Fenwick, who said he is "thoroughly satisfied" that Kaip is not only entitled to the unusual level of protection — but needs it.

"He's a cunning, resourceful man," Fenwick said. "I'm satisfied he can establish himself outside the city of Regina."

Although Klein originally indicated he may not sign the order — in which case he would have been jailed for up to a year or until he signed — he eventually consented.

He now has three weeks to leave the city and cannot return for a year after that, except in the case of a medical emergency.

"I don't doubt that it will be difficult for Mr. Klein ... but that's because for 3 1/2 decades, for 13,000 days, he has caused problems for Ms. Kaip," Fenwick said. "She can have Regina and he can have the rest of the world."

jpruden@leaderpost.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post

Tremaine's name is what piqued our interest initially, but on the whole this was a facinating, though sad, story. Ms. Kaip has had to endure Mr. Klein for three and a half decades. Mr. Klein seems to be in obvious needs access to a mental health professional.

We're interested in knowing what Klein's relationship to Tremaine is, but in reality this blog post is simply a story we thought our readers might find interesting.

Other links:

• Longtime stalker thinks he's the victim (article from 2006)
  
• Another peace bond considered for stalker Gerald Klein
  

Nazi Graffiti in St. John, New Brunswick

We're a week late on this, but we felt that it needs to be mentioned here:

Swastikas painted on vehicle

Vandalism: Officer says use of Nazi symbol likely means a hate crime charge
Published Tuesday July 27th, 2010

SAINT JOHN - When they threw rocks at her home's windows, it was a nuisance.

Then, it was eggs and toilet paper all over her Dufferin Row property. Last month, it was garbage, poured all over the lawn and over the car.

But what happened this past weekend brings Margret Begner to tears.

Light-purple coloured paint was poured all over her vehicle, and in blue spray paint, someone drew the Nazi swastika on the windshield and driver's door.

"What was really hurting was that they put the Nazi sign," Begner said Monday. "That just takes it over the top."

At first Begner thought the vandals had a personal vendetta against her family. But she has recently heard other people in the west side neighbourhood have also been targets of vandalism.

A neighbour on St. John Street has told Begner she doesn't sleep at night, and a Portuguese family on Fundy Drive moved away because they couldn't handle it anymore.

"It's just hate. They hate everything. They hate themselves and they hate their neighbours," Begner said of the vandals. She owns a restaurant uptown and her family has lived in Saint John for 18 years, since moving here from Germany.

Begner isn't sure if the perpetrators have something against different cultures or backgrounds.

"I think they're just against anything and everything they don't have and don't get," she said. "They don't respect private property. They have zero tolerance, zero respect."

Police say Begner wasn't the only person targeted with the Nazi markings early Saturday morning.

The Assumption Centre on Chapel Street, next to Our Lady of the Assumption Church, was also marked with the swastika, said Sgt. Pat Bonner of the Saint John Police Force.

In that case, the green spray paint was used.

"They could be related," he said.

Painting a swastika makes the crime more than just mischief, he said. It would likely result in a charge of public incitement of hatred - or a hate crime.

"That's definitely a hate crime when you put something like that - a Nazi symbol," he said. "Not only is it vandalism - it's a message."

Begner said she has installed security cameras at her home and won't give up hope until the vandalism stops.

"I know we will get them, if I have to sit on my porch every single night," she said. "If that is something it will take, I will do that."

She said she's run out of reasons for why someone would continue to terrorize her neighbourhood.

But it doesn't affect the way she feels about the city.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you live. There are people who will have different opinions and ways of dealing with things," she said.

While she waited for her insurance adjuster to examine the damage, a flood of neighbours saw the symbol and called her to say how shameful and unacceptable it was.

"They took this one too far," she said.

Our readers have been incredible when it comes to tracking down information leading to identification of suspects in cases such as this. We're asking our readers to help out on this one as well.

Paul the Poet

One would think a former English teacher would be more creative.