Soldiers of Odin Canada: Falling Apart Already?

In one of the msm articles we linked to in a previous article, the following observation was made by at least one academic interviewed for the story:

Several academic researchers contacted in Canada had either not heard of Soldiers of Odin, or studied its presence in Canada. One researcher, who did not wish to be named, was not convinced the group had a serious presence.  

“We only have very patchy information that makes me think that this group is a very small one, and might be a fad,” said the researcher.

We received some emails that were somewhat critical of this assessment. For example, the Soldiers of Odin are found in most provinces now and have chapters in a number of towns and cities, so they can't at this point be considered to be, "very small." They are probably more widespread and have more members than hate groups that have been on our radar for years. On this point we and the critics are in agreement.

However, we might also be in agreement with the unnamed academic regarding his or her suggestion that the group, "might be a fad."

To clarify, we aren't suggesting that the Soldiers of Odin are a group that should be taken lightly and that the membership will eventually tire and move on to something else (though for some, this might happen). But there is a good chance that the SoO will tear itself apart from within, resulting in a scattered membership.

Case in point, they just cant seem to maintain a stable leadership structure:

Trump Train Derailed: Canadian Supporters Respond

You would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of what has become known as the "Trump Tape" in which Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks about sexually assaulting women on a hot mic:

In part as a result of the tape and, perhaps, his crude dismissal of it as mere "locker room" banter, Trump has seen his support collapse. Though things could change between now and November 8, it seems very unlikely that he will be the next president, despite what his supporters believe.

In Canada, Trump is generally reviled by most Canadians despite their political leanings. But that doesn't mean that he is without support in Canada, albeit from a relative fringe component of the population. Many of those Canadian fringe Trump supporters, both individuals and groups, are well known to our readers.

We're sure that our readers will not be in the least surprised that Ron Banerjee loves him his Trump.

This may be in part owing to Trump's statements regarding Muslims and Muslim-Americans, though if it is possible Banerjee is even more extreme in his views:

Banerjee often combines his hatred of Muslims with his violent misogyny: 

It then should not surprise our readers that not only does Ron Banerjee continue to support Trump, but has threatened women with retribution should Trump lose the election as a result of their vote:

Anti-Immigration Rally Featuring Soldiers of Odin, PEGIDA, and Atalante Québec Yesterday

Yesterday an anti-immigrant rally took place in Quebec City featuring some groups we are well aware of and a few that are knew to us (yes, our Quebec intel still sucks):

Anti-immigration groups are heard in Quebec  

PUBLISHED  Saturday, October 15, 2016 13 H 38 

About 75 protesters marched in Old Quebec, Saturday lunch, to denounce the immigration policies of the governments of Quebec and Canada and what they called "radical Islam." 

"Uncontrolled immigration, assured invasion," chanted some demonstrators gathered under the banner of several groups such as Pegida Quebec, Justiciers the People, Soldiers of Odin, and different factions of the group The Pack. 

Some protesters repeated to reporters that they did not belong to "a racist movement." 

"It is not against a race, but against a religion and an ideology that has," said Christian Desrochers, the Avengers group of people. 

The event was framed by the Quebec City police, who had to intervene when antifascists were invited to the event. "We, we want to denounce their hate speech, homophobic and Islamophobic, launched a protester who would not be named. There are enough of [today]. That's still afraid. " 

Among the group of anti-fascists, Cora Lemoine, a veiled woman, had come to denounce the event. She said the protesters would benefit by learning more. 

"We we are here to say" you are afraid for nothing. " [What you have before you], this is not an Islamist. this is a working woman, raising a family and many friends, she said. So I should not be so detestable as that! "

The rally organizers plan more demonstrations "against radical Islam in Québec" in the coming months.

Now there are a few groups that we aren't familiar with (and if anyone wants to help, we are always open to assistance), but there are a few that we are quite familiar with.

Paulie Still Not Allowed into the United States

Last August we reported that Paulie had been denied entry into the United States, likely due to his leadership role in the Council of Conservative Citizens who's rhetoric inspired the murder who targeted members of an historic Black church in Charleston, SC.

Suffice it to say, Paulie feels aggrieved.

So rather than trying to fly into the United States, Paulie decided to try his luck driving down south.

Guess how that turned out?

Poor Paulie! When he urged countries to keep "undesirables" out of their respective (white) countries, he didn't mean himself. He meant people with a duskier skin color than he.

Soldiers of Odin: "Denies.... Links to.... Biker Gangs"

It's been a while since we last wrote about the Soldiers of Odin. Since our last post about the group they have garnered a significant amount of media attention, though they aren't especially pleased with how the Canadian branch of the SoO has been characterized.

For example, in a Global News article from September 19, SoO National President Joel Angott made the following comment:

Soldiers of Odin Canada claims it’s independent and denies any links to neo-Nazi groups and biker gangs. On his Facebook page, Soldiers of Odin national president Joel Angott said “it is our hope that in time citizens of all races and religions come to see the peaceful nature of our activities.”

Well isn't that a lovely sentiment? Too bad the evidence generally doesn't support Mr. Angott's claim.

Angott suggests that the SoO doesn't have links to either neo-Nazi groups or biker gangs. We will test both of those claims but for now we're going to focus on the denial of links to biker gangs in this article. For example, one link is that the SoO chose to copy the bylaws of biker groups, modifying it (slightly) to fit their particular situation:

However our readers might want a little more red meat than this.

While we could simply point to an article we published on May 15 outlining the links to SOO members and the Hell's Angels which, if we aren't mistaken, would be classified as a "biker gang." However we decided that more recent information might be appropriate.

In our May 15 article, we mentioned that then Sargent-at-Arms of the Ontario Chapter (and now FORMER president of the Ontario Chapter.... more on that in a future article) Arran Taylor wrote about the importance of respecting "club gear." In this case the club in question was the Hell's Angels:

The individual who gave Taylor the heads up was a fella by the name of Dale Kelland:

A few months later when checking out the membership list of various SoO chapters across Canada, we stumbled across Mr. Kelland again in the Ontario Chapter of the Soldiers of Odin:

UPDATE: As of the publication of this article, Kelland is no
longer listed as a member of the Ontario SOO Facebook group.

October 2016 Bits and Bites: Religious Bigotry Edition

We start with some rather ugly news from Calgary today:

Anti-Muslim posters at University of Calgary prompt rally of supportBy Robson Fletcher, CBC News       Posted: Oct 04, 2016 2:07 PM MT       Last Updated: Oct 05, 2016 6:55 AM MT 

Students, faculty and administrators gathered at the University of Calgary on Tuesday to condemn anti-Muslim posters that were plastered around the campus overnight. 

About 40 posters were discovered in various locations by morning, and the university was asking people to turn in any others that are found to campus security.....The removed posters included wording such as "Dear Muslims ... F--k your Quran" and "go back to the monstrous s--t holes you come from." 

They also included links to one Facebook page calling for Islam to be banned in Canada, and another that purports to "celebrate Canada's European heritage" but is largely filled with posts about Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, and links to American websites that decry "race agitators" and people who wear baggy pants.

The posters' appearance at the University of Calgary comes two weeks after similar posters targeting the Sikh faith were found at the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton.

We haven't found the websites refered to in the articles (we'll add information when we do) but we did check with the usual suspects to see how they reacted.

We think you won't be too surprised:

In other news:

The Topham Charter challenge continued today. There's nothing new concerning the trial itself other than the his supporters seems somewhat scattered given news concerning Anthony Hall of the University of Lethbridge (more on him later), but both Paulie and Topham have decided to comment on the CBC coverage of the trial. Not surprisingly, Paulie keyed on on the part that pertained to himself:

Topham Launches Charter Challenge

As expected after his conviction on one count of promoting hatred, Arthur Topham has launched his expected Charter challenge:

B.C. man convicted of promoting hate on web to challenge law in court today
Canada's Criminal Code provisions out of step with internet reality, Arthur Topham's supporters say
By Betsy Trumpener, CBC News      Posted: Sep 30, 2016 6:53 PM PT      Last Updated: Sep 30, 2016 6:53 PM PT 

Some relevant points:

Topham was convicted in November of one Criminal Code count of communicating statements that wilfully promoted hatred against Jewish people through his website, RadicalPress.com. 

The defence is expected to challenge that conviction based on the charter right to free expression and the contention that Canada's hate crime law didn't anticipate the nature of the internet. 

Although a Quesnel jury convicted Topham, the judge delayed a decision about shutting down his website until ​sentencing. If the charter challenge fails, Topham may be sentenced as early as later this week.

As the website wasn't taken down, Topham has spent much of the past year since his conviction ratcheting up the antisemitic screeds as well as promoting fellow antisemites such as Brian Ruh and Monika Schaefer:

• Former Green Party Candidate and 9/11 "Truther" Also Denies Holocaust
• Green Party of Canada Releases Statement on Monika Schaefer
• July 2016 Bits and Bites

"This is not a matter of Arthur Topham passing out pamphlets," said Paul Fromm, an avowed "white nationalist" who helped fund Topham's defence. 

"You have to want to read what he has on his website. You have to seek it out and sift through and read it." 

Fromm, director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, is a controversial anti-immigration and free speech activist who has been linked to neo-Nazi groups in the past. He sat through Topham's two-week trial last winter and said he would travel from Ontario to be in court today for the charter challenge.

We are pleased that the msm is now consistently referring to Paulie as a "white nationalist," however we are still somewhat troubled that they suggest that he, "has been linked to neo-Nazi groups in the past."

The past???

Still, baby steps we suppose.

Topham attended his court hearing today supported by Paulie, Schaefer, and Terry Tremaine whom we haven't seen in some time:

Frank Frost is also an interesting character and someone whom we might look into in further detail.

Not long ago, Topham posted his take on the court appearance. He takes exception to how the CBC characterized Paulie and referred to the state broadcaster as, "Zionist controlled." He alsomntions who he plans on calling as an expert witness which could also provide a window on the nature of his Charter challenge:

The Dr. Timothy Jay that Topham might be referring to, based on our best guess, is an MCLA professor of Psychology, Human Communication and Perception who in an NPR piece is credited with being an, "expert on swearing." According to his CV:

Dr. Jay is frequently sought for his expertise on psycholinguistics. He has served as a consultant to a number of school systems, and has been an expert witness in legal cases pertaining to obscenity and censorship. Furthermore, Dr. Jay has been interviewed or featured in dozens of radio shows, televisions programs, and documentary films.

We'll be keeping an eye on this case and will try to keep our readers up to date on any new updates.

A Look at the Soldiers of Odin in Hamilton

We were contacted by someone who created the following video highlighting the efforts of the Soldiers of Odin to set up a chapter in Hamilton, ON. Unfortunately we were unable embed the video, however the creator graciously allowed us to download so that we could include it here on the blog.