July 2017 Bits and Bites Part I: More Proud Boys, Fromm and Goudreau Antics, and Hamilton Shooting

Well it has been a few days since ARC first published the story on the Proud Boys who disrupted the memorial in Halifax and who happen to be members of the Canadian Armed Forces.... for now at least. As much as ARC would like to take the credit for the story becoming as big as it eventually did, the real credit goes to the Anonymous group who published the videos on YouTube first as well as those who were present and wrote about the incident on social media. They are the ones who deserve all the credit.

Still, ARC certainly did get a lift for a few days in terms of readership over four days:

ARC's Response to Outing of "Nazi Mom"

We're sure that by this point, talk about ARC's communication with the woman referred to as the "Nazi Mom" has become fairly wide spread within the bonehead community in Canada and elsewhere as a result of poor security on her part. There is no indication that ARC email accounts have been compromised.

To address the elephant in the room, I will admit that ARC is guilty as charged.

"Nazi Mom" (and she will continue to be referred to as such given the legal issues related to the child custody issue that has been going on for close to 10 years now) contacted ARC in the middle of 2014. While still associated with the movement, she provided information about those individuals that she felt were not of moral rectitude. Eventually, and over the years, this writer began speaking to her on a more human level as I thought that perhaps I might be able to lead her out of the movement that she had been a part of for much of her adult life; those efforts may or may not have been naive on my part, but as I have found some success in the past, I figure that it was worth a try.

In any case, a former friend of the "Nazi Mom" who found himself with access to her email account sent information to myself and others concerning allegations of theft and prostitution, as well as evidence that she had been in contact with ARC for a number of years. One of the individuals who received the information was Bill Noble who promptly posted some of her contacts with ARC on the hate site Stormfront. Among those who replied was Kevin Goudreau who posted messages threatening the "Nazi Mom" and demanding that she reveal more of the identity of your's truly. That thread on Stormfront was either removed or moved to a members only part of the forum before I was able to get any screen shots, though I did manage to save part of the text of one of Noble's posts which will be discussed later.

In response to Bill Noble, I have the following question:

Do you really think that she is the only informant within your movement that ARC has?

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 Brazau 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.

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.

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:

The Goudreau is Aggrieved

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.

Last month we reported that Kevin "Not in the Face!" Goudreau found himself in a rather unfortunate altercation that resulted in his arrest.

In addition to posting screen shots of witnesses which were all pretty consistent, we also reached out to the person the Goudreau assaulted:

At the time I posted that [the update on Facebook], he had not been arrested. He came back later in the night, at which point he was arrested. I know he is awaiting trial on December 8th. 

Other than being violent, I found him to be a caricature of something he couldn't possibly be. He tried this staring thing with me. It was pretty funny. It seemed like he thought he was hypnotizing me or something.

No, that doesn't sound at all like the Goudreau, does it?

In any case, the Goudreau (who wasn't active on social media for some time after his arrest) eventually provided his take on the events of the day in question which were TOTALLY believable!

Nice to see Paul Fromm championing someone admitting to an assault

Right.......

Well, only now has the Goudreau gotten around to addressing our article concerning his arrest, posting the following an hour ago:

So, he claims he was assaulted, but then says he's serving a 60 day sentence on weekends

Ohhhhh, a Danier leather jacket! Well that certainly changes everything.

Shall we add this to yet the list of threats the Goudreau has made towards us and others?

Kevin. Baby.

We aren't in the least worried.

December 2016 Bits and Bites

We begin with a very brief update on Paulie who is so tickled pink (well, more pink than he usually is) about Trump's election that he isn't bothering to try to conceal his views in more "respectable" terms anymore:

We're sure that Paulie will be leading the charge.... so long as others foot the bill so that he can maintain the lifestyle that he has become accustomed to.

And as long as others actually take on any potential risks. That of course goes without saying.

Out in British Columbia, some members of the Soldiers of Odin tried to crash an anti-racism rally in Richmond. Suffice it to say that it didn't go especially well for them:

However, it was marred slightly by the appearance of a small group from the Soldiers of Odin, a citizen-based “street patrol” organization, closely connected to anti-immigration movements in Finland.
....
On Sunday, although claiming not to be racist, pledging support for everyone, irrespective of race and carrying signs stating “Stand And Fight Against Hate,” — the three men representing the Soldiers of Odin were told their presence wasn’t welcome and, after a few words were exchanged, moved further down No. 3 Road. 

Despite repeated attempts to contact the Soldiers of Odin’s B.C. chapter through its Facebook page, the News was not able to reach the group or its local leaders for comment.  

At the event, Soldiers of Odin representative Kris Erickson told the News’ photographer that everyone had got their message wrong and claimed that they were there to express solidarity with the protestors.
....
SOO, which has chapters across Canada, denies, on its public Facebook page, any accusations of being racist or anti-immigrant and claims to exist to primarily protect women and children by keeping the streets safe. 

However, it’s been alleged the group’s private Facebook page is filled with racist and xenophobic comments, mainly directed towards Muslims.

In other interesting news, we found the following rather enigmatic post on Quebec SoO chapter president David Tregget's Facebook page:

Kevin Goudreau Arrested for Assault

You know who we haven't talked about for a while?

Not Paulie. We talk about him a lot.

No, we're referring to Kevin Goudreau this time or, as we've taken to calling him, the Goudreau.

We've profiled the Goudreau and his misadventures for years on the blog. Mostly because he amuses us, though we don't think he appreciates our brand of subtle humor:

Funny thing is, though he originally posted the above threat years ago, nothing has yet to happen.

What's Jon Latvis Up To These Days?

The last time we posted an article asking a similar question back in 2012, it resulted in a fair amount of msm attention, though to be fair that was mainly because Warren Kinsella published the following image we forwarded to a mutual friend before we did and he's sort of a bigger deal than we are:

We should mention that despite our feelings about the late Rob Ford's tenure as mayor of Toronto, we were not suggesting that he was sympathetic towards neo-Nazis (the explanation provided by his office did a good job of putting this to bed), but that his handlers should have been more diligent in preventing Latvis from being photographed with Mr. Ford. In any case, Latvis himself denied his entire history of being involved in the biggest White Power bands of the 1990s and suggested he would sue Mr. Kinsella for defamation.

Considering that the Internet exists which documented his active and enthusiastic involvement in the neo-Nazi movement, as well as the following post made on his own Facebook profile explaining to his friends why he publicly denied his involvement, it would have been a very difficult case for him to make which is probably why he didn't sue:

Now, fast forward a few years.

Last weekend, the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival took place in Toronto. It is an event, like other similar festivals, that celebrates Ukrainian culture including food (we loves us our perogies), dance, and music. As this writer also has connections to Ukraine, it sounds like a good time and a blast to attend.

But based on what the good folks at the Left Chapter observed while watching a video of the parade, there was a bit of a fly in the ointment:

The portrait on the side of the banner closest
to the viewer is that of Stepan Bandera. 

Yeah, those are members of the Canadian chapter of Right Sector.

And who are Right Sector?

Glad you asked:

Critics at home say the party's inflammatory rhetoric and violence is helping Russian media to depict Ukraine as overrun with "neo-Nazis" who threaten the Russian-speaking population.
....
Activists claiming to be Right Sector members were involved in Kiev's Maidan protests from late November, but the group did not attract much attention until violent clashes with police in central Kiev on 19 January, in which it played a leading role.
....
A leading figure in the Right Sector, Andriy Tarasenko, says it aims not for closer ties with Europe but rather to "build a nationalist Ukrainian state and stage a nationalist revolution". 

Dmytro Yarosh calls himself a follower of Stepan Bandera, a nationalist leader who fought Polish and Soviet rule in the 1930s and 1940s but is seen in Russia and eastern Ukraine as a Nazi collaborator.
....
Some far-right activists interviewed by the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Kiev in early March made it clear that they wanted a Ukraine "just for Ukrainians".

Other articles on Right Sector are equally enlightening:

• Ukrainian far-right group claims to be co-ordinating violence in Kiev
• 'Right Sector' hackers attempt to blackmail Polish government
• Kiev Pride 2016: Why are Ukraine's politicians silent on attacks against LGBT people?
• The Assault on Kiev Pride
• Ukraine: When the Right Sector Runs the Courtroom
• Ukraine government in armed standoff with nationalist militia
• Ukraine: Overwhelming new evidence of prisoners being tortured and killed amid conflict

Now, much like Rob Ford who was pictured with Jon Latvis, we don't believe the organizers intended on having a far-right ultranationalist group join in on their parade, however we would apply the same criticism as we did in Mr. Ford's case when we suggest they should have done a more thorough job checking into the groups participating.

But it might be of interested to our readers to know that Latvis actually has a bit of a connection here as well:

Yep, he's a supporter of Right Sector:

Soldiers of Odin: Canadian Media Paying Attention

We don't usually refer to ourselves as "media" though in the absolute sense, we suppose we are. We run a niche blog who's members have a realistic understanding concerning our national exposure. Still, we like to think that at least on occasion we've been able to punch above our weight by breaking a few stories before the msm have.

As far as we know, we were amongst the first, if not the first, "media" source that began covering the entry of the Soldiers of Odin onto the Canadian scene. However since we began, there has been some really good journalism focused on the SoO. Not too long after our first exposé, Vice published a story by Mack Lamoureux who was able to infiltrate a meeting by the Alberta chapter of Soldiers of Odin. And last week, CBC's Samantha Craggs wrote what we would regard as a pretty hard hitting profile of the SoO and the group's efforts to organize in the city of Hamilton.

Some members of the SoO took notice, including co-leader of the Saskatchewan chapter of the Soldiers of Odin:

In the article, the national president of the Canadian Soldiers of Odin, Joel Angott, claims that the group is opposed to racism:

The presence in Hamilton is informal right now, with about eight or nine members getting organized, said SOO national president Joel Angott. There's a lot of interest, but potential Hamilton members are being carefully vetted. 

SOO members do neighbourhood patrols, Angott told CBC Hamilton in a phone interview from Winnipeg. Right now, its Hamilton plans focus on cleaning up local parks. 

He denies that the group is anti-immigration, or anti-Muslim, although the group's bylaws lament the government "accepting refugees from countries that hate us" and "letting illegal aliens into this country and giving them the ability to vote and drive."

Denying that the SoO is not anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim sort of flies in the face of what is routinely posted on the various provincial Soldiers of Odin chapters' Facebook pages however. For example, here are a few from the British Columbia chapter group page:

February 2016 Bits and Bites

So PEGIDA Canada held another rally today without telling anyone. The results were as sad as the previous effort despite the spin they placed on it:

 

In related news, we're still following the aftermath of our recent article detailing the often violent anti-Muslim/anti-refugee and anti-government rhetoric found on a number of Facebook groups such as PEGIDA Canada. We will be doing a follow-up soon, but we thought we would provide a preview of the reaction from one of the groups we were monitoring until recently, "Trudeau is Malignant":

Oh you are just adorable!

We can't seem to find the group any longer which means they have either shut it down or have figured out which of the 50+ members was our dummy profile. Either way, what was posted there wasn't much different than the bigoted, hateful, and often violent posts found in other groups.

We'll save that all for a later article, but for future reference just because we haven't mentioned you, doesn't mean we aren't aware of you.

In the meantime, let's talk about Paulie's latest adventure:

Worst. Abbey Road. Reenactment. Ever.

Paul Fromm and the Morality of the Movement

October was a big month for Paul Fromm. He was running for mayor of Mississauga in an election which, if it can be believed, he actually did worse than in his previous effort. Earlier in the month he was in Budapest to attend and speak at a conference organized by the racist National Policy Institute, though that event didn't exactly go off without a hitch.

And just after the election at the end of the month, Paulie was once again an honored guest and speaker at Thomas Robb's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan annual European American Heritage Festival, organized both by Robb and his daughter Rachel Pendergraft, which purports to be a family friendly affair:

Oh, and then there was this (NSFW).

Now when we alluded to this apparent leak of photographs, one of the individuals who commented on the article made the following statement:

IMO this isn't relevant to ARC's mission. Paul Fromm is a fucking Nazi. His marital problems I could care less about.

We would be hard pressed to disagree with that statement, which is why we didn't post the images on the blog here and why we really haven't referred to them since. However, over the last couple of months we decided that they do have relevance.

Reaction to the Tragedies in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa

Well I'm back.

Did I miss anything?

There are a lot of stories I would like to get to eventually. For example I've been digging up some information on a Winnipeg misanthrope posting on Stormfront as "vikingwarlord14" named Jonathan (and trust us when we note that the online moniker is yet another example of a delusion of grandeur). And god knows that Paulie's photos deserve more attention. Well, that's a poor choice of words. Dear god! Even when this writer takes some time off I'm subjected to a horror that so living soul should be subjected to. Paul Fromm. In a leather bondage thong. That's an image that, once seen, can never be unseen.

But I really think I would remiss if I didn't first make mention of the tragedies of the past week in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa.

I'm not going to belabor the basics that we all already know, though I will provide a brief background. Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo were murdered in two distinct attacks. The two accused, also dead, were Canadian-born recent converts to Islam who have been described as having been radicalized. Neither man appears to have known the other and the second attack in Ottawa appears to have been a copycat attack inspired by the events in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. At least one of the men had a long, troubled, history before his conversion to Islam and had been tossed out of a mosque as a result of his extremist views. The other had attempted to travel to Turkey in order to hook up with ISIS (a particularly evil, fascistic, Islamic movement in Syria and Iraq responsible for countless atrocities) but was prevented from doing so by the authorities; numerous people, including his parents and Imam, tried to steer him away from radical views but were sadly not successful. Both men may or may not have been inspired by ISIS' call for those supporting them to engage in attacks on targets overseas, though it appears likely there was no direct connection. Both may or may not have been mentally ill.

Since the attacks, Muslim Canadians have denounced the murders loudly and unambiguously:

Winnipeg Muslims condemn soldier attacks, fear backlash

Canadian Muslim group calls Ottawa attacks ‘repulsive’

Ottawa shooting: Canadian Muslims denounce attacks

While condemning the murder of Vincent and Cirillo is admirable, one might be troubled by what appears to be the assigning of group guilt to Muslim-Canadians. If there was not a condemnation of the attacks by Muslims, they would be accused of secretly supporting those attacks. I can't recall Roman Catholics in Canada being required to condemn the actions of the IRA, for example, or be suspected of implicitly supporting sectarian violence in Ireland.

But regardless of how many times our fellow Canadians denounce violence carried out by extremists, there seem to be those who will ignore those denunciations and still tar all Muslims as extremists, as our friend Ed Kennedy (formerly of the currently defunct Free Dominion) proves once again:

Not surprisingly, the boneheads we cover here on the blog also jumped into the mix. The irony of some of their comments given some of their criminal backgrounds (keep in mind that "Freedom Fighter" is Kyle McKee) appears lost on them:

October 2014 Bits and Bites: Thanksgiving Edition

As today is a day where people will be getting together to spend time with their loved ones, we thought we would give some attention to those bonehead, who will be spending this day alone, perhaps eating a can of corned beef over the sink while blaming the Jews for their social isolation.

Our first lonely shut-in is Tomasz Winnicki of London who has been mentioned on a number of occasions on this blog.Truth be told, we think he likes the attention since he frequently tries to get our attention. His efforts are usually for naught and that sort of frustrates him a little bit, however we do throw him a bone sometimes. For example, here is one of his comments concerning our posts on the Southern Ontario "Skinheads":

Yeah, in case it's unclear Tomasz is suggesting that he is the worthy opponent we should be engaging. Have we mentioned that he has a very high opinion of his intellect?

Okay, will give you a shot Tom. Call it an audition for the position of our foil. We'll take a look at one of the comments you made on "The London Free Press" concerning the recent election in Sweden to determine if you are a worthy opponent: