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Sunday, March 03, 2019

The Real Battle For Freedom of Expression

I would like to ask readers for financial assistance.

Not for me.

For him:



Michael Bueckert is a graduate student at Carleton University who is being sued for what I would regard to be an accurate assessment of the Orwellian-named "uOttawa Students for Free Speech":












Mr. Bueckert is a passionate social justice advocate opposing the efforts of the Ford government in Ontario and has been one of the more effective folks on Twitter at exposing the links between racists and "mainstream politicians" as well as the connection between the so-called "free speechers" and the alt-right. And because of this, he has become a target.

He isn't alone.

In fact there seems to be a full court press to silence those who are exposing the haters for who they really are:








Facebook removed the Yellow Vests Canada Exposed Facebook page due to complaints by members of the reactionary Yellow Vest Canada. In the meantime, the Yellow Vests Canada page is still up:
















These groups aren't concerned at all with "freedom of speech" or "freedom of expression" in any real sense other than their OWN freedom from criticism.

I would ask readers to contribute to Mr. Bueckert's legal battle because it will have long term consequences.
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Saturday, March 02, 2019

Goldy Goes To CPAC.... And Is Very Disappointed

As I've been battling the worst man cold in the history of man colds (really, it actually might be the most virulent cold since history began and that is TOTALLY not an exaggeration), I've been sticking close to home medicating myself with port and Netflix documentaries; cold medication might be more efficacious but not as much fun. However I decided to pull myself from the sofa, wrap a knitted afghan around myself, and head into the office to make a rare foray into American politics.

This weekend the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, is being held in Maryland just a bit downriver from Washington D.C. CPAC has, in addition to attracting a who's who of whom might be regarded as mainstream conservative politicians and activists, has increasingly attracted those from the fringes of the movement including ethnic nationalists, identitarians, and alt-righters in addition to regular bunch of conspiracy nutbars and general grifters.

Case in point:


It really is amazing how these folks are drawn to each other. Here Goldy is with fellow CPAC attendee Jacob Wohl (no doubt at some hipster coffee shop), freshly banned from Twitter because he's blisteringly stupid. Wohl, a Trump sycophant who makes R.M. Renfield appear dignified by comparison, is known for among other things being banned from trading in futures for life as a result of massive fraud and attempting (badly) to frame Robert Mueller for sexual assault. He is at CPAC promoting yet another conspiracy theory concerning Rep. Ilhan Omar along with fellow grifter Laura Loomer:


Ostensibly Goldy is attending CPAC as a "journalist" working for the anti-immigration, white nationalist org VDare, however as readers know she is also very much a partisan:


However it seems that things at CPAC aren't going quite as well as Goldy would like. In fact I can't help thinking about this scene in "The Simpsons" when reading her Twitter feed:











It appears that CPAC, while still super racists, isn't quite racist enough:



Goldy runs through a number of complaints about her time at CPAC, though those complaints really do come down mainly to her not thinking the organizers are anti-immigration enough. Her tweets retweets tell the story of increasing frustration about how there wasn't enough focus on her pet issue:

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Tuesday, February 26, 2019

More Fallout From the Yellow Vests Convoy: Video Exposes Major Fault Lines

I had asked the folks at Yellow Vests Canada Exposed for a brief overview of the event. This is what they were kind enough to provide:
As I have mentioned via our Facebook and Twitter pages, I was at the 'United We Roll' yellow vest rally in Ottawa. To me, the most important thing worth mentioning about the rally was the low numbers. 

 
I counted 90 trucks, which was a far cry from the hundreds promised. Before the rally I predicted 80. I counted 200-300 people, but others have counted less than 200. Before the rally I predicted 400-500. There were also around 50 counter protesters. When the trucks finally rolled out, there were more counter protesters left than supporters watching them leave. 
I did personally view representatives from a few couple hate groups, mainly C3 and Northern Guard. I also saw other far right figures. Faith Goldy was in attendance, as well as lesser known figures such as Derek Storie and Rick Boswick. I believe some of the yellow vest supporters were Proud Boys, but I was unable to verify.
I did witness one Yellow Vest supporter shouting into a bull horn at the mostly indigenous counter protesters, that 'oil pays for their welfare'. I also saw Derek Storie and Pat King (UWR organizer) mocking the indigenous drumming. The loudest crowd I heard, was when Faith Goldy stood on the lift truck. Lots of booing, and chants of  'nazi scum, off our streets', and 'Faith Goldy's a nazi'. They kept using the horns on the semis to drown out the counter protesters. It was really obnoxious, which if I could use one word to describe the entire rally, that would be it. 
This next picture made the whole experience worth it though.




In short, the "United We Roll"/Yellow Vests Convoy to Ottawa turned out to be at best disappointing and at worst a PR disaster that politicians who embraced it are now trying to justify in light of the white nationalist ties:

And thanks to this find by YVC Exposed, there's more.

Since the end of the convoy there have been accusations of financial irregularities, personal rivalries coming out into the open, and anger over how participants were treated. One of those individuals, Bruce Ruddi, posted the following video to Facebook. The video is over two hours in length (I didn't have time to cut out the juicy parts) and there's a fair amount of shouting, but it is worth watching if only to see how quickly these reactionaries turn on each other: 


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Sunday, February 24, 2019

Marc "Tyler" Malenfant of Yellow Vests Canada: The Dangers of Dehumanization

I still plan on posting a report on the events of last week in Ottawa, however I thought I'd first dive back into the reactionary Yellow Vests Canada Facebook page created and administered by Marc "Tyler" Malenfant. Malenfant was one of the early boosters of the Yellow Vest Convoy to Ottawa which rebranded as United We Roll. As the folks at Yellow Vests Canada Exposed have noted, there is a lot of infighting now regarding the distributions of funds by the the man who is the face of the protest movement and Malenfant comes out to defend him in his usual over-the-top manner:


For Malenfant, there always has to be an enemy and a dark, sinister, conspiracy that he discusses using over-the-top hyperbole, nonsensical generalizations, outright lies, and logical fallacies such as creating a strawman. It has become the hallmark of his online presence. I provide a few other recent posts on the Facebook group as illustrative examples:







"Even better."

"Even more."

What does any of what he wrote there even mean?

Malenfant's rhetoric appears to becoming increasingly.... odd?Unhinged? Evangelical, end time, apocalyptic?

Take for example the "pep talk" he gave to members of the Yellow Vests Canada Facebook group prior to the Ottawa convoy:


Read more »
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Saturday, February 23, 2019

Yellow Vesters and Others, Including (Former?) Soldier Continuing to Engage In Assassination Fantasies

On Thursday, Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick appeared before the House of Commons justice committee to address questions concerning SNC-Lavalin, however he also discussed the increasingly dangerous political climate specifically referring to an incident during the United We Roll/Yellow Vests rally that occurred earlier in the week:





Wernick spoke about his concern that the language being used by some politicians were examples of, "violence-inciting rhetoric that may lead to an assassination during the upcoming federal election campaign." A number of politicians on the right criticized Mr. Wernick as well as others who echoed his concerns:






Of course this blog as well as Yellow Vests Canada Exposed, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, and a number of journalist have already provided ample evidence for Mr. Wernick's and Ms. Khalid's statements:



Mr. Wernick's concerns were dismissed by Yellow Vests Canada founder and Facebook group administrator Marc "Tyler" Malenfant who suggested that any attempt to murder a Canadian politician would be a "false flag" which is the claim made by similar groups whenever the toxic rhetoric results in a real world tragedy. Not surprisingly he used the recent case of Jussie Smollett to make his point:


Also not surprisingly, those posting responded agreed:







Of course one can already see the problem with Malenfant's claim in that even in this thread many reactionary Yellow Vest members are openly hoping for the assassination of the prime minister. Also problematic is that prior to Malenfant suggesting that any attempt to murder Trudeau would be a false flag, the topic was already being discussed on the group's Facebook page:


There are two threads responding to this specific link. I would first note that it is a link not to a reputable news site, but that of the Cultural Action Party, a fringe ethnic nationalist party run by Brad Salzberg who has ties to hate groups including the Soldiers of Odin and the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam. The title itself is misleading; Mr. Wernick wasn't specifically referring to the SNC-Lavalin situation but to the general political atmosphere. Also, while Wernick doesn't specifially refer to Trudeau, those commenting assume that he is referring to the prime minister as the potential target and theeyyyyy LOVE that!









There is also a longer second thread referring to the same Cultural Action Party link:
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Friday, February 22, 2019

Preview: The Aftermath of the Yellow Vest Convoy



I was on a business trip during the actual rally portion of the United We Roll/Yellow Vest Convoy to Ottawa. There was a time when I would be sorry about not being able to cover such an event since ARC was for so long one of the few sites documenting the activities of racist extremists. However with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and Yellow Vests Canada Exposed, I had no doubt that the story would still be told.

I've asked the folks behind the Yellow Vests Canada Exposed if they would be willing to write an account of the two days. A spokesperson has agreed to do so and I hope that something will be ready to be published during the next few days. In the meantime, it appears that the convoy might have ended up as a bit of a disaster as relatively few showed up, the convoy wasn't quite as (grass roots) as claimed (some of the participants were quite literally "paid protesters), those that did include white supremacists and white nationalists, and there is now accusations by some of the participants that money raised has not been distributed leaving some struggling to find a way back home:

Still, a number of high profile conservative politicians, including Scheer and Bernier, came out to support the extremists:



More detail in the next few days.
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Monday, February 18, 2019

More Extremists Associated With Yellow Vests Convoy to Ottawa: Christopher Hayes

Well it seems the efforts of Yellow Jackets Canada Exposed and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (and perhaps to some small extent my own) have resulted in a statement regarding David Selvers from someone who looks to be an organizer for the convoy:


Well that's just lovely, however his Facebook post last night sort of belies that claim:


In the meantime, Selvers has taken to complaining about how he's the victim of a smear campaign for.... you know.... posting exactly what he himself wrote on his blog:




If you would like to be reminded about who Dave Selvers is and what he has written, feel free to click on the following links:

Not that Selvers isn't without his champions:


Deon R. Doiron has responded to Tweets by ARC, Yellow Vests Canada Exposed, and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network that both support Selvers and the convoy:




Then there's this:


And in further news that will surprise almost no one, Doiron is a supporter of Bernier's PPC and claims to be a "founding member":



Shocked! I'm shocked!

Well, not so shocked actually.

Getting back to the Convoy to Ottawa event, while it is nice that Jason Corbeil claims that Selvers is just a "bad apple" and not indicative of the beliefs of the others involved, it takes very little to find more examples of "bad apples" like Selvers.

With that, let me reacquaint readers with someone who hasn't appeared on the blog for a while, Christopher Hayes:

 
Christopher Hayes first came to ARC's attention when, as someone linked to the Soldiers of Odin through his own support and through his brother who was a chapter leader in Saskatchewan, he was arrested for making threats against the Prime Minister. Hayes was eventually convicted and spent roughly a year on probation. 

He was also active in his support of the III% militia:


In addition to his anti-government (and anti-vaccination, btw) stance, Hayes was also virulently Islamophobic:


 
During this time he was drawn to and became a member of the WCAI (Worldwide Coalition Against Islam), soon becoming the Saskatchewan "captain":

Here his is promoting both the WCAI and their protest outside a Red Deer high school where members of the the WCAI harassed school administration and students:

He also spoke at WCAI events in Calgary, including the ill fated MEGA Patriot Rally that turned out to be considerably less than mega:

In short, Christopher Hayes appears to be kind of person, an extremist member and supporter of several hate groups, that Jason Corbeil says is decidedly NOT welcome in their convoy.

And yet....


Yeah, Christopher Hayes is one of the participants in the Ottawa convoy:
Read more »
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