Showing posts with label Lily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lily. Show all posts

Monday, November 16, 2020

Pro-Terror Neo-Nazi Attending Toronto Anti-Lockdown Protests

Toronto has been a focal point for protests against mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as against government lock downs. It's also been a hot spot for new COVID cases which I'm sure is just a coincidence, but I digress. 

We have covered the Toronto COVID protests on the blog before, which focused on some of the far-right patriots and neo-Nazis that were attending, as well as some of the racist/Islamphobic social media history of prominent anti-masker Chris Saccoccia.

Some of the far-right attendees of Toronto anti-mask protests include neo-Nazis Tomas Liko and Paul Fromm,  hate rag Your Ward News editor James Sears, Toronto agitator Lily, Chris Vanderweide and Leigh Stuart, and anti-muslim vlogger Kevin Johnston. 

Fringe extreme right involvement is not limited to Toronto. Some of the Vancouver rallies were partially organized by neo-Nazi Brian Ruhe. Antisemitic Holocaust denier David Icke spoke at a Vancouver rally on October 17 and 18. 

Recently we discovered that someone who subscribes to a far more alarming neo-Nazi belief system has been attending COVID rallies in Toronto and is tied to at least one organizer. The unfortunately named Michael Bolton has used multiple social media platforms to express his support for neo-Nazism, including the accelerationist network Atomwaffen Division.

Background photo is the logo of the Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists



Facebook description mentions the Boogaloo movement



Bolton regularly expresses support for Atomwaffen, a violent neo-Nazi accelerationist organization which originated on the Iron March forum. Northern Order is a Canadian-based cell of Atomwaffen. 1488 is of course a reference to the white supremacist 14 words and 88 is code for Heil Hitler.

It isn't clear whether Bolton is or was a member of Northern Order, though he has posted about the group favourably: 




Mike Bolton interviewed by David Menzies of The Rebel at an anti-mask rally. Mother Joanne MacFarlane on the left and one of his brothers on the right.  


Mike comes from what one could easily described as a right-wing family. Members of his family post far-right content on Facebook including support for QAnon and The Proud Boys, but not going so far as showing support for neo-Nazism, though the majority don't seem bothered by Bolton's views. Their trips to anti-mask rallies are clearly a family outing. 

His mother, Joanne MacFarland, and his father, Dave Bolton, as well as siblings Andrew and Colin all attend the rallies with Bolton. 


Bolton's family members en route to a rally from Newmarket, ON 

Maxime Bernier posing with three members of the Bolton family; Andrew and Colin in the back

Bolton's father Dave Bolton

Dave Bolton regularly reposts fringe right content, including posts supportive of the Proud Boys, an extremist, violent group which, after the election, descended on Washington, DC and attacked people at the so-called Million MAGA March. 


Bolton has also shared QAnon propaganda: 


Bolton's mother Joanne has posted anti-LGBTQ+ and antisemitic content, as well as support for the violent Proud Boys:  



And posts supporting violence against their political opposition: 


Including memes referencing Pinochet -- the Chilean dictator who became infamous for his men throwing communists from helicopters. 


Mike's brother Andrew Bolton also being interviewed by David Menzies of The Rebel


Mike's brother Colin Bolton , pictured on his Facebook with Chris Saccoccia


In such a far-right wing family it's not surprising that at least one of them has turned to overt neo-Nazi beliefs. That said Mike's social media use is much more concerning than what can easily be found from the others. 

"Day of the Rake," a play on "Day of the Rope," referencing when the US will invade Canada 

Holocaust denial posted by Mike Bolton



Bolton's Gab account, showing violent antisemitic content 

Bolton's Gab, referencing support for both the Yellow Vests and Killdozer, who has become a far-right meme

Bolton's Minds account

What is interesting about Mike Bolton's Facebook account, is that he's friends with a few other anti-maskers, one of whom is an administrator and organizer for MAD (Mother's Against Distancing) the group started by Chris Saccoccia. 

Omari Taylor is very involved in Toronto's anti-mask events. Strangely enough Mike Bolton is not his only neo-Nazi friend on Facebook.

Gus Stefanis was a candidate for the neo-Nazi Canadian Nationalist Party and Lily Musa (AKA Peter Smith) is a supporter.

Even when Omari was shown evidence for past racist comments made by Chris Saccoccia he chose to downplay and ignore them.


These comments were made on an anti-mask spoof page

I'm not one to judge who someone calls a friend, but would it be out of line to suggest that maybe it's not in Omari's best interest to be surrounding himself with so many neo-Nazis?



His call I suppose.
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Sunday, July 05, 2020

Canada Day 2020: Far-Right Rally Tries, Fails to Storm the Hill and Armed QAnon Believer Attempts to Enter Rideau Hall

With promises of thousands of people showing and multiple suggestions that there would be violence if they were opposed, a far-right rally which had been planned since shortly after the election last year took place on Canada Day in downtown Ottawa, and was mostly uneventful. All the video and photos of the event as well as our on the ground presence suggest that around 400 people showed up.
Conclusive numbers are difficult for an event like this, as there were many people in the area of Parliament Hill just trying to enjoy Canada Day. Nevertheless the patriots will take any opportunity to inflate their numbers. Even the easily disproved suggestion that 10,000 people were on parliament hill, is still a far cry from the 20,000+ that organizer Mark Friesen wanted. 
And that is so often the story when the far-right organizes events. They've been planning this for 8 months, pulled people in from all around the country and only managed a gathering of around 400 people. In contrast a BLM march took place weeks earlier which was attended by around 7000 people that were mostly local to Ottawa, and was only planned a week or two beforehand. 

The event was attended by the usual cadre of far-right groups. Members of The Canadian Combat Coalition, Northern Guard, Urban Infidels, and the Yellow Vests were present, as well as neo-Nazis Paul Fromm and Tomas Liko. White nationalist Derek Harrison of Plaid Army also attended. There were many people wearing QAnon and Free North Patriots paraphernalia who are heavily associated with the "End the Lockdown" protests.
One of the many QAnon signs at the Canada Day rally
Paul Fromm at the Canada Day Rally
Bonehead Tomas Liko at the Canada Day Rally. Seems he left his Skrewdriver shirt at home.
Derek Harrison on the left

The QAnon conspiracy theorists were so pervasive at the rally that right-wing right-wing grifter Norman Traversy led his crowd in a chant of the QAnon slogan"where we go one we go all". Traversy's GoFundMe campaign that was originally started in order to bring criminal charges against Justin Trudeau for the SNC Lavalin scandal, but was thrown out due to lack of evidence (because of course it was,) has raised over $120,000. Traversy has shifted legal gears and is claiming that Justin Trudeau is responsible for, among other things, child trafficking and the Robert Pickton murders.

During the Canada Day rally he led a march to the U.S. embassy where he attempted to deliver a legal document calling for Mexico and the United States to investigate Trudeau, due to a misinterpretation of the UMSCA trade law. As the UMSCA agreement took effect on July 1, many in the patriot movement believe that Trump now controls Canada, and an investigation and imprisonment and/or execution of Trudeau is imminent.

Traversy, who insisted that US embassy officials were expecting the document delivery, failed to actually deliver the paperwork, as... no one was there to accept it. He brushed that off though, claiming it had already been emailed.

Later in the week he delivered the the documents to the Mexican embassy, but didn't know the name of the Mexican president, instead asking it be delivered to "President Maduro," the Venezuelan president.

The Q Reddit account allegedly gave a shout out, acknowledging the rally:

Another concern was the presence of gun rights activists, and "Boogaloo Bois", who were recently covered in a report by CBC News.



Source:

Chris Vanderweide apparently violated his bail restrictions and was arrested for setting off fireworks.
Vanderweide, Leigh Stuart, and Jordan Justein at the rally

PPC leader Maxime Bernier gave a speech during the rally where he spoke out against supposed "globalism", multiculturalism, and the U.N.

From Lily's YouTube channel
Kevin Johnston took some time away from losing multi-million dollar defamation suits to give a speech declaring his intention to run for mayor of the city of Calgary. Yeah, that happened. Giving him a platform is a perfect way to take away any legitimacy your rally ever had.

From Rick Boswick's YouTube channel

There was a table set up on Parliament Hill with bottles of water. They were initially trying to sell the bottles but were told by security that sales are not permitted on Parliament Hill and they would either have to move or give them away. According to our contact on the ground, they overheard the attendees bragging about how caring they were for bringing free water for everyone.

Photo taken by rally attendee
More seriously, on July 2nd an armed man allegedly rammed his truck through the gates of Rideau Hall. Canadian Reservist Corey Hurren was charged with 22 offences, mostly related to firearms. Of concern were his social media posts related to the QAnon conspiracy theories. It is unclear at this point whether or not he attended the rally on Parliament Hill.

Alleged Rideau Hall Attacker Corey Hurren
The far-right are now supporting the alleged actions of Corey Hurren and claiming that he'd just had enough of Trudeau and acted rationally. He's also being touted as a hero. At the same time many of them are also calling the incident a "false-flag event".
Regardless of how people view the incident at Rideau Hall and the rally on Parliament Hill, it's impossible to deny the connection between QAnon conspiracy beliefs, and what we would describe as a terrorist act against a current Prime Minister.

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Sunday, May 24, 2020

Chris Saccoccia: Privileged Yellow Vester Participating in Toronto Anti-Lockdown Rallies

Multiple cities across Canada (and the world) have seen a rise in anti-lockdown protests intended to counter current lockdown procedures put in place to inhibit the spread of COVID-19. The rallies in Toronto have been some of the largest in Canada, with a few hundred people attending.

The Toronto rallies (like other rallies in Canada and elsewhere) have included members of the far-right, hate groups, and neo-Nazis. Confirmed in attendance at Toronto rallies:

Ron Banjeree, known at the rallies for promoting extreme sinophobia, neo-Nazi Paul Fromm, former/current Proud Boy Josh Chernofsky, far-right vlogger Wayne Peters, and Northern Guard's Ed Jamnisek:

The person with question marks has been identified as neo-Nazi bonehead Tomas Liko
In the last few days, we identified a previously unknown attending the rally with Paul Fromm as neo-Nazi Tomas Liko, who was interviewed by The Rebel's David Menzies.


Hamilton Yellow Vesters Justin and Rebecca Long, who are frequently sharing more bizarre Covid-19 conspiracies on social media:

Long has been a speaker at these rallies

 Far-right vlogger Derek Storie, who was present at the 2019 attack on Hamilton Pride:


Canadian Nationalist Party supporter and frequent agitator Lily, who has uploaded videos claiming to be upset more Chinese have not been killed by the virus:


 And Jack Reynolds, who regularly attends Pegida rallies, just to name a few.


One person involved with the Toronto rallies who has been a vocal supporter and has given speeches during the events has caught our attention. Going under the name 'Chris Sky' on Facebook, he was displayed with a megaphone in the lead photo on a BlogTO article and was featured in the thumbnail for videos by The Rebel. He was also interviewed by Ed the Sock where he claimed that there is no COVID-19 curve to flatten.



We mentioned Chris in a recent tweet after the Ed the Sock video came out, but we didn't go much further than a giving his Facebook activity a quick glance.
As stated in the initial tweet, 'Chris Sky' is a member of multiple far-right Facebook groups, and has promoted the racist National Citizens Alliance.
The yellow vests are known for being xenophobic and anti-Muslim.

Facts vs Feelings is Rick Boswick's YouTube channel.

Upon further investigation we found out that 'Chris Sky' is actually Chris Saccoccia, and his far-right activities go a little further than just being a member of certain Facebook groups. Chris is also the vice president for a prominent Toronto real estate developer, SkyHomes.

Saccoccia accusing another account of impersonating him 



Chris isn't the only Saccocia at SkyHomes. Art Saccoccia, a well-respected and prominent business owner who shares Chris' last name, heads the company.The relationship between the two is not clear. 


We've found him making bigoted posts in far-right Facebook groups as well as on his own wall.

Chris Saccoccia promoting the white supremacist and conspiratorial Great Replacement Theory on a Yellow Vests page
Saccoccia was an active poster in the early days of the Canadian Yellow Vest movement

Chris promoting the conspiracy theory that Muslims set fire to Notre Dame.


He doesn't just share racist and Islamophobic viewpoints, but homophobic as well
In addition to the bigotry that he's been peddling online, he's also promoted anti-vaccination, 5G conspiracies, and climate change denier content.
 

David Icke has been banned from YouTube and Facebook for spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
Film your hospital is a campaign started by COVID-19 deniers attempting to downplay the virus.
On top of all the misleading and bigoted things he is sharing, according to him his job is an essential service and his business never shut down.


Saccoccia's wife, Jenny, is also sharing Covid-19 conspiracies across Telegram to her 73,000 followers, and using her platform to promote her husband's political activities. Interestingly, Jenny Saccoccia's Instagram account was apolitical until the pandemic, and used largely to promote her modeling.






Jenny promoted husband Chris at the rallies




Like so many involved with the far-right Chris and Jenny Saccoccia appear to be an opportunists looking for attention and seeking power. It's unclear what kind of influence they have on the overall anti-lockdown movement in Toronto, however their reach and presumably affluent social circles, Chris Saccoccia's racism, along with spreading dangerous conspiracy theories, are concerning.

We along with other researchers will continue to monitor the 'anti-lockdown' rallies for more far-right and fascist involvement. 

Update:
Chris Saccoccia appears to be joining the right-wing grift game. According to him he wants to pursue a class action lawsuit against the government for the lockdown.
 
 

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