Yep, I'm still away and hopefully stretched out on a beach enjoying a Cuba Libre, though given my constitution more than likely laid up in a hotel room regretting not getting that Dukoral booster with a sunburn so bad you could roast a marshmallow using the heat radiating off my body. Either way, here is another now likely out-of-date article scheduled to publish while I'm away.
In a week from today, the Canadian Combat Coalition is planning on holding an event in Edmonton with the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam in attendance as well:
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| You were never fooling anyone with that name, Ryan. |
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| I'm sure everyone is waiting with bated breath to hear the oratory of one Joey DeLuca |
Given the disaster that the
June 24 June 25
MEGA Patriot Rally turned out to be, this might be perceived as an effort to save the CCC and WCAI reputation as actual significant players on the far-right anti-Muslim/refugee/immigrant scene. Certainly Ryan Dean and Joey DeLuca would like to return to the numbers that participated in the June 3 rally which was in large part bolstered by the presence of III% Alberta members who provided security.... and were carrying weapons, btw. The III% members didn't participate in the
MEGA rally ostensibly because of "security concerns" when the mayor of Calgary and Muslim student groups were invited by Garvey, however the head of the Alberta III% militia suggests another possible reason:
First, Beau Welling seems just a wee bit full of himself and the capabilities of the III% militia.
Second, even he seems to recognize that the CCC and WCAI are in fact hate groups. In this reply he does seem to be at pains to separate the III% Alberta militia from other groups. He also posted a message claiming to have spoken to the RCMP whom he claims doesn't regard the III% militia as a hate group:
Oh, not a "pure hate group."
Well that is certainly reassuring.
If such a conversation did take place, I'm guessing that Beau is either gilding the lily or really didn't understand the nature of the discussion because given the rhetoric of the membership, the III% would absolutely be on the radar of the RCMP.
At the beginning of July
ARC published an article discussing the decline of the Soldiers of Odin and how the membership is drifting into other, perhaps even more extreme, movements. This fella who was (and may still be) in an SoO leadership position is a case in point:
Also, last month Mack Lamoureux
wrote an article for "Vice" detailing a months long investigation into the III% movement, focusing specifically on the Alberta chapter which appears to be the most active as well as a sit down interview with Beau Welling. The article indicates the III% militia is a deeply paranoid, anti-Muslim group that readily accepts any conspiracy theory that confirms their biases. This may be somewhat of a concern under normal circumstances, but add the stockpiling of weapons for a future civil war and the "monitoring" of those citizens they consider to be un-Canadian, well, the danger meter is sort of dialed to 11.
First, let's take a look at the claim that they aren't racists. As of the writing of this article, the New Democratic Party is in the midst of a leadership campaign. One of the candidates is Jagmeet Singh, a Canadian-born Sikh (and a much better dresser than I am). The presence of Singh, who again I stress was born in Canada, was commented on by at least some III% supporters:
Well, maybe their antipathy was directed more towards the NDP, though I somehow doubt that is the whole reason.
One thing that is crystal clear though is the III% Alberta hatred of Muslims. Here are but a few of the posts that illustrate that:
There's also the anti-Muslim conspiracy theories that get trotted out with frequency:
They also seem to attract a few people who are.... shall we say questionable?
Well Evert, Thomas Trenerry certainly didn't stand alone when the Aryan Guard was a going concern:
Trenerry's involvement in the III% militia actually brings me to the other reason why the RCMP would be keeping an eye on the III% militia. Even if the racism and Islamophobia was not present, the III% militia would be a concern due to their anti-government position that is often (hell, usually) violent in nature, at least rhetorically speaking:
Again, the following is merely a Whitman's Sampler of anti-government rhetoric from III% supporters on the Alberta Facebook, national, and other provincial Facebook groups, much of which is directed at the current Prime Minister and would probably constitute a crime:
And then there is there is how they monitor people. Not just the Muslims, as was evident in the Vice article, but also their ideological opponents:
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Not Jason, or Bonnie, or Andy, or Shane, or Marcell, or Syed, or Leah, or Julian, or Richard, or Charles, or Grace, or Martin, or Alan, or "two brothers in Calgary," or any of the other people that have been erroneously listed as writers of the blog. Some of the names aren't even ones I recognize as activists. It has been almost a decade and you still have yet to get it right. Then again why listen to me now when you haven't so far?
Really, you people are very bad at this. |
Don't think that being a bystander gets you off the hook. Not showing the requisite amount of patriotism for a III% supporter might be enough to put you or, as in this case, your neighborhood on the list:
When reading posts such as these, I can't help thinking of the line from Alan Moore's groundbreaking comic series:
Who watches the watchmen?
