Diagolon and Trolling: How To Minimize Platforming the Far-Right and Instead Provide Context

Over the years there has been a lot of discussion about the danger of platforming right wing extremists. It's an issue that I've wrestled with for years myself here on the blog and also on Twitter. On the one hand I've always believed that it was important to share information about could amount to a significant danger to the community; the best disinfectant is sunlight after all. 

But as I tried to expose those individuals and groups who could cause real harm, I also tried to do so in a way that didn't give them any sort of power. A lot of these individuals and groups WANT others to talk about them because uncritical examination allows the noxious beliefs to spread more widely.

In order to try to avoid that I generally employ two primary strategies. The first is mockery. The bigots and hate groups I covered have all been so very self-serious. Using humour as a means of disarming and showing how utterly ridiculous that they are while at the same time showing the public why we should also be concerned often took the wind out of their sails, so to speak.

Also, I'm naturally snarky so there's that too.

The second thing I do which I think is far more important is to try as best I can to provide the critical context for the stories I shared (hence why I was and continue to be verbose as hell) and to avoid telling the narrative that THEY want shared.

So with that, let's engage go through that process by discussing the critical context behind this still I took from a video posted by Derek Harrison of the Plaid Army/Diagolon on his Telegram page:

Shane Marshall and Pierre Poilievre

This photo shows Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre shaking hands with Shane Marshall. If the name "Shane Marshall" is familiar at all, it is likely because of an incident that occurred during the 2021 federal election where Marshall threw pebbles at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

• Trudeau hit by gravel as protesters surround campaign bus in London, Ont.
• People's Party of Canada drops riding president over stone-throwing incident at Trudeau event
• Trudeau lawyers fight subpoena for his testimony at stone-throwing trial
• Trudeau won't have to testify at trial of man accused of throwing gravel during London, Ont., campaign stop
• Trial date set for man accused of throwing gravel at Trudeau at 2021 London, Ont., event

Earlier this month, Marshall pleaded guilty to common assault (he had originally been charged with assault with a weapon). The video taken of him shaking hands with Poilievre occurred prior to Marshall's trial where he pled guilty on the first day.

Marshall is also a figure who has been covered by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network for his ties to the overtly racist Canada First and the accelerationist Diagolon:

• PPC RIDING DIRECTOR RUNS MULTIPLE WHITE NATIONALIST SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
• KNOWN WHITE NATIONALISTS SPOTTED AT VIOLENT ANTI-TRUDEAU DEMONSTRATION

Marshall was among those who attended the occupation in Ottawa in February 2022 where he was both photographed with then Canada First leader Tyler Russell (who now lives in the United States and runs with Nick Fuentes) and Diagolon de facto leader Jeremy MacKenzie:

Marshall and Tyler Russell left; Russell and Nick Fuentes right

Marshall and Russell with Jeremy MacKenzie during
the "Freedom Convoy" occupation of Ottawa, 2022

Marshall was also briefly detained in Ottawa during the occupation.

So when one looks at this photo of Shane Marshall and Pierre Poilievre, one's first instinct might be to suggest this is proof that Poilievre is courting far right extremists. Without any other context and, given Mr. Poilievre's own dog whistles since becoming leader, that might be a reasonable conclusion... EXCEPT that the context here is critical to understanding what we are actually seeing.

I found the video from which the still is taken on Derek Harrison's Telegram page. Harrison is someone who has been profiled here on the blog a number of times -- I first came across Harrison when he was volunteering for white nationalist Faith Goldy's mayoral campaign -- and he is, I guess, a sort of founding father of the Plaid Army and Diagolon. Harrison's antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric is well know to people who study this ecosystem.

Harrison and other Dags attended Marshall's trial in support. Suffice to say that it doesn't seem that any of them are especially contrite:

Shane has all the charisma of a soggy phonebook from 1992.

Marshall and Derek Harrison flanked by two unknown Dags.

The context of the video still with Marshall, a former PPC riding president who was working on Chelsea Hillier's campaign and an associate of Diagolon (many of whose members are supporters of the PPC and Bernier), and Pierre Poilievre who is the leader of a rival conservative political party is very important however:

Pictured from left to right: Derek Harrison, Maxine Bernier, Chelsea Hillier, and Tyler Russell

MacKenzie, Bernier, Harrison

Diagolon in general and in this case Harrison specifically loathe the Conservative Party, claiming that the CPC and the Liberals are simply two sides of the same corrupt, globalist, coin:

A Re-examination of An Old Story: Jake Logan Findell

It has been more than a year since Ricochet published a piece linking a UCP staff member to an overly racist online military surplus store:

Adam Strashok (left) with former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall

The story of Adam Strashok turned out to be a bit of a rabbit hole in that it exposed the the light of day a rot withing Alberta conservative campus political groups tying some members to white supremacist groups such as ID Canada or, in the case of Keean Bexte, an employee of Ezra Levant's Islamophobic and conspiracy driven Rebel Media:

• Adam Strashok: ID Canada, WCAI, and Conservative Politics in Alberta
• University of Calgary Conservative Club Members Linked To FireForce Ventures
• More Members and Associates of Calgary University and College Conservative Clubs Linked to "Alt-Right" Racist Ideology
• The Cozy Relationship Between Rebel Media Personalities (Past and Present) and White Nationalist Generation Identity/ID Canada

Not long ago I started to look into other members of Alberta campus conservative clubs primarily in Calgary one of whom has become of primary interest due to his current status as a staff member of Jason Kenney's UPC (it should be noted that Strashok also worked for the UCP and Bexte endorsed Kenney while a member of the Calgary Conservative Club and has used his position as a Rebel Media personality to promote Mr. Kenney and his government):

I'm thinking that this might perhaps warrant a future article?

In the meantime I thought I would cover material that I hadn't included in the previous articles from last autumn.

We know that Strashok posted on social media using a few different pseudonyms in addition to his real name. Two of those names were highlighted in the Ricochet article. He used the pseudonym "Alexei Kuznetsov" primarily on Facebook but he also posted on the Vibrant Diversity channel on Discord as "Guynumber7" where, thanks to the Discord leak, we were able to find gems of wisdom such as these screeds:

Strashok wasn't a prolific poster in this channel (perhaps more from a yet unreleased Discord channel will one day be added to the leak) but the same can't be said for the person who advocated for his membership:

"Adrien Arcand" (the user having named himself after the Quebecois fascist leader of the 1930s and 40s) is one of two known pseudonyms used by Jake Logan Findell on social media (this one was used on both Discord and Twitter) who has been discussed on ARC:

In fact Findell was the subject of an earlier story in September 2018 when he and a still unknown individual were caught in the act of disseminating ID Canada materials on the grounds of the University of Alberta:

We had been told that Findell was not a member of the Calgary Conservative Club and may not have even been a university student. Even if he didn't he was very much an associate of that particular group:

Let's get back to the "Adrien Arcand" pseudonym Findell used on various social media platforms. Note please that I will be bouncing back and forth between Findell's Twitter and Discord posts:

Findell appears to have been closely following the Fireforce Ventures story, particularly the focus on Strashok. In fact Findell was angry at the UCP when a Twitter user supporting Bernier's PPC suggested that people like Strashok had no place in the party (though subsequent evidence supports the contrary view):

Findell not surprisingly didn't always feel this way:

Not long after ARC helped break the story concerning Keean Bexte's own involvement with Fireforce Ventures, Findell responded to a Tweet by the NDP defending the online military surplus store:

Findell's sarcasm seems disingenuous in light of this post on Discord concerning a brick and mortar store in Calgary selling Nazi paraphernalia:

In another discord chat he seems to know exactly what both the Confederate and Rhodesian flags represent:

In fact Findell is quite a fan of flags:

This photo was taken at a Worldwide Coalition Against Islam rally at Calgary City Hall on June 3, 2017 attended by hate groups including WCAI, the Canadian Combat Coalition (prior to Ryan Dean being booted), and Soldiers of Odin. Also in attendance was Paul Fromm:

The next month Findell posted this in response to criticism leveled at Fromm whose use of the Red Ensign has tainted the flag and a half-hearted disavowal of Fromm by the Proud Boys:

 And of course we can't forget his affinity for Generation Identity/ID Canada iconography:

Having looked at Findell's activities online is seems fairly evident that he has likely been responsible for a significant amount of the far-right materials found at the University of Calgary:

For example, Findell had taken special interest in The Rocks outside the MacEwan Student Centre:

And while I can't say for certain that he was directly involved in this effort....

.... he was certainly associated with people who probably would have.

Other revelations are also quite interesting:

We do now know that Findell was responsible, either on his own or with others, for a spectacularly clumsy effort to defame Calgary-based antifascist groups. At this time a fake Facebook profile was created that fooled no one except for the credulous far-right such as Never Again Canada who, by coincidence, are mentioned in this recent article, "Inside the hate factory: how Facebook fuels far-right profit":

Findell has a great deal to say about Jews too, including this representative sample:

As such we probably shouldn't be especially surprised that he followed the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Findell spent much of the next three days retweeting the days' events:

He did find the time to post his own witty retort directed towards an opponent of the event:

Then this happened:

Findell didn't comment on the murder of Heather Heyer by one of his fellow travelers directly on Twitter, though he did continue discussing the event and how poorly the racists were treated:

On Discord, Findell posted this:

I understand that discussing Findell now more than a year after he was exposed by the blog might be seen as less relevant, however Findell can be seen as a bit of a case study of the kind of person who is attracted to this movement. It also helps to remind our readers that despite their claims, people like Findell are racists who celebrate their hatred when they think no one can see it.

Suffice it to say I think exposing Jake Findell and people like him to the light of day continues to serve the common good.