Showing posts with label Alex Vriend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex Vriend. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Far-right Infighting Surrounding The Trial Of The Coutts 4

Last month the far-right in Canada had multiple situations that included bitter infighting. Notably much of it surrounded accusations by Ezra Levant that Diagolon founder Jeremy Mackenzie is a "fed".

Well let's discuss some of what happened. A lot went on and it was hard to keep track of who was angry at whom and for what reasons but we'll piece some of it together and check out some of the no-no information that was released as a result. We'll start with the accusations that Jeremy Mackenzie is a "fed". As previously noted Ezra Levant made the claim and received some major backlash from the Diagolon community.

This re-ignited the feud between Jeremy Mackenzie and Rohan Kumar Pall AKA: Warcampaign. Ro did a livestream where he really went at Jeremy and some of the things he said are worth noting. He criticized Diagolon for their "no political solution" rhetoric.

Ro refers to The Rebel as "sensationalism" and reminds people that Ezra Levant is Jewish... for some reason.
Here's where things start to get interesting. Ro claims that the false allegations about a government relations company employee carrying a Nazi flag came from Andrew MacGillivray of Veterans 4 Freedom. That claim led to a lawsuit against "Freedom" convoy lawyer Brendan Miller.
Ro talks about how Jeremy Mackenzie backed away from Chris Lysak which is something he's been doing on and off since the arrests in Coutts. Ro also calls Jeremy a federal informant.
Ro goes into detail about why he's calling Jeremy a fed. He refers to him as a snitch for reporting a group called The LYNX movement to the RCMP which Jeremy proudly boasted about. Ro called Jeremy the "word police" for stating the people he reported used an "illegal phrase". Jeremy states that no charges were brought against anyone he reported and that they just went away, which isn't true. Landon Preik is currently facing multiple firearms charges. It's unclear whether it's because Jeremy reported them.
And before anyone thinks that I'm being too supportive of the Warcampaign guys, here's Ro spreading great replacement theory rhetoric.


The more interesting fall-out from the last month has been between "independent journalist/politician" Jason Lavigne and Diagolon/Coutts 4 supporters. Jason has been supporting the Coutts 4 and still does but many of their other supporters have taken issue with the amount of attention that he is getting, including an appearance on Infowars.
Much of the infighting is centred around Jason's willingness to speak with Marco Van Huigenbos, who was involved in the Coutts blockade, as well as the fund raising efforts for court costs.

For whatever reason, Jeremy Mackenzie chose to out one of his supporters after these exchanges. Using the online handle "Rocky" her name is Chantelle Grayston.

Alex Vriend and Derek Harrison discussed Marco Van Huigenbos, referring to him as a "fed" and a "lying weasel".
In the midst of all this Jason Lavigne continued to livestream, and had both Marco Van Huigenbos and Jeremy Mackenzie's partner Morgan Guptil on separate shows. Some of the information they discussed I found very interesting. Marco states that when he was leaving for the Coutts blockade, he told his wife that "he may not be home" due to the likelihood of "civil disobedience".
In these clips Marco describes his past relationship with Danielle Smith and the UCP, and his friendship with the Coutts 4.
Here's where things get interesting. Marco discusses the funding for the blockade and how it wasn't distributed "in a timely manner", and apparently a "large business owner" of a "large trucking company" offered to pay for all the food.
Even more interesting is that Marco says that his legal fees were previously being covered by Rebel "News" until recently when he spoke out about Ezra not helping to fund the legal fees for the Coutts 4. Now he has to fund his own costs.
Jason claims that he was told by people to not trust Marco, and that's what led to the backlash against him.
After the livestream with Marco, Jason held another with Jeremy Mackenzie's partner Morgan Guptill. During which, Jason stated that he would no longer work with Coutts 4 supporter Margaret "Granny" Mackay.
Jason suggests there is some confusion about how the Coutts 4 money is being distributed between the 4 families and that there should be an audit. He also states that someone made a $100,000 donation.
Jason also claims that Ezra Levant offered to fund the court costs for the Coutts 4, but then rescinded the offer.
Jason states that he now has friction with the Coutts 4 over all of the fighting, and one of their wives doesn't appreciate all the extra attention.
And finally, Jason divulged that the Coutts 4 have raised $1 million for court costs.
So with all that money floating around it's unsurprising that people are getting paranoid about where it's going and the bickering has started. And maybe with Morgan appearing on Jason Lavigne's show there is no longer animosity between the Diagolon guys and Jason. The trial for the Coutts 4 doesn't begin until sometime next year so plenty of time for more arguments and more info releases.
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Tuesday, March 21, 2023

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:

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:
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:

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Sunday, January 08, 2023

Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Government Buildings: Some Reaction from Canadian Far-Right

This past Friday was the second anniversary of the storming of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. but supporters of former president Donald Trump. By this point we know the story. Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat and in fact claimed he was the victim of election fraud perpetrated by his political enemies. Never mind that two of the four states he claimed were stolen were wholly governed by his Republican allies and despite information that has come to light that he himself didn't believe the election was stolen, Trump's "Big Lie" resulted in a concerted effort by his proxies and supporters to overturn the election which culminated in an actual insurrection.

That Trump denied the election shouldn't be a surprise since he also claimed fraud when he lost to Ted Cruz in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses:




Trump's Canadian supporters also pushed the narrative and were fully onboard when "the patriots" stormed the Capitol:







On January 8, 2023, a very similar scenario played out in Brazil and supporters of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro who lost the presidency in a runoff with Lula da Silva stormed Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace: Like Trump, Bolsonaro had also claimed that an election loss would be the result of election fraud. And like Trump Bolsonaro's claims were amplified by the same forces who were instrumental in the lead up to and actions during January 6. Steve Bannon in fact commented set the ground work for what happened in Brazil back in November: Today, Bannon referred to the Brazilian insurrectionists as "freedom fighters":
Bolsonaro  himself eventually released a statement on Twitter where he both appears to criticize the actions of his supporters while also taking a swipe at the new president:




At the end of January and well into February 2022, Canada had it's own antigovernmental event in Ottawa on Parliament Hill as those who were ostensibly opposed to mask mandates and vaccinations occupied the city of Ottawa for nearly a month. Thankfully the events of those weeks were not on par with what happened in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 or Brasilia on January 8, 2023, but that wasn't necessarily due to a lack of desire, at least for some people such as Diagolon's Derek Harrison:


So it shouldn't be a surprise when people like Diagolon's Alex Vriend (Ferryman's Toll) celebrate today's events in the Brazilian capital:

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Saturday, November 26, 2022

Nazi Flag and Claims of "False Flags": Brendan Miller's Accusations Amplified By Extremists and Conspiracy Promoters

I've been holding off on this but I thought I would provide some commentary on an incident that occurred during the Emergency Act inquiry (POEC) early this past week.

First though, I'm going to talk about Ray Epps and why Canadian right-wing extremists and conspiracy believers are talking about him now:



Ray Epps is an American conservative and Trump supporter who was at the Capitol on January 6 during the insurrection and attempted overturning of the presidential election results. In a video he was seen urging people to enter the Capitol. Since then the conspiracy theorists have claimed with no proof that Epps was in fact a "deep state" agitator who wanted to discredit the efforts of the Trump supporters on that day and not, as is true, an elderly Trump supporter whose life is now in turmoil as a result of the accusation against him (including by Trump himself). 

It doesn't matter how ridiculous the claim is; Epps was a single person in a sea of humanity and if you're going to suggest that crowd had to be convinced by one old man to storm the Capitol then there are many bridges in many Brooklyns I would like to sell you. This story fits a narrative and no amount of proof will convince the true believers otherwise.

So with that, let's get to the story, shall we?

Prior to the incident I will be writing about, the big news emerging from the inquiry was that CSIS had advised that the Prime Minister invoke the Emergency Act in response to the occupation in Ottawa and the border blockades in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. 

I wrote as a bit of an aside I wrote extensively about the occupation and border blockades at the time:

However soon a lawyer representing the "Freedom Convoy" made a bombshell claim in which he implicated an executive with Enterprise Canada in an incident that occurred in the early days of the occupation. Brendan Miller suggested this executive, who he accused of carrying a Nazi flag, was a "Liberal plant" who was sent by the government in an effort to discredit the soon-to-be occupiers of the city of Ottawa.
Miller's demand to order the executive as well as two others was ultimately dismissed as a fishing expedition, but the one witness that Miller wanted whom he claimed to have identified the executive in Ottawa is of some interest:
Shawn Folkes was one of the attendees of the "Freedom Convoy" occupation on Ottawa and early on claimed to have spoken to the person carrying the flag:


It would appear that Brendan Miller put in all his eggs into the basket that is Shawn Folkes, a person who posted things like this during the occupation:

But is worse than even just that:
So this appears to be the evidence that Brendan Miller went with to help prove the Liberal government set up otherwise peaceful protesters, he word of a man who not only threatened violence against those who opposed the occupation but also who happened to "remember" the person the same day Miller would subsequently claim the executive was the one with the Nazi flag.

But it was all enough to convince the many right-wing extremists, conspiracy theory promoters, and hard-core anti-government folks as it confirmed their particular biases. Among those who accepted the truth of Miller's accusations with absolutely no question were mayor Jay Riedel (yeah, he is an actual mayor) who at one time worked with Pat King on the United We Roll convoy to Ottawa that was tied to the Yellow Vest movement and Wayne Peters, a conspiracy promoter associated with the Yellow Vests, Pegida Canada, and the Canadian Nationalist Party among other right-wing extremist groups who claims that all the people who received the Covid vaccine will be dead within 5 years:


But it wasn't just these folks who ran with Miller's claim as gospel truth.
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Sunday, November 20, 2022

A Look Back at Diagolon and the Ottawa Occupation: A Teaser

I have an article that I'll be working on focused on the events in Ottawa during the "Trucker Convoy" of which there were few actual truckers participating. Those who follow/followed me on Twitter will remember that I wrote extensively about the event while it was ongoing from the start to finish.

The tweet posted above highlights the days and weeks of tweets that I made covering the story at the time.

I also created two other threads more recently touching on Pat King's claims made during the Ottawa Occupation that he made during his appearance before the Public Order Emergency Commission hearing:
However, I thought that I would also focus on another group who was there as well by providing another timeline:

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