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".

Antisemite Jeremy Mackenzie isn't happy that Ezra Levant called him a fed. pic.twitter.com/loFMwRll62

— Tony Doe (@TonyYvce) July 25, 2023

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.

The battle between Diagolon and The Rebel is on, and it's one of the most glorious things happening on Twitter right now.

1/2 pic.twitter.com/JUvF2eDZN8

— Tony Doe (@TonyYvce) July 26, 2023

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.

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:

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:

All eyes need to be on Brazil right now. Democracy is completely under attack. Bolsonaro supporters are invading Congress, the presidential
palace, and realms of power in Brazil.
Unbelievable scenes.

pic.twitter.com/q0ywe88ubm

— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) January 8, 2023

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:

Bannon is attempting to instigate a coup in Brazil. Eduardo Bolsonaro puts out a video of Steve Bannon this morning, where Bannon tells them their election was stolen and praises people protesting in the streets: “It’s going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.” pic.twitter.com/HvxcJQTDkf

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 23, 2022

Today, Bannon referred to the Brazilian insurrectionists as "freedom fighters":

Steve Bannon calls the Bolsonaro supporters storming Brazilian federal buildings "freedom fighters" pic.twitter.com/BiGJIxq4xk

— John Whitehouse+ (@existentialfish) January 8, 2023

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:

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.

1. If you are following me odds are that has been since January 29, 2022 when I started composing some epically long and frequently snarky threads on the "Freedom Convoy" which I often characterized as the #OttawaOccupation. pic.twitter.com/mt3TIEYUT5

— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) October 20, 2022

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:

1. So.

I just finished watching Pat King's testimony.

And it was... something.

Suffice to say I don't have time to deal with everything he said, but I thought I would put out a thread to provide context. pic.twitter.com/y1JNHI6e8l

— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) November 2, 2022

1. When I did the timeline on Pat King's involvement in the #OttawaOccupation (link below) I didn't include a lot of what I had.

In retrospect there was a lot that I should have included, thus here are with Part IIhttps://t.co/BtEm9MHyFE

— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) November 3, 2022

However, I thought that I would also focus on another group who was there as well by providing another timeline:

October 2020 Bits and Bites: Halloween Edition

We haven't really done a bits and bites article in some time but we thought we would do so now. Please forgive our omissions in this purposely irreverent look back at the month of bigots behaving badly, often towards each other.

In the last article we discussed the antics of Brian Kidder who, since it was published, has continued on in his campaign to arrest a politician. He is not surprisingly being egged on by some of the bad actors who have profiled consistently on this blog:

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.

So, yeah.

I'm pretty confident in stating that there were around 400 who showed up based on their own photos. pic.twitter.com/txIOxlb2rh

— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) July 1, 2020

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. 

These people are bad at many things, including counting and gauging crowd sizes. pic.twitter.com/0eM0BXOKtv

— YVCE 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️ (@VestsCanada) July 2, 2020

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:

Q himself made a message in support of the Ottawa rally today. Canadian QAnon supporters who attended or supported the rally are ecstatic about it.

The video clip linked is where Norman Traversy led them in a chant "Where we go one we go all," the QAnon slogan. pic.twitter.com/oxdbNU0W0B

— Drew (@nolifeneet) July 1, 2020

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".

The far right on FB are talking about the individual arrested with a weapon at Rideau Hall yesterday. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/fWBD0ir0U6

— Kurt Phillips🧛‍♂️ (@ARCCollective) July 3, 2020

The usual suspects are already claiming the attempt is a “false flag,” and complaining that a “patriot will be blamed.”

Vehicle contents indicate they were likely traveling, however whether they attended the rally isn’t confirmed yet. pic.twitter.com/GKO033x82H

— YVCE 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️ (@VestsCanada) July 2, 2020

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.