A Deep Dive into WLM Toronto Member Andrew Benson

This past July I was doxxed.

Well, not really.

You see I had actually been doxxed in January 2020, but WLM Toronto appeared to have believed they got a "W" on this.

You have probably seen WLM flyers posted in a number of cities in Canada and the United States at this point. The movement wants people to believe they are a significant group but the reality, with a few exceptions, is that most cells are composed of no more than half a dozen to a dozen members who bravely hide their faces because, you know, they are really proud of what they do.

WLM Toronto is perhaps one of the more pathetic cells in North America as illustrated what they believe to be successful events:

This is just sad!

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.

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:

Brian Kidder Arrested (Again). Also Chris Vanderweide Gets Involved Because Of Course He Does

By this point readers of this blog and other activists who monitor the far-right, or even people who regularly follow the regular news, will be familiar with the antics of Brian Kidder even is the name isn't immediately familiar. He is a figure associated with the Canadian Revolution protesters who were only just this month removed from the grounds near the War Memorial in Ottawa having been camping since July 1 and demanding the resignation, arrest, or both of Justin Trudeau and Liberal MPs. Kidder, a QAnon supporter, may have first come to readers' attention when he attempted to "citizen arrest" an journalist who he erroneously believed was a Bloc Quebecois MP. He later made the news when he and his enablers were harassing NDP leader Jagmeet Singh stating next time he saw Mr. Singh that "we're going to dance":

• Man Trying To Arrest MPs Part Of Months-Long "Revolution" Encampment
• Parliamentary district protest camp leads to tighter security — and a criminal complaint

Given Mr. Sigh's background in martial arts, I'm not sure the encounter would go the way Kidder thinks it will.

In fact this isn't a new phenomenon as Kidder has been attempting to place politicians under citizen's arrest for years going back to at least 2014:

Man angry re: #WSIB claim threatens to put @Kathleen_Wynne under citizen's arrest and is escorted out of QP. #onpoli pic.twitter.com/NAYAw4SK42

— Rob Ferguson (@robferguson1) November 18, 2014

The difference now is that Kidder has a fan base of far-right extremists who are encouraging him.

Kidder's most recent target is Doug Ford (yes, THAT Doug Ford). Once praised by far-right extremists, Ford is now reviled by many of these same people because he has been taking the COVID-19 pandemic much more seriously than they would like given that they believe the pandemic is a Luciferian conspiracy planned by George Soros and Bill Gates and implemented by Justin Trudeau to impose communism, take away their freedom (do die gasping for breath alone in a hospital I guess?), and thwart their Messiah Donald Trump from saving the world from the cabal of demonically-processed pedophiles who they think rule the world.

They also really take umbrage at being referred to as "yahoos" which we personally feel might be underselling it a bit.

In any case earlier this week Kidder attempted to enter the Ontario Legislature to, you guess it, arrest Doug Ford. It went about as you might expect:

And the response of his enablers who called the police "pedophile protectors" and referred to the "beast system" in which the police would join with their side in the end was equally predictable:

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.

Kevin Johnston is Masquerading as an Ex-Muslim Woman In America

We last saw Kevin Johnston begging for cash and trying to sell his graphic design services, just before he was sent to prison for allegedly threatening the Crown prosecutor in his hate crimes case.

Since Kevin Johnston was released from prison due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems he's using his new-found freedom to continue propagating hatred, this time posing as a woman named Mary in New York City. "Mary" purports to be an ex-Muslim, spreading the word that "Islam is evil."

The distinct Kevin Johnston graphic design "flare"

Yesterday, Twitter account @SouthEastARA replied to a now-deleted Tweet from the account, and soon after @anonymouscommie pointed out that it's being operated by Johnston:

The ExMuslimMary account used to be called @starwarsvaliant and belongs to Kevin Jackal Johnston pic.twitter.com/KLq6ladlFf

— ☠️AnonymousComrade☠️ (@anonymouscommie) May 3, 2020

Kevin didn't cover his tracks very well. A search of the previous replies to @ExMuslimMary show that they were, at the time, to @StarWarsValiant, an account that Johnston had under his own name. The website listed, jackalcomics.com, redirects to Johnston's Freedom Report website. 

An archive of the old @StarWarsValiant account

An archived tweet under @StarWarsValiant

Replies to @ExMuslimMary, previously @StarWarsValiant

The very first follower under @StarWarsValiant? Yep, another account of Johnston's:

Twitter isn't the only social platform he's operating under this false identity. 

Facebook, where "Mary's" friend list is a who's who of Canadian hatriots

Gab

Gab bio

Square Site, which he's using for donations

SubscribeStar, where he's charging for access to certain posts

One thing about Johnston that often gets overlooked due to his rampant hatred of Muslims is his hatred of women. It could be argued he hates women as much as Muslims. It's key to remember that hatred doesn't stop at one group, and Kevin's hatred doesn't stop at Muslims. 

Indigenous peoples: 

Black people: 

But, yes, Muslims too. Specifically his favourite topic, Rohingya Muslims. 

He'll take any excuse he can to use slurs: 

And makes hateful and defamatory statements about Muslims: 

It's unclear whether this behaviour is a breach of any release conditions, but one thing is clear - it doesn't matter how many charges he catches, or how much money he loses, Kevin Johnston just won't learn. 

Now that this is uncovered, it's possible his freedom is at an end. 

via GIPHY