Yellow Vest Extremists: Two Case Studies From Edmonton and Calgary

I've been offline -- at least on the blog -- for over a week now in part due to finishing up some work-related projects (the work I'm actually paid to do), prepping for the holidays, and a long, long, LONG, drive back to the mother province to visit my family; ma has been dutifully fattening me up with cookies and nanaimo bars while pa has been providing home brewed beer at trying to engage me in discussing an activity known as "sports." Still, I have been keeping abreast of at least some of the activities the far right have been engaging in.

Last Saturday another series of Yellow Vest protests occurred. Fewer cities and towns appeared to have participated and the numbers were down in all cases while a number of venues saw an increase in the number of counter-protesters. Online the infighting and factionalism has been growing as participants sling insults at each other almost as much as they do towards the Liberal government in Ottawa and Notley government in Edmonton. Also, while there had been some effort to minimize the number of violent threats on the main Yellow Jacket Facebook pages, those efforts appear to have collapsed. 

It was inevitable that this new movement would attract mainly the same faces (Steven Myatt, Ron Banerjee, Georges Massaad, Faith Goldy, Georges Hallak, etc) and groups (Soldiers of Odin, Northern Guard, Storm Alliance, La Meute, Canadian Combat Coalition, III%ers etc) I've been seeing at these protests the past number of years in addition to some newer, though still familiar, movement such as those who are associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory(s). Two of the faces associated with the Yellow Vests will be familiar to readers and include one more recent addition as well as someone who frequented the days of ARC Classic.While the initial momentum in much the rest of Canada appears to be waning as the attention span of the supporters diminishes and the weather turns colder, Alberta is still quite active. 

In Edmonton the Yellow Vest protesters were outmaneuvered by the counter-protesters who showed up in larger numbers equaling or even perhaps slightly surpassing the Yellow Vest reactionaries, last week, the previous weekend saw a large number of far-right extremists show up including members of the Wolves of Odin. Now ARC readers will be familiar with this group as it used to be the Edmonton chapter of the Soldiers of Odin before they were compelled to change their name by the mother hate-group in Finland due to negative media attention. Prior to the name change the SoO were the focus of a story involving members of the hate-group hobnobbing with members of the United Conservative Party. Among those who attended the UCP event as well as the Yellow Vests protest on December 15 (where a journalist was roughed up, btw) was this fella:

Ezra Levant and Canadian-Style Trumpism

In Edmonton this past weekend, Ezra Levant and his merry little basket of deplorables posing as journalists held a rally at the legislature opposing the carbon tax passed by the NDP government that is set to come into effect in January 2017. Aside from the fact that Levant claims The Rebel is a journalistic endeavor and that political advocacy more than blurs any pretense of journalistic objectivity, protesting is perfectly fine in a democratic society. Prominent politicians such as Wildrose leader Brian Jean and federal Conservative leadership candidate Chris Alexander were in attendance

Chris Alexander reacts to a crowd at a Rebel Media hosted anti-carbon tax rally, as they
begin to chant "Lock her up." (Sheila Gunn Reid/Twitter, Zoe Todd/CBC)

But things really did go off the rails very quickly:

1. Bernard Hancock (the actor playing the role of "Bernard the Roughneck") encouraged the illegal hacking of the government in order to obtain material that could be used against the government: “I know there’s a bunch of stuff they can dig up on what’s going on in that building…we need their help.”
2. Some individuals attending the protesting appeared to have additional motives as they proudly displayed homophobic signs. Levant claims they were NDP plants since his supporters would NEVER act in such vulgar ways.
3. Supporters of an anti-immigrant group handed out flyers targeting minorities.
4. Perhaps getting the most coverage, many in the crowd began shouting "lock her up!" referring to Alberta premier Rachel Notley (because.... reasons) while federal Conservative leadership hopeful Chris Alexander was speaking. He later expressed how uncomfortable he was when he heard the chant, though didn't do anything about it at the time. Not much in the way of courage, but at least he feels bad.

Not surprisingly, this all resulted in significant media coverage as other conservative (big "C" and small "c") politicians denounced the rhetoric at the rally and comparisons to Donald Trump-style politics were made:

• Graham Thomson: Alberta politicians of all stripes distance themselves from yahoos at Saturday rally
• 'Lock her up for what?' Professor weighs in on Alberta rally
• Wildrose leader denounces 'lock her up' chanters at weekend rally
• Chris Alexander says he was 'mortified' by chants of 'lock her up' aimed at Alberta premier
• Alberta, federal politicians denounce ‘lock her up’ rally as Trump-style politics

Well, we guess not everyone was ready to denounce the "lock her up!" chant:

Then again Brad Trost is sort of an idiot. And considering that your "friend" Alexander is scrambling as quickly as he can away from the incident, we're not sure he would be as appreciative of your public support for him in relation to the chant.

But anywho....

In brief, it was all a bit of a dumpster fire. And Ezra being Ezra, there's no fire he isn't willing to throw more gasoline on as he later double downed on the "lock her up!" chant:

If the shoe fits....

Let's take a closer look some of the incidents that occurred.

Immigration Watch Canada Benign Name, Malignant Views

Meet Dan Murray, founder of Immigration Watch Canada:

This past April we posted a story concerning the efforts of Immigration Watch Canada to draw attention to what they claim as a "broken" immigration system. They did so in an especially dishonest way:

As we noted in our previous article, the bottom photo doesn't feature Brampton area Sikhs, nor does it depict Sikhs even living in Canada:

It might be important to note that Immigration Watch Canada couldn't even be bothered to include a picture of the Sikh community in Brampton that they are attacking. The photo, featuring Babu Singh Dukhiya, are of Indian nationals in India. None of them, so far as we can tell, are Canadian citiizens. Actual depictions of Sikh Canadians who have seamlessly integrated into Canadian society, such as the man in the photograph below donating blood at a Canadian Blood Service clinic and the the city councillor attending the opening of a new hospital, sort of doesn't fit with the nightmarish dystopian future they want people to envision as a result of immigration.

The phrase, "mainstream Canadians" is found on the poster and is echoed in the first paragraph of IWC website, though the word "population" replaces "Canadians" in this case:

Immigration Watch Canada is an organization of Canadians who believe that immigration has to serve the interests of its own citizens. It cannot be turned into a social assistance / job-finding program for people from other countries. It should never be a social engineering experiment that is conducted on Canada’s mainstream population in order to make it a minority.

Though they are attempting to present themselves as a group of citizens concerned about the levels of immigration to Canada, they reveal their cards pretty early in that "mainstream Canadian" = white/European Canadian.

This past Monday, IWC held a protest in front of  the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander's constituency office in Ajax, Ontario. The numbers were small and the message rather convoluted:

"Not a Nazi" Willis Cleared in Assault Case

First of all, holy crap! You mean to tell us that it took this long to come to trail and reach any kind of verdict?

William "Willis" Miettinen is the shirtless dude (hell,
he's pretty much always shirtless for some reason) seig
heiling with Robert Reitmeier, Terry Tremaine,
John Marleau, Chris Waters (big guy wearing the
white tent) and other assorted boneheads in a photo
taken after the 2008 "White Pride" march in Calgary

Second, "suspected white supremacist"? Oh, we do believe we've cleared that one up on a few occassions already (such as here, here, here, and here).

Alleged cameraman attacker cleared

By Kevin Martin,Calgary Sun

First posted: Monday, June 25, 2012 07:31 PM MDT | Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 07:33 AM MDT

A camera-shy suspected white supremacist charged with assaulting a cameraman at an anti-racism demonstration has been cleared of wrongdoing.

Defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli said the Crown is staying the charge against William Kaiser Miettinen.

The Wheels of Justice Are Slow.....

..... but they do continue to turn.

Our favorite, "not a Nazi" who we once knew as "Willis" made a court appearance last Thursday stemming from his assault charge from over a year ago:

Suspected neo-Nazi in plea bargain bid

Kevin Martin, Calgary Sun
First posted: Thursday, June 16, 2011 4:19:04 MDT PM 

Talks are ongoing for a possible plea bargain in the case of a suspected white supremacist charged with assaulting a cameraman at an anti-racism rally, court heard Thursday.

Aftermath: Identifying Boneheads

So we've been looking at the photos that have been sent to us and that have been published by the media. So far we have been able to identify a few of the 16 (not 30m Natalie) boneheads who were present. They are, in no particular order:

• Natalie S.
• Michael "Puddles" Gaio
• Curtis Erickson
• Jonathan Besler

Update on Willis (a.k.a "I'm not a Nazi")

As Paulie travels around Canada (lock up your daughters) to try an capitalize on the current strain of xenophobia targeting the Tamil migrants, we thought we'd provide our dear readers with an update on someone closely aligned with the Aryan Guard, who Paulie proudly marches with and promotes:

Video of little use in beating case 

By KEVIN MARTIN, Calgary Sun  Last Updated: August 23, 2010 5:06pm 

Videotape involving a suspected white supremacist charged with assaulting a cameraman at an anti-racism rally does little to shed light on the case, his representative said Monday. 

Student-at-Law Shamsher Kothari said he and defence counsel Adriano Iovinelli have reviewed the footage supplied by the Crown. 

“We received what we were looking for, which is a video, and the video doesn’t help, or hurt the file,” Kothari told provincial court Judge Bruce Millar. 

Kothari said the defence team is still in discussions with Crown prosecutor Harout Haladjian to determine if the case can be resolved without a trial. 

William Kaiser Miettinen is charged with assaulting a photographer with a weapon, his skateboard, at an anti-racism rally in Calgary last March. 

At his bail hearing shortly after his arrest, the prosecution alleged Miettinen attacked photographer Jason Beers when his picture was taken. 

The incident occurred during an anti-racism rally in response to a white supremacist march. 

Miettinen told court he wasn’t part of the racist group, despite allegations he ripped open his shirt to display what the Crown said were white supremacist tattoos. 

“I’m not a skinhead,” Miettinen said at the time. 

“I was not part of that (neo-Nazi) demonstration,” he said. 

Miettinen said the chest tattoo he displayed to demonstrators isn’t a white supremacist symbol, but simply a Celtic cross. 

Kothari told Millar there may be other footage of the incident and he may ask Haladjian for further disclosure. 

The judge said any such request should be made by the end of the week. 

Miettinen, who is free on bail, did not attend the court proceeding. 

The case returns to court on Sept. 7.
kevin.martin@sunmedia.ca

Of course our readers are very familiar with Willis, a man who seems have a severe allergy when it comes to t-shirts.

We actually do agree with Willis. He's not a skinhead. Skinheads aren't racists, as our friends here will tell you. But when he then tries to claim that he isn't racist and not associated with the Aryan Guard, well....

More Information on the W.E.B. No-show On March 21

For months, the members of W.E.B. had been trumpeting their efforts to organize they "White Pride" march and rally for March 21. They were ridiculed and mocked by erstwhile allies turned enemies (the Aryan Guard which had previously organized the event and who's membership's own legal problems have been well documented on these pages) and by anti-racists who all agreed the average W.E.B. member couldn't organize his own sock drawer, never mind an event such as which they proposed. But W.E.B. insisted, INSISTED, that there would be a march, and the continued insisting that there would be a march until 3 days before it was to have occurred.

And........... then they canceled it and said they wouldn't be able to organize it in time.

Shocked! Shocked we were!

At the time, we had speculated that it was their own legal problems that had resulted in their inability to get the ball rolling. And, as it turns out, we were correct.

On K.H.'s Facebook profile, as she brags about, "standing up for the White Race" and junk like that, others noted that the bing, strong, virile males of the movement couldn't be bothered to show up (Bertsch, Besler and "Willis" not withstanding). That's when Dustin Johnson provided a justification:

No contact orders, eh?

And the legal woes don't yet appear to be over. As far as we know, Tyler Sturrup is still in jail, and Robert Reitmeier had a court appearance today as well:


The master race. We think you need to work a little harder on that because frankly, we don't see it.

Willis Is Not A Nazi Part 3: So, Willis Has A Name

Our friend Willis, who again is claiming (again and again) not to be a Nazi, had a court appearance today. And we learned his full name:

Man charged in fight at rally denies white supremacist ties 

By KEVIN MARTIN, Calgary Sun    Last Updated: March 22, 2010 4:41pm 

The alleged white supremacist charged with assaulting a photographer at an anti-racism rally denied Monday he’s a skinhead. 

William Kaiser Miettinen said the chest tattoo he displayed to demonstrators isn’t a white supremacist symbol, but simply a Celtic cross. 

“I’m not a skinhead,” Miettinen told provincial court Judge Jim Ogle. 

“I was not part of that (neo-Nazi) demonstration,” he said, of a planned white supremacist march the anti-racism crowd was rallying against. 

Crown prosecutor Bev Bauer, who asked that Miettinen be held without bail, said the accused attacked photographer Jason Beers with his skateboard when his picture was taken. 

“He ripped open his shirt displaying multiple tattoos in support of white supremacist groups,” Bauer said. 

When Beers began shooting, Miettinen swung at him with his skateboard in what Bauer called “an unprovoked assault at a peaceful demonstration.” 

But duty counsel Bob Haslam, who acted for Miettinen at his bail hearing, suggested Beers’ conduct may have contributed to the incident. 

“I wouldn’t agree with my friend that it’s totally unprovoked, this is a photographer shoving a camera in his faced,” Haslam said. 

Ogle agreed to release Miettinen, who is charged with assault with a weapon, on $500, no-cash bail, with a condition he stay away from Beers. 

His case is back in court on April 13.

So, it's William Kaiser Miettinen, is it? And you're not a Nazi, eh?

You know, you might be able to convince more people of that if you didn't attend Nazi marches alongside the likes of John Marleau:

Or seig heil along with members of the KKK, Aryan Guard and W.E.B. members in front of Nazi flags:

And put on a damn shirt! You're almost 30!

Another friend commented elsewhere on "Willis":

If you're 13 and hang out at the skate park you may recognize "Willis" as that creepy older guy who likes to buy cigarettes for underagers and "teach" them how to bare knuckle box. If you were at M21, you'll recognize him as the shirtless wonder who tried to assault a photographer with his skateboard...while 60 cops looked on. 

Needless to say, Willis got his point across on M21 -- and that point was that he's both violent and dumb. He's been charged with assault with a weapon and released on a $500 no-cash bail. At his hearing on Monday morning, Willis pitched a sob story about how he's not really a Nazi or racist and it's all just been one big mistake. Someone should tell Willis that if you cover yourself with racist tattoos, throw around the "seig heil" salute and assault people at an anti-racist demo while yelling white power slogans, no one is going to believe you when you say you're not a Nazi.

Two Boneheads Identified

We received a message from the photographer who took the picture of the bonehead and who the media claim was struck in the head:

I had to give a police statement about Willis hitting my camera from my hand with his skateboard but the article says that he hit me in the head which is a complete lie. I wish I had a way to contact the author to get the article changed... Two nazis showed up near the beginning and were peaceful and did some interviews. A Nazi girl showed up later and got arrested and taken away and I have her photo as ARA surrounded her and then there are pictures of her in city hall getting frisked. Later, Willis showed up and that is where he hit my hand with his skateboard and got arrested.

We also received a number of pictures taken by the photographer. We won't post all of them now, but we will post a few of the photos relevant to the statement that was made to us:

The two men, far left (Jonathan Besler) and far right (Leyton Bertsch) on the photo, are the individuals whom the photographer wrote were the two Nazis who were peaceful and did some interviews.

This is a photograph of K.H., a bonehead originally from Ontario with whom we've had some contact with in the past. She was "dating" Robert Reitmeier for a brief period until he apparently, and unceremoniously, tossed her aside.


K.H. being frisked after being taken away by the police.

Jesus, does Willis own a shirt? Yep, Willis again. He was the one who, after this photograph was taken, took a swing at the photographer with a skateboard, knocking the camera from his hand. Willis was arrested soon after this photo was taken because of the incident.

If you have pictures for us, you can send us your email and we will get in contact with you. Just post your email as a comment. We will not allow your email to be posted and when we contact you, we'll provide you with our contact information.

Pictures

Selected pictures taken of the events on March 21:

Paul Fromm marching with neo-Nazis while sporting a smart, red man purse.

News Release from the Anti-Racist Organizer

We received this information moments ago.

Activists Successfully shut down Neo-Nazi March More than 500 people prevent racist rally in downtown Calgary 

More than 500 anti-racist activists converged on downtown Calgary this afternoon to successfully prevent local neo-Nazi hate group the Aryan Guard from holding a rally of their own.

Canadian Association for Free Expression Business Documents

It's interesting what one can learn by dropping a few dollars at the right agency. We managed to score the original "Corporation Profile Search" from 2004 followed by the latest from Jan 2009 and also a Corporate Document List of all filings. Within these documents we have been able to learn the names of the other board of directors of Paul Fromm's group CAFE:

The Decline of the Aryan Guard: Part 1

This article, the first in a three part series, will act as a summary of what most already know about the recent troubles of the Aryan Guard. We will be publishing additional articles during the next few days. Consider this first article to be a refresher on the more recent Aryan Guard antics and an appetizer for the main course to come.

On March 21, 2008, between 25 and 40 members of the Aryan Guard, Western European Brotherhood (W.E.B.), Klan members, unaffiliated neo-Nazis, and National-Socialist Party of Canada leader Terry Tremaine marched in the name of “White Pride” (a euphemism for White Supremacy, intimidation, and ethnic hatred) on the day designated by the United Nations as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The spit in the face of Calgary civil society, organized by the Aryan Guard was opposed by 100s of anti-racist activists in Calgary. Though vastly outnumbered, that the Aryan Guard and their allies were able to march in the first place and to gather such a relatively large number of like-minded individuals indicated that they were a growing threat in the community.

As it turned out, and in spite of later gimmicks such as advertising they would pay the damage deposit for any “White Nationalist” who moved to Calgary to join them and the hosting a “Free Speech Conference” which saw Paul Fromm, Terry Tremaine, and Bill Noble as the keynote speakers, the March 21 rally appears to have also been the peak of the Aryan Guard. Since that date it has been evident that things have started to go down hill for the Aryan Guard, but even we were surprised to learn just how much trouble the racist gang of thugs were actually in.

Willis Is Not A Nazi: Part 2

It would seem that the Aryan Guard is still trying to convince you, our dear readers, that Willis is not a Nazi. As posted on Stormfront by Temperalles on September 3, 2008:

Now there's a bunch of tards on some site called 'march21.tk' trying to say Willis is a Nazi because he's in a photo throwing a straight-arm salute. Well I guess all the ancient Romans were Nazis as well.

It occurs to me there's just enough people out there naive enough to buy the fallacious deduction put forward by the Reds, so I thought I'd point out that National Socialists are not the only people to use the straight-arm salute. Because it is a gesture which goes back much further in history than the NSDAP of less than a century ago, non-National-Socialists also use it, often as a symbol of White Pride, other times merely as a salute. Just like the Triskelion on the flag behind him, it's a symbol with broad heritage overtones, and by no means of specific enough symbology to boil anyone down to any particular ideology.

My God, if the Roman salute were a Nazi symbol, you'd never see a Third Positionist using it... and they do all the time.

Willis Is Not A Nazi: Part 1

Remember Willis (the shirtless guy standing next to Aryan Guard member John Marleau at the "White Pride" march on March 21, 2008)? Well, it would appear that he is claiming that he is not a member of the Aryan Guard, not a Nazi and is considering suing the ARA for slander:

The A.G./ARA Throwdown: Much Ado About Nothing

On July 15, 2008 the Calgary ARA and an Aryan Guard member who goes by the name of Willis had a bit of a run in. The ARA members had been at a Calgary skate park putting up fliers and talking to the youths who hang out there. It appears that Willis felt that this was fertile ground for recruitment, even though some of the youths he managed to swing to his side aren't even White.

Now the Aryan Guard would have you believe that the ARA swarmed over Willis in his own apartment, but we think that after the amount of b.s. the Aryan Guard has spread, you won't buy it. So here's what did happen.

When the ARA members were leaving the skate park on their way back to the C-Train, the walked by an apartment complex. Willis was on his balcony and started Seig Heiling. Braniac then came down to start a fight. He threw the first punch which injured an ARA member. The next punch resulted in Willis taking a nap on the concrete.

Wildrose Alliance Candidate "Linked" To Paul Fromm

Photograph falls under Fair Use.


Link Byfield shaking hands with Paul Fromm in November 1999. Byfield was being honoured at dinner held by Fromm.

Link Byfield is currently a candidate for the Wildrose Alliance Party in the constituency of Whitecourt-St. Anne (see Byfield campaign website). In 2004, he was chosen as one of Alberta's four senators in waiting, though the Federal government is not obliged to appoint him to the Senate.