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:

Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights Held a March That Was Attended by Fascists

On Saturday September 12 the Canadian Coalition for Firearms rights organized a march in Ottawa. It was attended by probably between 2000-3000 people.

Also credit to the CCFR for promoting the use of masks and social distancing for the event.

The rally was a decent size but it's important to point out that it was attended by some members of the Canadian far-right. Neo-nazis Paul Fromm and Thomas Liko were both in attendance.

Fresh off of his court case where he plead guilty to assault with a weapon, the unlikeable Chris Vanderweide attended in full boogaloo gear and wearing his weapon of choice on his head. Chris was bleating on his megaphone, but I think the CCFR people told him to give it a rest. He was accompanied by Leigh Stewart. Rick Boswick and Wayne Peters were also there.

Chris Vanderweide speaking with Rick Boswick

The Patriots Held a Rally In Ottawa and Nobody Cared

Members of the far-right Yellow Vests along with other conspiracy theorists attended a march and rally in Ottawa on February 25th, 2020.

The rally was organized by Crystal Vargas, a Canadian QAnon conspiracy theorist.

We'll get to the content of the speeches at the rally but I'll let Mindy Thomas of the Yellow Vests sum up the entire event.

That's right. Barely anyone showed up.
In contrast supporters of the Wet'suwet'en held a march the day before with no prior planning and it was well attended, and by actual locals.

The crowd did not grow

Crystal Vargas was the main speaker at the event. Her speech was all over the place and filled with absurd conspiracy theories. Here are a couple examples.

She also read a couple letters from people in support of the rally. You have to laugh at someone suggesting that Canada is a dictatorship without free speech while literally speaking freely in front of the countries parliament buildings.

Included in the few who attended were Rick Boswick, some people wearing yellow vests, and a few people with QAnon paraphernalia and signage.

 

And of course with any far-right event, you can't forget the grift.

Storm the Hill indeed.

Kevin Johnston Never Learns

2020 hasn't been kind to Kevin. Johnston was taken to court by the city of Mississauga for what appears to be improperly placed campaign signs during his failed mayoral run.

Johnston, who lost a massive lawsuit filed by Mohamad Fakih to the tune of $2.5 million, is also currently facing hate crimes charges.

It seems his life has fallen apart:

Soon after, Johnston was hit with another blow - a $74,000 fine for improperly placed campaign signs.

He was subsequently arrested and jailed on February 2, 2020. The story behind this is a bit hazy, but as best as we can tell, the charge is due to his alleged intimidation and harassment of a prosecutor.

Screenshot from Johnston's Gab account

A recent livestream from Rick Boswick and Ed Jamnisek (both of whom had previously harassed Mohamad Fakih, Johnston's defamation victim) indicate that the incident involved the prosecutor in the campaign signs case:

We reviewed the video they reference, and Johnston clearly reads out the license plate number and provides the name of the prosecutor. 

We are sure there's more to this story, and we'll update as more information becomes available. 

* * * 

UPDATE: We had heard from a few people that the encounter Johnston was arrested for involved him approaching the crown prosecutor in his hate crimes case. We had our own suspicions that was the reason, but couldn't substantiate it. Another live stream with Ed Jamnisek and Michael Arana clear up the video in question.

In the live stream Jamnisek and Arana describe a different video - one in which Johnston approached the prosecutor in a grocery store and demanded to know "when the case would be dropped or what his plans were":

Of note is that in the stream with Boswick and Jamnisek, Boswick describes a video where Johnston approached the prosecutor outside the courthouse just prior to another hearing in the case against Johnston for illegally placed campaign signs. Jamnisek didn't correct Boswick at the time, despite the fact that it seems he knew it was related to the hate crimes case (it's unclear whether this was an oversight, a miscommunication, or otherwise.)

Jamnisek describes some of the bail hearing, where the hate crimes charges played a central role:

We will update as more develops.

UPDATE #2: Canadian far-right actors have mixed feelings.

Blaming Jews for a non-existent problem - the posted video is certainly still up. 

Rick Boswick, Lily, & Ed Jamnisek Under Investigation For Harassment Campaign

ARC previously reported that Soufi's, the downtown Toronto eatery whose owners, the Al-Soufi family, were facing an endless barrage of death threats, announced they were closing due to the harassment.

In a positive turn of events it was then reported that with the help of Toronto businessman and philanthropist Mohamad Fakih the restaurant would re-open, with Fakih and his team at Paramount Fine Foods taking over management while the family could take some time away.

Mohamed Fakih, the owner of Paramount Fine Foods says he will be supporting Soufi’s restaurant until the family feels comfortable to come back to work. All the profits and ownership will remain with the Al-Soufi family. @CityNews

— Adrian Ghobrial (@CityAdrian) October 110, 2019

Now, to truly understand the harassment campaign that caused Soufi's closure it needs to be understood that it didn't begin at the PPC Mohawk College event. It actually started almost 2 months prior.

The harassment started when Yellow Vests Rick Boswick and Lily filmed the Alsoufis son illegally in a courthouse a month ago and published it on YouTube, identifying the restaurant in the comments and other videos. https://t.co/nIUewHQysK

— Kevin Metcalf (@kbmetcalf) October 10, 2019

2) Lily made a video alleging that 'ISIS terrorists ran a restaurant' and that the food might be tainted. Boswick republished the original video she took.

— Kevin Metcalf (@kbmetcalf) October 10, 2019

3) the Alsoufis son was in court to monitor the progress of my existing criminal complaint against Boswick for uttering threats.

— Kevin Metcalf (@kbmetcalf) October 10, 2019

4) this started as a transparent attempt to intimidate a victims supporter. Filming in a courthouse is against the law, section 136 of the courts of justice act. Hello, Tommy Robinson?

— Kevin Metcalf (@kbmetcalf) October 10, 2019

In August, the eldest son of the Al-Soufis attended a court date of Rick Boswick's, where Lily and Boswick filmed him in the courthouse (which is illegal.) On August 22, Lily from Hamilton posted a video in which she states: 

They’re fucking ISIS militants. Former militants . . . You come here. You have a plan. You don’t like Christianity. Okay. You want to wipe out Christianity. You want to turn this country into Sharia law . . . we know everything, where you located. And we want Canadian people to know if you order food from [address], you are supporting terrorists. Did you know that they send money back home and Canadian soldiers die in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. When you go to that restaurant [address] you’re supporting terrorists.

In addition to the above racist screed, Lily confirms that they filmed the man in the courthouse. While we won't share the entire video due to her stating the address of the restaurant multiple times, here is a clip: 

Just prior to the launch, Lily posted a video where she accused the Al-Soufi family of being coached by the Muslim Brotherhood to lie and say were receiving threats:

Fast forward to this past Friday, when Boswick, Lily, and Ed Jamnisek (of Northern Guard) went to Soufi's on the day of their re-opening. Both Boswick and Lily posted videos of the exchange (Lily posted 2.)

The following are screenshots of Lily's uploads, to show their titles:

They didn't get very far, with Mohamad Fakih stopping them in their tracks and essentially walking out the door, forcing them out too.

If Fakih is a familiar name, that's because he won the $2.5 million settlement against Kevin Johnston earlier this year.

Fakih, cool as a cucumber, wasn't taking any shit, no matter how hard Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest tried:

Rick Boswick uploaded his video to YouTube, where some very nice people said some very nice things, and once again, the Al-Soufis were subjected to threats and racism. This time, though, they also had Fakih in their sights.

They should ask Kevin Johnston how well that works.

Nice people. 

Now, Boswick, Lily, and Jamnisek are under investigation by the Toronto Police Service for their role in the harassment. 

The Al-Soufi family is facing new threats as police investigate individuals responsible for the harassment campaign.

Rick Boswick, Lily, & Ed Jamnisek under investigation after disrupting restaurant's re-opening, which prompted new threats.

Read more: https://t.co/jDcsPklzzE pic.twitter.com/3KyPmOYy6o

— Canadian Anti-Hate Network (@antihateca) October 14, 2019

Not content with harassing people, they stuck around so Ed could grace us with this gem: 

Here's Ed Jamnisek saying that Canada is lost to Islam. This video was taken shortly after he and others were harassing people at Soufi's restaurant. #YellowVestsCanadaIsAHateGroup pic.twitter.com/YKntFj6EcR

— Yellow Vests Canada Hex-posed ☠️ (@VestsCanada) October 14, 2019

And with that, we leave you with a (rather belated) Thanksgiving wish from our friend Lily:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯