1.6 Organizing Against Hate Groups in British Columbia By Dale Cornish and Alan Dutton

1.6 Organizing Against Hate Groups in British Columbia

By Dale Cornish, Alan Dutton and Jessica Black

Introduction

The work of the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society is based on both opposing and exposing racism and organized hate group activity using non-violent strategies for community mobilization. Opposing and exposing racism is grounded in action-oriented research. The following pages examine how the Society successfully mobilized communities against two of the main hate groups in North America, how the Society exposed two leaders of the white supremacist movement in British Columbia and how the mainstream media has responded to the clear and present danger of organized hate groups.

Organizing Against W.A.R.

White Aryan Resistance (WAR), based in Fallbrock, Californai., is one of the main neo-Nazi groups in North America, advocating “racial” separation, genocide and gay bashing. Tom Metzger, the head of the group, was originally a California Grand Dragon of the Knights of the KKK and was found liable in a recent trial of racist skinheads for the brutal beating death of Mulegata Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant living in Portland Oregon.[4] Metzger likes to claim that Western governments and the media are controlled by Jews and that present democratically elected governments are, in fact, part of a Zionist Occupational Government (ZOG). WAR is based on the following prnciples:

RACE - ...the great White Aryan race must be advanced and protected at all costs and above all other issues.

ARMED CONFLICT - ...The primary need for armed conflict is to protect the [Aryan] gene pool.

ABORTION - WAR supports birth control and abortion for non-whites living in North America. WAR encourages racially conscious White women to produce White children. WAR does not promote force against White women to bear unwanted children.

THE SUPER STATE - The rise of the upper state based on economics is a direct threat to racial integrity. The super state must be viewed as an enemy that is easily infiltrated by alien semites and others to destroy the Aryan culture for power and profit.

Metzger publishes a racist newsletter that has been delivered door to door in a number of Canadian towns and cities. One edition bears a picture of Ernst Zundel, one of the top exporters of hate propaganda to Germany who is based in Toronto, Canada, on the front page with the caption, "Ernst Zundel: The Will To Triumph". The editorial gives a testimonial to Robert Miles of the Order (an offshoot of Aryan Nations described below) who is treated a martyr by racist groups after he died in a fiery shoot out with FBI agents on Whidbey Island in Washington state in 1982.

Metzger boasts that his television show, Race and Reason, is aired in 59 markets covering 13 states, including Washington, New York, North Dakota and Illinois. Race and Reason plays an important role for the far right not only because of the ability to reach a wide and diverse audience, but also because it gives young white supremacists their first exposure and practice dealing with the media. Young Canadians trained by Metzger include George Burdi of the Church of the Creator and racist rock band leader, producer and magazine publisher as well as Tony McAleer of the Canadian Liberty Net, a Vancouver, BC based hate telephone line.

In December 1992 leaflets distributed by the Aryan Resistance Movement (ARM) - a racist youth group with bases in Surrey, B.C. and Ottawa, Ontario[5] - advertised that Tom Metzger would speak in Vancouver. Tony McAleer also advertised the meeting on the Canadian Liberty Net - a hate telephone message system[6] - and spoke on television and radio about plans to bring Metzger to Vancouver. The message on the telephone message system stated that:

...once again, Tom Metzger of WAR, White Aryan Resistance, will be speaking on the 22nd of January [1992]... To obtain copies of the WAR newsletter, send $3.00 for a sample and $25.00 for a year's subscription - that's U.S. funds - made out to John Metzger at WAR... Also for sale by the Canadian Liberty Net his song "I'm too Nazi", $7.00, "Black on Black Hate Calls" $10.00 featuring Lucius Tate; "Might is Right" $10.00. Send orders to P.O. Box 35683 Vancouver, B.C. V6M 4G9...[i]

Metzger had earlier been deported from Canada from after speaking at the a meeting of the racist Heritage Front (see below) referred to in the above message.[ii] Canada Immigration had also issued a warning that Metzger would not be allowed to enter the country.

But the media has historically given a lot of uncritical attention to the leaders of racist groups and a major confrontation in Vancouver promised to fill air time and the printed page. What could be better than burly bald skinheads bashing punks from the East side, or vice versa? To make it even better, the anticipated confrontation between racists and anti-racists was to be staged on the streets of downtown Vancouver at rush hour. This was the type of “news” broadcast that would reinforce the stereotypes of both the racist right and young anti-racists for the all important weekend newspapers and television broadcasts. Some journalists qued up to interview Metzger and McAleer, just as they did with David Duke in the early 1980s when he toured the province to recruit for the Louisiana based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

To prevent a violent clash between racists, anti-racists and the police and to show that Vancouver stood solidly against racism and fascism, the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society began to mobilize a wide spectrum of community groups. The Society also organized a news conference at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Vancouver to explain the need for a non-violent anti-racism demonstration at the Gallery and to quell the sensationalist news media. Prominent speakers and the main anti-racist organizations participated. The room at the Coast Plaza rented for the news conference was filled to capacity with television cameras, tape recorders and note pads.

A spokesperson for the Society began by announcing that it was very unlikely that Metzger would be allowed into the country after his earlier arrest and deportation from Canada and that continuing to report that he would be in Vancouver was not helping the situation. It was noted that there would likely be some racist skinhead presence in the downtown core, but that the intention was to mobilize a non-violent demonstration against racism. In response to questions about the possibility of violence, a spokesperson for the Society outlined the detailed plans to marshal the event, the help the Vancouver Police force had been in securing a permit to meet at the Gallery and the plan to provide security for the participants at the demonstration. It was also pointed out that providing uncritical media attention to organized racist groups and their leaders had necessitated the demonstration and to held of violence between racist skinheads and the expected convergence of youth from various areas of Vancouver and suburbs.

A list of speakers for the demonstration was provided to reporters. Speakers included New Democratic and Conservative Members of Parliament along with representatives from the labour union movement, the major ethnic and anti-racist organizations in the province, including the Congress of Black Women, the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians, United Native Nations, and spokespersons from a number of anti-fascist groups

The media was informed that community groups were demonstrating because of the concern that if right wing extremists were left unopposed the well-advertised and public meeting of racist skinheads, with Metzger or not, would spark serious violence and that many young people from Vancouver and neighbouring schools could be hurt. It was stated that left to itself, the racist skinhead meeting would provide a basis for future even larger meetings and that, left unopposed, racist meetings give tacit and practical support to racist groups. It was argued that it was the moral duty of every citizen to oppose racism and intolerance and to show support for democracy and that apathy would lead to a worse problem in the future. Approximately eight anti-racist groups were present at the conference facing a room full of reporters and camera crews. The reporters were unmoved by any of the arguments.

With just weeks to organize, meetings were held in various parts of the Lower Mainland with many different groups. The Vancouver Police Department and Immigration Canada were contacted to ensure that they had been informed of the possibility that Tom Metzger, and/or his son John Metzger, would attempt to enter Canada illegally on the 22nd. Labour unions, community groups, universities, and schools were enlisted to help organize the demonstration. Labour union and women’s groups were organized to provide security for the thousands that were expected to demonstrate against racism in Vancouver.

Reporters warned that the demonstration against racism would spark violence. Racists are just ignorant high school dropouts without any real substance and should be ignored. The racist right doesn’t represent a threat and attention gives them publicity. Whatever happened, the media could now blame both racists and anti-racists. After all, weren’t they just two sides of a bad coin? The media had to maintain “balance” and could show that “both sides”, both racists and anti-racists, are extremists: racists want genocide and anti-racists want democracy! What appeared as normal was the uncritical and sensationalist media attention to racists and racist organizing.

The pressure was intense to organize a demonstration that was forceful but at the same time non-violent. Would demonstrators turn out in numbers after the negative media reports and the fear of racist skinhead violence? Could organizers ensure a non-violent demonstration?

No anti-racist demonstration of any size had been held in Vancouver for many years. Years earlier, a boycott of a grocery store for selling racist pins was held, but that attracted no more than one hundred and fifty people. A much larger anti-racist demonstration was held in the early 1980s - a demonstration against the murder of a Canadian of South Asian origin in a south Vancouver park where members of the Ku Klux Klan lived. The demonstration attracted over one thousand, but it was marred by violence from when one group of demonstrators attacked another. One person remains disabled as a result of the fight and a libel suit for defamation dragged out for a decade, draining and demoralizing at least one anti-racist group.

At 5:30 PM on the evening of January 22, 1993 marshals and organizers arrived at the Vancouver Art Gallery. A sound system was assembled, security guards began to take their positions and banners were lifted into place. Reporters and television crews were everywhere and outnumbered organizers. It was a feeding frenzy to gladden the hearts of the TV and news paper owners across the country. One TV producer asked a spokesperson with the Society to carry a concealed microphone for a “behind the scenes” perspective. The organizer refused after the accusations made by the media at the earlier press conference. A person with less experience agreed to wear the microphone.

A few blocks away, members of the Vancouver police riot squad had taken position in the event that supporters or members of WAR decided to attack individuals at the anti-racist demonstration. Anti-racist organizers had discussed security earlier with the Vancouver City Police Department and arranged to police their own demonstration. A number of earlier demonstrations had been marred by confrontations between police and some anti-racists and it was agreed that anti-racists could and should marshal their own demonstrations.

By 6:00 pm, a few brave souls had begun to mingle in front of the Art Gallery on the bitterly cold winter night. But the number of anti-racists was pitifully small. Organizers realized that if only a few people showed up for the rally it would indicate to WAR, and to everyone listening to the extended evening news broadcasts, that Vancouver didn’t care about hate. That would motivate WAR and Vancouver racist skinheads to further step up their activities. It would also mean that whoever showed up for the anti-racist rally would be in physical danger and that the unintended consequence of the rally would be to give WAR even more publicity. The stakes were high.

By 6:30 pm, four or five hundred people had braved the biting cold and conquered their fears.

By 7:00 pm, the rally against racism had grown to over a thousand. But minutes later, a stream of anti-racism marchers began to arrive, marching down Georgia Street and bringing the number of demonstrators to nearly 3,000. Organizers, marchers and the media realized what had been accomplished - Vancouver had stood up against hate and for democracy. People from all walks of life had arrived to support the demonstration. There were Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP), the University of British Columbia School of Social Work, school teachers, several MPs, including Conservative and New Democratic Members of Parliament, New Democratic MLAs, including human rights stalwart Emery Barnes, a host of trade and labour union members, as well as mothers with babies in carriages; there were people from every walk of life, from every ethnic group and age.

However, while the rally served to mobilize the community in one of the country’s largest anti-racism rallies, there were inevitable conflicts over who could speak and for how long. A Conservative Member of Parliament demanded to speak before opposition MP Margaret Mitchell, and some groups wanted to stop the rally and march to the Terry Fox Memorial because racist skinheads had reportedly congregated there. Others wanted to announce a march to a nearby hotel because of rumours that racist skinheads were there. In the end, the demonstration hung together and drew to a close by 9:00 pm - on schedule and without any serious incident.

Unfortunately, approximately fifty demonstrators did not dispatch, but marched to a nearby hotel where Tony McAleer and a dozen racist skinheads had been seen. Police kept the marchers away from the racist skinheads, but a plate glass window at the hotel was broken in the confusion. The mainstream print media, as usual, focused on the plate glass window incident and an editorial appeared in the Vancouver Sun the next day portraying the whole demonstration against hate as one marked by violence. A Vancouver Sun editorial demanded that organizers denounce those at the hotel.

Despite the isolated incident, those who attended the demonstration still speak with pride about Vancouver’s largest anti-racist gathering. The demonstration clearly demonstrated that many ordinary Canadians do not support groups like WAR and that they will take to the streets in the thousands to oppose fascism. They did not buy the line that racism can be ignored and that racists will simply go away if citizens say no. They believed that they had a moral responsibility to show that Canadians would not allow racists to promote genocide and to organize in Vancouver. A line of moral outrage was drawn in the sand and WAR and Tony McAleer never boasted again that they would meet in a public place in Vancouver.

While the demonstration showed outrage, it was not enough to stop WAR or Tony McAleer. The March 1993 front page of WAR was titled "Operation Maple Leaf" and was sub-titled "Canadian Youth Unite to Fight Iron Heel Oppression".[7] The edition lists racist telephone lies and post office boxes in the United States and Canada. The newsletter was left on front lawns in Victoria, BC in affluent Oak Bay and Fernwood near Victoria High School - the scene of racist high school organizing. Copies were also distributed at the University of British Columbia and in rural communities.

In April 1993, Tom Metzger established a telephone message system in Vancouver. McAleer advertised the line on his own racist and homophobic Canadian Liberty Net,[8] also based in Vancouver BC. Metzger runs at least six telephone message systems across the US. The Vancouver line primarily targeted immigration, provides information promoting WAR and lists the California based WAR telephone number. The telephone link is important to Metzger since he and his son are prohibited from visiting Canada following his deportation from Canada in July, 1992 after speaking before members of the Heritage Front in Toronto.[iii]

Organizing Against Aryan Nation

The Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Aryan Nation, based in Hayden Lake, Idaho, is another of the most violent racist and homophobic groups in North America. Aryan Nation is part of the Christian Identity movement which is based in a bizarre interpretation of the Old Testament Bible which holds that white skinned Christian people of Northern European descent are the true chosen people of the Bible, the true Israelites. Jews are the children of Satan and people of colour are without souls. Aryan Nation, at the very least, wants to partition North America into ethnic enclaves, or worse deport people of colour- and commit genocide against Jews.

Aryan Nation was founded by Richard Butler in the late 1970s and serves as an umbrella group uniting various Klan, neo-Nazi organizations and racist skinhead factions in the United States, Canada and Europe. Butler has, in fact, held many "world congresses", "Aryan Fests" and Aryan Nations leadership training camps attended by Canadians of all ages, but particularly young people from Alberta and British Columbia.

One of the most capable and aggressive organizers for Aryan Nations was Charles Scott. Scott surfaced with a vengeance in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia in the mid-1990s as the new leader of the Canadian arm of Aryan Nation. Scott was a young Ju Jitsu practitioner who had been video-taped training army medical corps officers at CFB Jericho, in Vancouver, B.C in armed and unarmed fighting techniques. Scott had been "ordained" by Eric Butler head of Aryan Nations in Idaho and James Wickstrom, a leading figure in the Posse Comitatus [iv] and assumed leadership after the former leader of Aryan Nation, Terry Long, fled an order to provide membership lists to an Alberta Human Rights Commission hearing regarding a complaint of an “Aryan Fest” in Provost, Alberta (see above). Long finally settled in Creston, B.C. In the heart of the Kootneys and not far from Hayden Lake, Idaho. Ray Bradley also named in the Alberta Human Rights complaint[9] settled in Castlegar, not far from Long.

Scott first drew attention to himself after a massive leafleting campaign of shopping malls and high schools in the Lower Mainland. Scott boasted that he printed and distributed 75,000 flyers.[10] The leaflets called on Euro-Canadians to protect their culture. The Fraser Valley had once again become one of the main centers of hate group activity in Canada, attracting young and old from across the country.[11]

The Mayor, reporters and a number of key organizers received hate mail and death threats when they spoke out. Some of the death threats came from the United States, but others originated in Chilliwack from a small but growing cadre of Aryan Nation supporters. One letter from the United States addressed to the Mayor of Chilliwack stated that:

We [Church of Jesus Christ in Israel] are messengers of Almighty YHVH (God) and HIS cause is just and it will be done... The bloodline of the Almighty will not be wiped out by the likes of your ilk for as much as you push your forced integration and race mixing on us we will fight back... The more non-whites you bring into our countries will again be made to leave or become canon fodder! (n.d., August Kreis, Ulyses, Pennsylvania)

Responding to the growing threat to public safety posed by Aryan Nation, David Lethbridge of the Salmon Arm Coalition Against Racism telephoned John Les, the Mayor of Chilliwack, to convening a meeting of city councilors, law enforcement officers and community leaders to share information and to develop anti-racist policy. Representative of the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society and the Stol:lo Nation, along with various other groups were invited to share expertise and to help mobilize the community against hate group activity.

As would happen later in Kelowna, Creston and Yahk, a community based organization - the Chilliwack Anti-racism Project Society’s (CARPS) - was formed to respond to Aryan Nations. CARPS mandate was to educate the public and liaise with law enforcement and schools. An intensive two day workshop on tracking and monitoring hate groups was planned with the help of the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society. Seattle and Portland based human rights group were invited, but eventually declined because of jurisdictional and funding issues.

Scott was not the least deterred and established a hate telephone line, copying themes prevalent on the hate telephone lines of Wolfgang Droege’s Heritage Front (see below), Tony McAleer’s Vancouver-based Canadian Liberty Net and Bill Harcus' Manitoba Knights of the KKK hate line. Scott’s answering system broadcast the following message on March 1, 1995:

We [Scott] at the Church of Christ in Israel are an organization of men, women and volunteers who are fighting for the rights of white Canadians. We believe that this country was built by white people and that minorities, non-white crime, and racial treason are ruining this nation. We are witnessing the virtual destruction of our white Aryan culture and heritage in every aspect of daily living. In order to combat this total disregard for white European values, we have dedicated our lives to working for white people everywhere... We are laying down the groundwork for a revolution which will return power to the white race. We support the free-enterprise system, but wish to smash Jew capitalism... We wish to wipe out Zionism and every kik who supports it throughout the free world... We demand a crime free, white-ruled society without the daily fear of rape, robbery and murder. All immigration from non-white nations must be stopped. Mud people must be repatriated to the land of their ancestry.

Scott’s message began by admitting that he had delivered "literature" to the home of a CARPS organizer who happened to be a Jewish woman. As Scott admitted:

Yes, Mrs., I did deliver some literature to your home... I always claim responsibility for my actions, as I am proud to represent our struggle for white victory. You and yours may rest at ease that I view you simply as loyal members of the cult we call Canada. I feel sorry for you dear. Only Yahweh can judge you.

The "literature" Scott refers to is anti-semitic and contained his signature along with the number "88", which stands for Hail Hitler in neo-Nazi circles.[12]

Organizers with CARPS filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission about the hate messages on Scott’s telephone answering system. CARPS also complained to the Chilliwack RCMP detachment of intimidation and stalking by Scott and other members of Aryan Nations.

It was not long before other virulent white supremacist propaganda began appearing in shopping malls, at the nearby military base, at the homes of community leaders and in schools throughout the Fraser Valley. Scott was also joined by several young recruits, including Mat Harrison, Les Kaminski and Luke Deselects. Luke Deselects had been approached earlier by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to infiltrate Aryan Nations. But Deselects appeared on television to announce that CRISIS and the federal government were evil and that Scott was good. Deselects pledged his life to Aryan Nations on CUBIC evening news.[13]

Reporters and photographers with the Chilliwack Progress, a local newspaper that had valiantly reported on Aryan Nations and anti-racist activities in the Fraser Valley, were warned not to write further articles critical of Charles Scott or Aryan Nations. Reporters were told that they would be hurt and their wives would be raped if they persisted in writing about Scott. A fake bomb was left at the offices of the Chilliwack Progress.

As a result of work for Aryan Nations, Charles Scott returned to the Aryan Nations compound in the Summer of 1996 to receive an “Aryan of the Year” award from Eric Butler.[14] Just before receiving the award, Scott was video-taped by a Canadian film crew repeating Christian Identity propaganda that Jews are the children of Satan, that homosexuals should be killed and that the bombing of the FBI Building in Oklahoma which left 167 men, women and children dead was justified. Little did Scott realize that the film crew was working for the Canadian Anti-racism Education and Research Society in preparation of a documentary to expose racists.

Because of the constant and unrelenting attention of the press coupled with the solidarity of the community and elected officials, Charles Scott lost the ability to rent meeting halls or speak privately with students in shopping malls. The notoriety Scott had worked so hard for was, in reality, a two edged sword that had now turned on him. Scott was not able to rent a house for his family and had to leave the Lower Mainland. Scott had truly become persona non grata. In the end, despite death threats and fake bombs, opposing and exposing hate resulted in an important victory for the community.

However, while Scott was forced to move, a small cadre of Aryan Nations devotees stayed behind in Chilliwack, intending to continue their work in a more clandestine manner far from the glare of media attention. This small group of followers was aided by an older generation of Nazis who were long term residents in that region of the province. One of the key supporters of Scott in the Valley was Edgar Foth.[15] Foth was one of only two Canadians accepted into the US based Silent Brotherhood - am early offshoot of Aryan Nations. The Brotherhood was responsible for murders and armoured car robberies in the early 1980s. The leader of the Silent Brotherhood, Robert Jay Mathews, died in a fiery shoot-out with FBI agents on Whidbey Island not far from Seattle, Washington on December 8, 1984. White supremacists from Canada and the United States believe that Mathews was a martyr for the white supremacist movement and travel each year to Whidbey Island to commemorate his death.

Shortly after leaving Chilliwack, Scott turned up in Kelowna, a mid-size city in the interior of British Columbia, with Aryan Nations flyers. This time Scott stayed with a local supporter who owned property. Scott had learned that renting would be difficult for the leader of the Aryan movement.

In Kelowna as in Chillwack, the community was outraged at Scott’s message and the recruitment of young men and women. As a result, the Kelowna Organized Against Racism (KOAR) was created by local community activists Deborah and John Wakefield.[16] Community forums on tracking and monitoring hate groups and preventing youth recruitment were soon organized and information was presented to the media about Aryan Nation, Charles Scott and his followers.

Organizing in Kelowna was not, however, welcomed by other community groups. Some felt that talking about hate groups diverted attention and scarce resources away from systemic racism. Some local politicians feared that organizing anti-racist forums and events would spark violence. The Wakefield’s, Sandy Doer of the BC Teacher’s Federation and Doug Find later of the Department of Canadian Heritage played the main role in helping the community realize the extent of racism in the region and the need to organize against hate. A CUBIC television reporter who received death threats was one of the first to alert the community about the real danger posed by racists.

Joined by David Lethbridge, Alan Dutton and Dale Cornish, the Wakefields, Dore and Findlater became part of a very successful team that helped organize and develop community responses to organized racist groups in several areas of the province. The Wakefields, Dore and Findlater had attended an earlier conference in Kelowna organized by the Society to explain the problem of racism and hate group activity. Helmut-Harry Loewen from Winnipeg and Ron Bourgeault from Saskatchewan how to organize against hate and how to alert youth to organized racism.

As a result of extensive and responsible media exposure arising from the public anti-racist events in Kelowna, Scott was again forced to move. This time Scott moved to Yahk (population 300) in the heart of the Kootenys. Yahk is a few hours drive from Hayden, Lake, Idaho where the Aryan Nations compound is located and is close to a number of US based militia training schools.

Scott was soon joined in Yahk by several young recruits and their families, including Mat Harrison, Les Kaminski and Luke Deselects. Luke Deselects had apparently worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to infiltrate Aryan Nations a few years earlier, and had appeared on television to announce that the federal government was an evil force and that Scott was a holy man, deserving of respect. Deselects had suffered a nervous breakdown and had come to the conversion at some time during his psychological crisis. Deselects denounced CSIS on CUBIC evening news and pledged his life to Aryan Nations. Dan Sims, a Final Solution Skin and protégé of Long, also showed up near Yahk, but was immediately arrested to finish serving time for the assault of retired newspaper reporter, Keith Rutherford, who he and other skinheads had assaulted in Edmonton, Alberta.

Scott soon began to advertise martial arts classes for young people in the Kootenys. Scott also offered to be a teacher’s helper in Yahk’s one and only elementary school. Scott quickly became a nucleus for young men and women angry over unemployment, taxes and big government in Yahk.

Playing up the themes of big government, gun control and social decay, Scott also attempted to attract young disaffected members of First Nations groups. For Scott, the fight against government and for “racial” separation is in the interest of all both white and non-white groups. In fact, Scott supports the Nation of Islam, as does Tom Metzger, in the hope of creating separate nations based on skin colour or “race”.

The Chilliwack, Kelowna experience was repeated a third time. The Society helped local activists organize a forum on hate activity in the region. Speaking at the forum were Lethbridge, the Wakefields, Dore and Dutton. The Mayor of Yahk, Lila Irvine, supported the initiative, attended the forum and met with anti-racist organizers to plan events.

The Creston Advance, the town newspaper, began to publish a series of in-depth articles about Scott and Long and Aryan Nations much like the Chilliwack Progress and the media in Kelowna had done. Several forums were organized by the newly formed Creston Valley Human Rights Task Force to raise public awareness about hate group activity and Churches based in Creston held services in Yahk to show solidarity with local towns people against hate.

Faced with mounting and sustained community opposition to racism and intolerance, Scott was again forced to retreat. But this time Scott felt abandoned, he later complained. He stated to the media that he was leaving Aryan Nations. He was seeking a “quiet” life and wanted to get a real job. Scott turned up with his family in a small town in the province of Saskatchewan where he worked for a short time marketing hogs.

In 1999 Scott called Alan Dutton who had dogged him around the province of British Columbia for three years to ask for help. Scott had been charged in Saskatchewan with assault and growing marijuana. He said that he was not calling for help with the charges but wanted to talk about leaving the hate group movement and about his plans to write a book about his experience. Two long conversations ensued in which Scott criticized his former mentors and the white supremacist movement in general and provided information on particular events and persons. Scott spoke about his rehabilitation as a “former” racist and inquired about other high profile racists who had recanted and were being paid to speak about their former lives. Scott offered to give Pennsylvania property presently occupied by August Christ of the Church of Jesus Christ in Israel that he believed was bequeathed to his children to the anti-racist movement as a museum against hate. A Kelowna based CUBIC producer interested in the charges against Scott and his claim to have recanted racism, arranged an interview on air with Scott. Dutton was also interviewed and stated that Scott had done nothing to convince him of his supposed change of heart, apart from the telephone calls. Dutton said that even those calls could be explained by pecuniary interests, if not help in claiming rehabilitation. In all, Dutton argued that advocating genocide and organizing racist groups could not and should not be taken lightly. Dutton outlined several steps Scott needed to undertake to demonstrate his commitment to change. Scott has not called back.

Exposing the head of the KKK

The KKK was founded in 1866 by a group of Confederate soldiers. It is often said that the Ku Klux Klan is the oldest and most enduring of all the hate groups in North America. However, the genocide against aboriginal peoples, the institution of slavery, the laws against Asian immigration and voting rights pre-date the formation of the KKK. Those racist practices and racist laws were based, if not in crude hate, in the belief in white supremacy. The ideas that justified and permitted the KKK group to flourish in the United States and Canada were, and continue to be part of, the common baggage of European culture.

The Klan was particularly successful on the Prairie provinces during the 1920s in Canada, gaining an estimated twenty thousand members in Saskatchewan alone.[v] The Klan was also successful in British Columbia recruiting as many as five MLAs during the early 1930s. Pictures of the time period show wealthy business people attending Klan functions and writing motions for Vancouver City Council.

During the late 1970s, three main Klans competed for members - one in particular modeled itself after David Duke and his Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Beside Duke, the main US-based Klans to actively recruit in Canada were the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan led by James Farrands, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan led by Thom Robb, Confederate Knights of America led by Terry Boyce, and the White Knights of the KKK led by Dennis Mahon.

The Canadian Invisible Empire based in Mission, BC led one of the largest leafleting campaigns in late 1989. The leaflets relied heavily on two main themes - the threat of a supposed Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world and the threat of Asian immigration to jobs. The attack on Jews works the traditional anti-Semites ploy that Jews control world banking, the media and governments in the West. The leaflets referred to ZOG - Zionist Occupational Government - displayed both Klan and Identity "church" symbols. Reports of Klan recruiting continue through the prison system.

In 1991, the Invisible Empire distributed a special issue of the Klansmen devoted to organizing in Canada. The Klansmen played mostly on anti-semitism, stating that linguistic divisions in Canada were a Zionist plot and that the failure of the Meech Lake Accord was an attempt to destroy Canada. The Klansmen was declared hate propaganda by Canadian Customs and Excises and the Attorney General of Quebec instructed the Surete de Quebec to lay charges under the Criminal Code. Two members of the Invisible Empire were arrested and found guilty in 1992 of attempting to smuggle the Klansmen into Quebec.

Therefore, it was no surprise when flyers were found in 1995 advertizing the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan “Sons of Freedom Pacific Realm”.[17] The flyers targeted aboriginal peoples, gays and people of colour. Letters inviting people to join the Klan also appeared. The KKK flyers bore a Maple Ridge post office box number. A letter was sent to the Klan post office box asking for further information. Newsletters arrived along with a membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Newsletters and other materials were signed, Brian Taylor.

A young newspaper reporter based in Maple Ridge had begun investigating the Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) run by Paul Fromm, a Mississauga, Ontario school teacher. Fromm had spoken at a community hall in Coquitlam at the invitation of a local resident and the reporter wanted background on the school teacher and his organization. The reporter was informed about Klan activities in the Coquitlam-Maple Ridge-Mission areas and she began to take an interest in the Klan post office box.

In the Spring of 1997, the head of the KKK used a private company postal meter to mail out Klan newsletters. The envelope confirmed that Taylor worked for ADT Securities in North Vancouver. Taylor had used company equipment for copying Klan posters before and had been reprimanded for using company equipment for “personal” business. Now he had used it again and had been caught not by management, but by a reporter.

ADT saw the problems. First, having an employee not just linked to the Ku Klux Klan, but a leader in the movement was a problem since Taylor was in a position of trust, providing in-home security systems in North and West Vancouver. Second, Taylor had been seen with Klan material and warned not to photocopy personal material using company equipment.[18] ADT decided to let Taylor go after ten years of service and the Ministry of the Attorney General recommended that more stringent criteria be used to license home security companies.

Taylor and members of his family spoke at length with representatives of the Society. Taylor explained that his involvement in the Klan was a mistake and that he had planned to leave the Klan before he was exposed. Interviews were arranged with television and news reporters so that Taylor could explain to young people that joining the Klan was wrong and that he had made a terrible mistake. Taylor told reporters that there were approximately 100 loose-knit members of the Klan in the Lower Mainland and he appeared on BCTV with Mi Jung Lee to warn young people to not join the Klan.

While subsequent interviews with Taylor indicated that he had not changed his views about homosexuality, Native land claims and multiculturalism, his warning to young people to not join the Klan was an ideological and tactical victory. Taylor’s experience was a clear indication that membership in a hate group meant financial ruin and not success.

Certainly, the new leader of Aryan Nations who followed Charles Scott has not stepped into the light of public attention, apart from one call from “Brother John” to a CKNW reporter in 1997. Nor did the head of the BC chapter of the Heritage Front (see below) anticipate or want the public attention he received at the Surrey courthouse during the preliminary hearing concerning the five racist skinheads who mercilessly kicked a retired caretaker, Nirmal Singh Gill, to death on a cold January morning as he approached a Surrey Gurdwara to open it for worshippers.

Exposing the head of the BC chapter of the Heritage Front

The Heritage Front is a violent Toronto-based neo-Nazi organization founded in 1989 by Wolfgang Droege (see Kinsella and Fink above). Droege has a long history of arrest and conviction for hate crime. Dreoge was an immigrant to Canada from Bavaria and became a member of the ultra-violent Western Guard headed by Don Andrews and John Ross Taylor when he was still young. In 1976, Droege attended a conference organized by David Duke in New Orleans and was appointed as a Knights of the Ku Klux Klan representative in Canada. In 1979, Droege became the head of the KKK in British Columbia and organized a cross Canada speaking tour for David Duke. In 1981, Droege, Alexander McQuiter, Larry Jacklin and eight others were convicted along with a number of US nationals on charges of conspiracy for the attempted armed take over of the island of Dominica in the Caribbean. In 1985, Droege began serving four years in the United States for possession of cocaine. In 1993, Droege was charged with possession of weapon, following a fight in the streets of downtown Toronto. In 1994, Droege served three months in jail in Toronto for contempt when he refused to stop spreading hate on the Heritage Front “hotline”. In 1997, Droege was arrested again, this time for car theft.

The Heritage Front publishes Up Front, a newsletter which gives space to, and publicizes material from, other anti-semites and racists. The Front regularly organizes rallies and symposia and is actively recruiting in schools and universities in Canada. The main U.S. based racists have appeared at Heritage Front functions, including the John and Tom Metzger of the White Aryan Resistance (see above), Dennis Mahon of the White Knights of the KKK and the self-admitted British fascist and Hitler apologist, David Irving.

The Front had been rocked by community demonstrations, rumours that a Heritage Front leader, Grant Bristow, was an infiltrator employed by Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and several key members were charged with assault, possession of weapons and kidnapping. Trying to rebuild but desperate for “front” men and woman, the Heritage Front reached out to anyone they thought could help.

Under the leadership of an older racist who refuse publicity, a very bright but inexperienced young man was found in Surrey, B.C. The Front had distributed business in colleges and universities in the Lower mainland over the years, but now they needed something more dramatic. They established a telephone “hot line” in 1997. The hot line stated that it is “not a racist telephone” line, but is “pro-white” - that is, it is “not racist to love the white race.” The young head of the Heritage Front in BC introduced himself as “Carl Nordstrom”, fearing that giving his real name would spell financial ruin as it had done to both Charles Scott and Brian Taylor.

Nordstrom was photographed wearing a RAHOWA t-shirt at a meeting of the Free Speech League at the West Vancouver Public Library in May 1996. RAHOWA is the acronym for “racial holy war” and the name of George Burdi’s racist rock band. The meeting of the Free Speech League was organized by Douglas Christie, a lawyer for many of the neo-Nazis in Canada and a person who the Upper Canada Bar Association had found in an investigation of the lawyer, had made “common cause” with his clients. The Free Speech League was reported by a former friend and colleague, Dr. Gary Botting LL.B., to be a “front for the Nazis”. Nordstrom met after the media left with school teacher, Paul Fromm.

Nordstrom was also photographed with Bernard Klatt, owner of the racist ftcnet.com website in Oliver BC in March 1997. Klatt’s site was linked and provided access to most notorious hate sites world wide. Several racist skinheads in Britain and France were arrested for the death threats posted on the sites accessible through ftc.net Supporting Klatt were Doug Collins, a columnist with the North Shore News, Paul Fromm, an Ontario school teacher fired for his continued association with white supremacists, and Marc Lemire, operator of the racist Freedomsite BBS. The media did not, however, pay attention to Nordstrom, not realizing who he represented.

Like Taylor, Nordstrom made a serious mistake and attended the arraignment of five skinheads charged in the brutal beating death of Nirmal Singh Gill on January 4, 1998. At the arraignment, Nordstrom walked by a representative of the Society who was being interview by a reporter. Nordstrom smugly waved and was identified by the Society as the current head of the Heritage Front in BC. The media chased Nordstrom around the court house, taking pictures through glass windows and using the pictures the Society had taken at the West Vancouver Library and Oliver.

Shots of Nordstrom were broadcast on the major television stations and his picture appeared in all the major daily newspapers. It was discovered that Nordstrom was actually Marc Lerch, a promising recent high school graduate who had appeared a few years earlier on television for receiving a provincial high school science award. Lerch was publicly identified as the head of the BC chapter of the Heritage Front again through the careful research of the Society working with news reporters.

Clearly, the experience of hate group leaders in BC is that being publicly identified leads to financial ruin and Lerch, like Scott and Taylor before him, has “disappeared” from public view. A subsequent meeting with Lerch and the Society on a Vancouver street indicated that he is still very much actively involved in the recruitment of youth and intends to focus on promoting racist rock bands.