Five individuals in the video below are reportedly members of the Canadian Armed Forces. And, on Canada Day, they went to a Mi'kmaq event in Halifax, held to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women.
They weren't there as members of our military, or to show support. They were there because they wanted to attack the Mi'kmaq. They were there because they said they are part of the white supremacist group, the Proud Boys.
The Proud Boys are a hate group founded and led by Rebel Media star Gavin McInnes. McInnes has written on the Rebel's website about how he hates Jews, calls blacks "monkeys," calls himself "anti-Semitic," says Jews should "get over" the Holocaust, and authors essays titled "I'm Not a Racist, Sexist, or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot."
The Proud Boys and McInnes are what they are: racist, anti-Semitic human garbage. They're on the record, and the record is clear. That's not the issue, here.
All of us should contact their commanders and demand answers.
The issue is that these are people celebrating after attacking a group of peaceful Indigenous people, and four of them are giving white power salutes in a Halifax bar. That's the issue.
Anti-Racist Canada has the right idea: all of us should contact their commanders and demand answers.
This isn't the first time Canada's Armed Forces have been linked to organized racism in this way. In 1992-1993, while working as a special assistant to Jean Chretien, a group of us worked to expose the involvement of the Canadian Airborne Regiment in neo-Naziism. As I wrote in my book Web of Hate, one of their number, Matt McKay, even had a swastika flag in his barracks and made Nazi salutes for the cameras.
Mi'kmaq public ceremony for mourning #MMIW was crashed by white supremacist gang-wannabe Proud Boys waving a colonial flag. #CDNpolipic.twitter.com/ftLOtUTm9N
— 📕 (@EastIsRed) July 1, 2017
