See No Evil

Members of Azov battalion attend a rally on the Volunteer Day honouring fighters, who joined the Ukrainian armed forces during a military conflict in the country's eastern regions, in central Kiev, Ukraine (credit: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS)

"If Canada is going to be providing military training to foreign forces, then it is our responsibility to know we are not training neo-Nazis"

"It is our obligation to our Canadian veterans who sacrificed so much defeating fascism in Europe."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts policy director, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

"[Our group's members serve at present as officers in Ukraine's military and] have succeeded in establishing co-operation with foreign colleagues from such countries as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, the U.S.A. Germany and Poland."

"[We support] right patriots, nationalists, conservatives and Christians currently defending the streets of Kyiv from [Kyiv Pride event] perverts from the LGBT movement and their left-liberal sympathizers."

Ukraine fascist militia, Centuria

 

"White supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world. I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the U.S. from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine."

"The State Department should pressure Kiev to dissociate itself with this group and investigate whether any of our weapons or training have already been provided to them,"

"This is just one of many reasons why lawmakers should be concerned about channeling huge amounts of weapons into this volatile conflict zone."

U.S.Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

"Evidence uncovered in this paper suggests that since 2018, the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy (NAA), Ukraine’s premier military education institution and a major hub for Western military assistance to the country, has been home to Centuria, a self-described order of 'European traditionalist' military officers that has the stated goals of reshaping the country’s military along right-wing ideological lines and defending the 'cultural and ethnic identity' of European peoples against 'Brussels’ politicos and bureaucrats'. The group envisions a future where 'European right forces are consolidated and national traditionalism is established as the disciplining ideological basis for the European peoples'."

"The group, led by individuals with ties to Ukraine’s internationally active far-right Azov movement, has attracted multiple members, including current and former officer cadets of the NAA now serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Apparent members have appeared in photos giving Nazi salutes and made seemingly extremist statements online."

Illiberalism Studies Program

A new report from an American university says far-right extremists in Ukraine’s military have bragged they received training from the Canadian Forces and other NATO nations. ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

George Washington University in Washington, D.C. recently published a study out of one of its institutes where social media accounts of the far-right group Centuria in Ukraine were tracked, documenting the fascist group's Ukrainian military members with Nazi salutes as they engage in the promotion of white nationalism, praising Nazi SS units' members. Nostalgia for another time and place where fascism threatened the world order and committed the gravest atrocities against humankind in the mid-20th Century during a time of a global-churning world war.

 

The Ukrainian nationalists militia group Centuria has been active since 2018 at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachy National Army Academy in Ukraine, according to the George Washington University's Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. Members of Centuria have left their handprint on social media, claiming to have received military training from the Canadian military, as well as having taken part in military exercises with Canada.

This is hugely disturbing news to institutions dedicated to vigilance for the appearance of fascist groups as threats to world stability. The Canadian military was apprised of the presence of neo-Nazis within their own services in the past year and speedily made efforts to root them out, claiming it has no tolerance for fascists operating within its ranks. Organizers with Centuria boasted on social media of their members currently serving as officers in Ukraine's military establishment.

The University of Washington report on their study has been widely read and was of huge interest to the Simon Wiesenthal Center dedicated to fighting fascism in memory of the institutional state obliteration of six million Jewish lives during the Holocaust years taking place within the theatre of the Second World War. The Center for Holocaust Studies wrote to the Acting Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre and to Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan asking them to launch an investigation.

It is the Simon Wiesenthal's position that the Canadian Forces should conduct an investigation to determine whether its troops have been involved in training neo-Nazis in Ukraine and to further devise a way to make certain military instruction through Canadian Forces' auspices do not reoccur. The response from the Canadian Forces was to advise that Ukraine must vet its own security forces; the Canadian military is not proactively engaged in determining backgrounds of foreign trainees, nor do they search out support for far-right groups.

Ukraine's government denies the very existence of Centuria. The hands-off approach of the Canadian military has understandably failed to quell the unease of the protesting Wiesenthal Center. In 2015 when the decision was reached to send Canadian troops to Ukraine, the then-Canadian defence minister was aware of the likely presence of far-right extremists in the Ukraine military and discussions were led on avoidance in training extremists.

The decision was reached to stipulate that units of the Ukrainian National Guard exclusively would be trained, avoiding the training opportunities that some ad hoc militias that had appeared in Ukraine at that time, seeking to take opportunities for themselves would be avoided. The Canadian defence critic MP Jack Harris however, gave warning that far-right groups were integrating themselves into the Ukraine military and the difficulty that would ensue attempting to isolate extremists.

A new report from an American university says far-right extremists in Ukraine’s military have bragged they received training from the Canadian Forces and other NATO nations. Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV /GETTY

Fascism's Stranglehold

"[The discovery is a] disgrace [for the police in the western region of North Rhine-Westfalia and impacted the force] to its core."

"We are talking about the nastiest and most disgusting neo-Nazi, racist and refugee-hostile hatred."

"I have to tell you that this process makes me speechless. And I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since I found out about it."

"We have to ask unpleasant questions of ourselves. Who knew about this? Why was this tolerated for years? By whom?"

Herbert Reul, interior minister, North Rhine-Westfalia

 

"The battle against right-wing extremism is in the DNA of the police." 

"The fact that there are, nevertheless, officers who share radical, far-right and xenophobic content in chat groups is unbearable."

Michael Maatz,  regional deputy chair, GdP union

Dozens of officers in Essen were asked to hand in their badges and weapons.  BERND THISSEN/DPA/AFP via Getty Images

Germany is undergoing yet another neo-Nazi scandal, to augment those that have already been revealed polluting their national military and law enforcement agencies. Twenty-nine police officers yesterday were suspended on charges of taking part in extremist chat groups sharing images such as swastikas and depictions of genocidal victims in gas chambers. Photographs of Hitler, Third Reich flags and another image showing a Black person being shot were part of the images shared on these chat groups.

 

There were 126 images in total, many of them grounds for lawful punishment, shared on five WhatsApp chat groups predominantly or exclusively dominated by police officers, 25 of whom were on the same police force in the city of Essen, asked to hand in their badges and weapons yesterday. Disciplinary measures are underway for the intention of termination against 14 of the officers, eleven of whom are suspected of having carried out criminal offences.

 

At 34 locations such as private homes and police stations, early morning raids were carried out. Extreme-right scandals have plagued police and military units in Germany. Prominent public figures have received death threats from neo-Nazis. Left-wing politicians and lawyers in recent years have been threatened, the incidents linked to police computers. The WhatsApp chat groups were revealed when an inquiry was launched into those threats, where it was revealed officers shared racist and anti-Semitic content.

 

A group of neo-Nazi "preppers", called Nordkreuz was discovered in 2017 who, according to authorities, were preparing themselves for "Day X", amassing lists of political opponents and storing weapons and body bags toward the goal that "Day X" evidently represented for them. Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer disbanded a combat unit of Germany's elite Special Forces Command in June in the light of suspected extreme-right ties in the ranks.

 

German authorities, according to security experts, have failed to tackle the problem of resurging fascism directly and have avoided answering the obvious; whether police can be trusted to investigate themselves. No officers have yet been charged with relation to the death threats. A police officer who founded Northkreuz who had served in the German military, had been given a 21-month suspended sentence on weapons charges last year.

 

Minister Horst Seehofer in the Bundestag.  Hannibal Hanschke /REUTERS

Horst Seehofer, German interior minister, has resisted any assertion of structural racism within the security forces. He cancelled a scheduled study of racial profiling by police back in July with the explaintion by his ministry that there was no necessity to proceed with the investigation since racial profiling is illegal. He spoke, rather, of a study into police-directed violence. 

 

Far-right networks in three of the country's sixteen federal states, cautioned a spokesman for the federal interior ministry, should not be taken as a"structural" racism issue among the nation's 300,000 police officers. Adding that it was too early to re-evaluate the decision that the racism study be shelved, Steve Alter was anxious in his statements to impress upon the news media that the interior ministry continues to trust the democratic, law-abiding judgement of Germany's security officers.  

After an officer's cellphone had been confiscated over suspicion of media leaks, what was discovered was the presence of the offending chat groups, one of which started in 2012, another created in 2015, where most of the offensive material was found to have been posted and shared. Leading Mr. Reul to warn that there may well be further shocking revelations since cellphones belonging to other officers were seized on Wednesday for examination.

Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister presents the state's unit for arrests and securing evidence in February 2019    (EPA)

Tracking the Fascists

"Anything that depicts anything regarding Hitler is a very sensitive issue, especially with growing anti-Semitism throughout Canada, the United States and around the world."
"When we receive complaints from the community, we have to respond."
"This is a sensitive issue with the Jewish population and with families of those involved in the Holocaust."
Harvey Levine, regional director, Quebec, B'nai Brith human rights organization

"[Levine] expressed his and the community's shock concerning the fact that the game exists and that we would carry it."
"I'm glad that he spoke to us directly."
"Between our three stores, many copies were sold."
Manager, West Island Tour de Jeux outlet, Montreal

This is a board game, only one of a number, that bases its competitive underpinning on the Third Reich, a battle between fascists and moderates, a political-faux thriller pitting the forces of evil against those who aspire to defeat their agenda of world domination. The kindest thing that can be said about something of this nature -- taking a real-life historical event known for its brutality and vicious Nazi aspiration to extinguish the lives of Europe's Jews in an finely orchestrated genocidal 'final solution' while fighting a world war, is that it trivializes one of the most horrific of humankind's basest atrocities.

Hitler, Nazis, fascism and World War Two are synonymous with genocide and the extermination of six million Jews, as well as political dissenters, Roma, homosexuals, socialists, and society's mentally and physically infirm, all destined for obliteration through a clockwork organization of mass executions. The blueprint for such a game based on the horrific realities of the era reflects a casual disregard for humanity's blackest, bleakest hours. During the Second World War, an estimated 70 million people died, representing 20 million military and 40 million civilians.

Human memory is short, and  history is given short shrift, but this example of profit over morals is nothing short of shocking. Yet this game in particular is advertised as having great popularity and having been rated a nominee for the 2016 Golden Geek Best Party Game. Three Montreal area stores carried the game -- which is widely available online including through Amazon.

Complaints were lodged from the Jewish community of Montreal with the Jewish human rights group B'nai Brith Canada, which then contacted the manager of the Tour de Jeux at its Pointe-Claire outlet. Complaints over the presence in Montreal of the game were also posted on Facebook by troubled Quebecers, rousing B'nai Brith to action. The game, set in 1933's Germany the year Adolf Hitler became chancellor, came on the market several years ago. There are two teams on the fascist Hitler-themed game, liberals and fascists.

The liberals are tasked with finding and stopping Secret Hitler before it's too late, while the fascists sow distrust and install and protect their leader. This is the game's plot, one that B'nai Brith brought to the attention of the store's manager. The West Island manager contacted the store's owner who made the decision to remove the game at his three Montreal locations. The game had been stocked over the holiday period after customer requests.

Distributed worldwide through Amazon, complaints have issued from other Jewish groups, in the United States and Australia. Sales of board games have skyrocketed over the past five years, often emphasizing strategy and co-operation. Although anti-Semitic attacks have increased in volume throughout Canada, the increase of such incidents has been far greater in the Province of Quebec.

It was revealed a year ago through the news media that one of the most influential neo-Nazis lives in Montreal, and organizes a white supremacist network. He is a prolific writer on the Daily Stormer, the extreme-right-wing news website with upwards of 80,000 visitors monthly, and he goes by the name "Zeiger". It is a toxic site trafficking in conspiracy theories, which refers to African Americans as "nogs", to gays as "faggots" and covers the "Race War" and the "Jewish Problem". Anti-fascist investigators have discovered a link to "Zeiger" through a 2002 yearbook from Paul-Gérin-Lajoie-d’Outremont, which Sohier Chaput attended in Grade 10. They saw a resemblance between the 2002 photo of Sohier Chaput and Zeiger’s online profiles.

White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the alt-right exchange volleys of pepper spray with counter-protesters at Charlottesville in August 2011: For Zeiger, the €œpath of questioning€ began early. He says in a podcast that he was 14 when he read about the Holocaust and €œrealized that it was a hoax.€ Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A 'new generation' of white men are said to be inspired by the Daily Stormer's writers along with Zeiger's Nazi-glorifying articles, the man who has helped the spread of this fascist ideology across North America. Presumably, it is among this lot in particular that a passion for this board game emanates....

The Rebirth of White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis Globally

"White supremacy extremism is a transnational challenge -- its tentacles reach from Canada to Australia, and the United States to Ukraine -- but it has evolved at a different pace in different parts of the world."
"To make serious progress, the United States should consider building upon Canada and the United Kingdom's leadership by sanctioning transnational WSE groups as foreign terrorist organizations."
"In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West, to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination, and instruction in irregular warfare."
Soufan Center, New York, report on White Supremacy Extremism: The Transnational Rise of The Violent White Supremacist Movement

A news broadcast by German ZDF station on September 8 showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion in Mariupol with Nazi symbols on their helmets

“Canada has not, does not, and will not be providing support to Azov and affiliated entities."
"Canada is strongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance and extremism."
Dan Le Bouthillier, spokesman, Department of National Defence

The Soufan Center has warned of a growing trend for white supremacist groups to seek out opportunities for military training and experience in foreign conflicts, and it seems that the standing conflict in eastern Ukraine is particularly interesting for white supremacists. People have streamed into Ukraine to join the battalion of the regular Ukrainian Armed Forces from Brazil, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom, France, America, Greece, Scandinavia,Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic Croatia, Russia -- and Canada.

Azov Battalion Insignia

The international neo-Nazi network called Blood & Honor is mentioned in the report with respect to Canadian efforts to sideline its recruitment in Canada, adding it, identified as a right-wing extremist group, to the official list of terrorist organizations. Blood & Honour, founded in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s has its Canadian supporters. It and its armed branch Combat 18, which has been known to be responsible for bombings and murders around the world now both share space on Canada's list of terrorist organizations.

The Soufan Center's report represents a nudge to the U.S. government to designate white supremacist groups as international terrorists, hindering their members' ability to travel and fostering the capacity of the U.S. government to prosecute individuals who provide material support to such designated groups. White supremacist extremists in the United States have been connected to 40 murders there.

Former FBI agent Ali Soufan, involved in counterterrorism cases, the creator of the Soufan Center, warned that white nationalists have been travelling to Ukraine purposing to learn combat skills there, enlisting with the neo-Nazi-connected Azov Battalion, comprised of fighters mostly from eastern Ukraine, where the group distinguished themselves in fierce combat with the ethnic Russian-Ukrainian rebels backed by Russia in the Donbass region.

The recruits from the West have joined both sides of the conflict between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists, adding up to an estimated 17,000 foreigners hailing from 50 countries who have chosen to fight in that conflict. While the Azov Battalion was lauded by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and elevated to official status within the Ukrainian military, the battalion is known to have cultivated friendly relations with members of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi terrorist network based in the United States.

A U.S. army soldier in Kansas was arrested in late September for sharing bomb-making instructions online and discussing attacks on the news media, on left-leaning activists and on former U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke. According to the FBI, that soldier, Jarrett William Smith, had expressed interest in joining the Azov Battalion in Ukraine.

Canadian government and military officials in Ukraine met with members of the Azov Battalion last summer. The U.S. Congress, for its part had recognized the threat posed by the group in its neo-Nazi adherence by banning it from receiving American arms, reflecting its links to white supremacy. The Azon Battalion posted images on their social-media site of the Canadians posing with battalion members.

Russian neo-Nazis also are linked with white supremacists in nations of the West, while Russian groups such as the Russian Imperial Movement and its paramilitary unit have attracted and trained foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, according to the report. Not to be outdone, within the geographic origins of the Nazi movement, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned of an estimated 24,000 far-right extremists in Germany, adding half to be considered potentially violent with "a very high affinity for firearms".

llustrative: A neo-Nazi demonstration in Leipzig, Germany. (CC BY-SA Herder3, Wikimedia Commons)

Popular Games: Shooting Up Synagogues

"[It was] scandalous [that police were not protecting the synagogue on the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday]."
"If police had been stationed outside the synagogue, then this man could have been disarmed before he could attack the others."
"[It was] a miracle that there were no further casualties [during the incident at the city's synagogue. About 60 worshippers were at a Yom Kippur service at the time]."
"We can’t deny that concern is spreading. I think it’s very important that the authorities will now ensure that a Jewish person who is visiting a synagogue can be sure to leave the building unharmed."
Josef Schuster, president, Central Council of Jews, Germany

"This case shows us how thinly spread the police cover is."
"While we're tackling terrorism we cannot at the same time involve many staff in monitoring far-right extremists."
"We didn't underestimate it, but we can't foresee everything and prevent it."
Oliver Malchow, chairman, GdP [German police union]

The suspect was filmed wearing a helmet and shooting in a street in Halle   Reuters

"My name is Anon and I think the Holocaust never happened ... feminism is the cause of declining birthrates in the West, which acts as a scapegoat for mass immigration -- and the root of all these problems is the Jew."
Stephan Balliet, neo-Nazi German attacker

"We saw via the camera system at our synagogue that a heavily armed perpetrator with a steel helmet and a gun tried to shoot open our doors."
"The man looked like he was from the special forces ...  But our doors held."
"We barricaded the door from inside and waited for the [arrival of] police."
Max Privorozki, chairman, Halle Jewish community

Witnesses say the gunman tried to target Yom Kippur observers using explosives and guns   Getty Images

This attacker, whom German authorities would not completely name, leaving his surname identified only as "B.", is a Nazi sympathizer and a misogynist, a denier of historical documentation attesting to the Holocaust as a fascist German cataclysm for Europe's Jews, and a hater of the open-armed welcome that the current government of Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel gave to an influx of Muslim migrants flooding the country several years ago, adding another million to the already-settled five million Muslim immigrants in the country.

The man has a whole host of 'hate' subjects, but everything he detests and fears and has vowed to do his best to eliminate dwindles in comparison to his hatred for Jews whom he faults for all that is wrong in Germany and the world at large. That latter-day influx of a million Muslim refugees welcomed into Germany has served to jeopardize even further the safety and security of German Jews. The simple fact being that the refugee migrants brought with them their ancient antipathy to Jews and their transfixed hatred of Israel; double indemnity for Jews; rage from Germany's own neo-Nazis and the late-coming anti-Semites.

A 19-year-old Syrian whipped a man whom he took for a Jew in central Berlin in 2018, sentenced to four weeks in prison, ordered to visit a Holocaust museum. His pretrial detention spared him the month in prison. A Syrian man last Friday attempted to break into a Berlin synagogue with a knife, then was dismissed without charge. According to Jewish leaders in Germany, Hezbollah and a number of far-right groups freely slander Israel as a screen for anti-Semitism. The annual Al Quds Day sees pro-Palestinian protesters burn Israeli flags and chant anti-Semitic songs.

In early 2019, disciplinary action was undertaken by the German Foreign Ministry toward one of its diplomats posted to Israel who "liked" anti-Semitic social media content. Close to two thousand neo-Nazis marched in Berlin on October 3, celebrating German reunification with chants of anti-Semitic slogans. Anti-Semitism is now as pervasive in Germany, thanks to home-grown viral hatred and the addition of Muslims from traditionally Jew-hating cultures as it has ever been historically, including under the Third Reich.

Stephan B, 27, from Saxony-Anhalt was treated in hospital for injuries he sustained when he attempted to escape custody after he murdered two people and wounded several others. According to the German interior minister Horst Seehofer, the attack was "at least anti-Semitic" (oh, how official Germany loathes having to admit the presence of anti-Semitism and terrorism) and since it appears to be a manifestation of right-wing extremism, the investigation has been taken over by federal prosecutors. "That on the Day of Atonement a synagogue was shot at hits us in the heart. We must all act against anti-Semitism in our country", wrote Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

On Wednesday, a the noon hour, Stephan Balliet ("B."), who had loaded four kilos of explosive in his car, emerged from that car in a determined, malice aforethought attempt to force his way into the packed synagogue hosting children and the elderly among the congregants during the most sacred day in the Judaic calendar, the Day of Atonement. While the congregants swiftly took steps to barricade themselves against the gunman's entry, he shot a woman walking on the street nearby a Jewish cemetery alongside the synagogue.

Wall Street Journal

From that venue he continued on to a Turkish kebab shop to shoot one man dead , then continued to pump additional bullets into the lifeless body. A worker at the Kebab outlet saw an explosive thrown at the restaurant before the shooting. "He was very calm, like a professional", said Rifat Tekin. "He didn't say anything. He just kept coming and shooting ... I was hiding behind the salad counter."

A shootout with police ensued, which led to the killer's injury, but which failed to stop him from reaching a rented car and driving to a nearby village where he drove to a garage, demanding another vehicle, shooting an employee who attempted to stop him, and finally stealing a parked taxi. He drove the stolen taxi into a truck. He may not have succeeded in his mission to storm the synagogue and slaughter as many Jews as he could manage, but he did take steps to ensure that his enterprise was live-streamed on a social media site where headcam footage was posted on Twitch.

German intelligence services had warned of a growing threat from German extremists and Halle happens to be a recognized centre for far-right sympathizers where the Identitarian movement is suspected of links to the New Zealand gunman who stormed a mosque, killing 51 worshipers in Christchurch. Don't coincidences abound? The statistics are that 1,799 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to German police in 2018, a steep rise over previous years, and rising, though many such incidents go unreported.

"We have seen a rise in anti-Semitism for years now, we see it across society. We see it on the right, on the left, in Islamism, and in mainstream society."
"Right now it feels like it’s coming from everywhere."
Remko Leemhuis, acting director, American Jewish Committee, Berlin

Canada's Official Terror List

"[Blood & Honour], an international neo-Nazi network whose ideology is derived from the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany [now appears on an expanded list of terrorist entities under the Criminal Code list]."
"Through their armed branch, Combat 18 [C18], the group has carried out violent actions, including murders and bombings."
"The various divisions of Blood & Honour organize concerts and white pride rallies that bring together skinheads and other neo-Nazi supporters. Many acts of violence are attributed to members affiliated to the group."
Public Safety Canada

"[Both groups have] a presence in various places across the country. There has been accelerating public interest in this regard."
"The government is constrained from commenting any further, but what the listing demonstrates is that these two entities have been thoroughly investigated, that the proper police and security reports have been presented to the government, and the evidence is clear that they fall within [the criteria for a terrorist entity]."
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale

Canada's national security agencies have focused their sights on right-wing extremism as a threat to safety and security in the country, nudging off to a lesser focus it would appear, the threats emanating from Islamist terrorist groups, previously taking centre stage as imminent violent threats. In updating the list of terrorist organizations white supremacist groups and their "armed branches" now share space with threatening groups more familiar to the Canadian public, joined by three new groups, Iranian-backed Shia militias.

Canada is still avoiding the recognition long overdue that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's military, its military leaders answerable to the Republic Grand Ayatollah, is by definition a terrorist group. The Islamic Republic of Iran tasked the IRGC with recruiting Shia Muslims in Lebanon in the 1980s to form an offshoot terrorist group now known as Hezbollah, training and arming them and dispatching them internationally for terrorist actions abroad.

Officials in the current Liberal Trudeau-led government feel more comfortable asserting their vigilance over neo-Nazi and other far-right groups as a destabilizing threat to Canadian unity and protection of vulnerable groups within the country. Blood & Honour originally established in Britain has been implicated in violent attacks in North America and Europe, and active in Canada where their focus is on victimizing visible minorities. Their offences revolve around weapons and assaults.

By listing a group under terrorism, authorities can legally seize property, prevent financial institutions from business associations with such groups and prosecuting those who "knowingly participate in or contribute to, directly or indirectly, any activity" of the group. "This participation is only an offence if its purpose is to enhance the ability of any terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity", according to Public Safety Canada.

Under the previous Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada cut off all diplomatic and official relations with the Iranian Republic, acknowledging its support of terrorism, its cult of aggrandizing Iran as a malign influence in the Middle East with its nuclear aspirations and its openly-stated threats against Israel. Islamist fundamentalism in Canada is not monopolized by Shia Iran; the Muslim Brotherhood, its Sunni counterpart, has a well-established foothold in the Muslim Canadian community.

The Brotherhood is as worrisome a threat to most countries of the Middle East and internationally as is the aspirations of Iran to take command of the region. Official Canada has placed Brotherhood-linked Hamas on its terrorism list, but not the Muslim Brotherhood which inspired Hamas's formation. A year ago a Conservative motion in the House of Commons to declare the IRGC a terrorist group had the support of all political parties and the Liberals pledged to support the motion, then failed to follow through.

In this file photo taken on Sept. 22, 2018 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in the capital Tehran.AFP / Getty Images

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intended to 'mend fences' with Iran, to re-establish the Canadian mission in Tehran and invite Iran to re-open its embassy and consulates in Canada. And no doubt restore to Iran all the assets frozen by the previous Conservative government. Negotiations had been underway between Ottawa and Tehran on that agenda, with events since then stalling the effort. But then, Ottawa, led by Justin Trudeau, has had other problems to contend with; its failed relations with India, and then with China among other 'irritations'.

"The listing process requires careful consideration of criminal or security intelligence reports by our security and intelligence agencies, which are reviewed by Department of Justice counsel to ensure that entities meet the legal threshold for listing under the Criminal Code." 
“Canada is committed to working with like-minded countries to ensure Iran is held to account. This includes strong measures to hold Iran accountable for its support of terrorism."
Scott Bardsley, spokesman, Ralph Goodale, Public Safety Canada

Holding Iran to account? By what measure exactly! What would make Iran fall within the 'criteria for a terrorist entity' to satisfy its inclusion on Canada's terrorist list when it has consistently and repeatedly carried out terrorist acts through the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and its Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah? Its complicity in Syria's war against its own Syrian Sunni population, its instigation of conflict in Yemen through support and arming of the Houthi Shias. And its ongoing threat of weaponizing its long-rage missiles with nuclear tips in the too-near future...

Ideologies of Hatred and Terrorism

"I think that Breivik was a turning point, because he was sort of a proof of concept as to how much an individual actor could accomplish."
"He killed so many people at one time operating by himself, it really set a new bar for what one person can do."
"This is a particularly strong 'wave', and I think it's being fueled by a lot of political developments and also by the sort of connective tissue that you get from the Internet that wasn't there before that's really making it easier for groups to be influenced and to coordinate, or not necessarily oordinate but synchronize over large geographical distances."
J.M. Berger, research fellow, VOX-Pol

"There's a common framing of far-right terrorism or domestic terrorism as being 'terrorism lite' and not as serious."
"It's an interesting question given that far-right attacks can be quite devastating."
Erin Miller, Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland

"We conceive of this problem as being a domestic one. But that's not the case."
"They [ideological violent actors] don't see themselves as Americans or Canadians, very much like the Christchurch killer didn't see himself as an Australian; he saw himself as part of a white collective."
"It has never been the case that these people didn't think a global way. They may have acted in ways that looked domestic but the thinking was always about building an international white movement."
Heidi Veirich, director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, United States

A woman mourns at a memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

People who subscribe to violent ideologies are readily inspired by others who share their view of supremacy and superiority linked to race or religion. When an atrocity occurs and attracts world attention because of its death toll, while most people are horrified, those sharing the same ideology as the murderer whose rampage caused the death of people, feel fascinated and enjoy the thought that they too can embark on such a slaughter to gain attention to their 'cause' and be admired by others like themselves.

White extremist terrorist attacks in Norway, the United States, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom spurred the attacker who killed 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. He made references to those successful assaults on humanity whom his like considered inferior and unfit to live, chosen for their unwanted presence as 'outsiders' and a purported link to religious terrorism. The New Zealand terrorist's killing spree linked him to a global network of extremists steadily gaining traction.

Thanks to the Internet and mass communication technologies there is no geographic distance now between people with like agendas of hatred, racism and terrorism. Social media readily facilitates the spread of bigotry and extremism which leads inevitably to violence. Psychopaths seek an outlet for their inner rage and misanthropy, and to feel oneself as endowed with 'white privilege' as a crowning glory with the urge to impress one's beliefs on the world at large, find the perfect solution in deadly violence.

The far-right ideologue Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in Norway in 2001 may live in civilized infamy, but he is famous among those who share his distorted sense of privilege for being a heroic leader in their shared battle against those they deem of lesser privilege, enemies of their ideological stance, and whom they target for removal from the gene pool.

Breivik's manifesto raging against immigration and his deadly solution strikes a resonating bell in the minds of other psychopaths looking for an avenue to express their grievances. Breivik -- wrote an American white supremacist on a white supremacist forum -- had "inspired young Aryan men to action". That same man who posted that sentiment, Frazier Glenn Miller, killed three people a few years later when he opened fire on a Jewish retirement home and community centre in Kansas.

The Christchurch killer paid tribute not only to Breivik but to the Canadian man who had fired at worshipers inside a Quebec City mosque in2017, going so far as to write his name on the stock of his weapon. The Quebec City killer had also admired Dylann Roof, the American who attacked a black church in South Carolina in 2015, killing nine congregants at prayer.



This kind of xenophobic, supremacist ideology targets immigrants, minority groups and religious communities. The Global Terrorism Database produced data identifying close to 350 white extremist terrorism attacks that occurred in Europe, North America and Australia from the years 2011 through to 2017. The definition of terrorism is the use of violence by a non-state actor to attain a political or social goal.

White extremism is taken to embrace under its canopy, white nationalist, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim ideologies, accounting for eight percent of all attacks in these areas; roughly a third of those committed in the United States. Deadly attacks are occurring more frequently, paralleling a rise in hate crimes and bias episodes in the west. Five white extremist attacks took place from 2011 to 2017 in Australia, most on mosques and Islamic centers.

According to experts, similar motives are involved, irrespective of whether the target is a mosque in Perth, an asylum seekers' shelter in Dresden, Germany, or a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Attackers feel justified in hitting back against the perceived strains from immigrants and religious and racial authorities, threatening their white privileged positions.

"It's Been (very, very) Condemned."

"You had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. No one wants to say that, but I'll say it right now: You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very, very violent."
"There was no way of making a correct statement that early [when he chose to denounce violence 'on both sides']. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters."
"You can call it terrorism. You can call it murder. You can call it whatever you want. I call it the fastest outcome to a great verdict . . . You get into legal semantics."
"The driver of the car was a murderer. What he did was a horrible, horrible, inexcusable thing."
"You had people in that group who were protesting the taking down of what to them is a very, very important statue."
"What about the alt-left that came charging at the alt-right -- do they have any semblance of guilt? "They came charging, clubs in hand, swinging clubs."
U.S. President Donald J. Trump

President Donald Trump pauses while speaking about Charlottesville. Picture: APSource:AP

"President Trump, please, for God's sakes, don't feel like you've got to say these things. It's not going to do you any good."
"Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa."
David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan leader

People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Picture: APSource:AP

In Durham, North Carolina, 'protesters', unwilling to await a legal permit, as President Trump reminded journalists the alt-left counter-protesting in Charlottesville over the violent weekend of the hard right coming together to protest a move to remove a commemorative statue to Civil War-era Confederate General Robert E. Lee also failed to secure the requisite permit, toppled a monument that had been erected to honour Confederate veterans.

And another monument commemorating Confederate veterans was taken down in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. These illegal and clearly anti-historical acts of reversing remembrance as though to expunge from history transformational events in the United States that led the way toward abolishing the brutal miseries of Black slavery are on tap to appease the righteous and those given to clasping their victimhood in vengeance-seeking when what they do has no effect whatever.

It is a strange thing about human nature when selective blame and anger motivates people who should make an effort to study their own history. Arab Muslim slave traders initiated the slave trade and drove it for the immense profits to be made. Black Africans were transported in huge numbers with no regard to the tragedy of those who died in the process, to the Middle East, to serve as slaves. Europeans were quick to adapt to this new and useful tool in advancing their economies through slave labour.

Before emancipation, many freed Blacks for whom manumission or the ability to buy their own freedom gave the opportunity to advance their own fortunes took themselves to buying their own black slaves, working them just as Europeans had done and Arab Muslims before them. Raiding parties of Arabs to empty African villages of their populations strove to satisfy the demands of a slave-hungry economy based on the labour of Blacks who lived and died to satisfy white dominance and avarice.

The unbelievable ascension of an ignorant, egocentric lout to the presidency of the United States, one who made no effort to disassociate himself from from the underbelly of racist America gave the signal for the bigoted, racist element in society to emerge from the dark spaces they normally occupy into the light of day after the constraints of living under the administration of the nation's first biracial president who represented the affairs of the nation, and of all its people.

Statue of Robert E. Lee, Confederate Civil War General, at Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia.   Source:Getty Images

In Baltimore, Maryland Confederate monuments were removed in the dead of night to be hauled off on waiting trucks. Crews began the removal process quietly to complete the extirpation from public view of four Confederate monuments, a decision reached extemporaneously by the city's mayor with no consultation with the public. "It was important that we move quickly and quietly, and that's what we did, as soon as I realized they were easy to move", stated Mayor Catherine Pugh.

The presence of a man whose intelligence was arrested during that phase when as a juvenile he was delinquent in attaining a decent education, resulting in his presence as an elder who enjoys bragging about his people skills and grasp of business matters while mocking those who fail to fully appreciate his acumen and leadership capability even as he makes one misstep after another on the national and international scene, alarming the party he represents and alienating the bulk of the American population, has unleashed the sinister and full-blown pride of racism in America.

Ku Klux Klan protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

A Nation Divided

"[Heather] Heyer was struck down by a vehicle while exercising her peaceful first-amendment right to free speech."
"This senseless act of violence rips a hole in our collective hearts."
Charlottesville city official statement

"Donald Trump should] look at himself in the mirror."
"[He] should think very deeply about who he consorted with in his campaign, and the forces they chose to work with in their quest for political advancement."
Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer

"And yet here it was, the chants of 'Jews will not replace us' (as?). I had two more personal encounters. At Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, a man in a floppy beige sunhat started following me and explaining to me the lie of the Holocaust, the evil of the Jews, the value of DNA in determining purity. I retreated as he ran after me, screaming, 'My mother says I’m a Jew! My MOTHER! Does that mean I’m entitled to something?' (I resisted replying, 'Your mother’s love.')"
Nathan Guttman, 12 August 2017, What a Jewish Journalist saw in Charlottesville, Forward

Members of the KKK escorted by police past a large group of protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Va. Steve Helber / AP

Journalist Nathan Guttman wrote a first-hand account of his day in now-infamous Charlottesville, there to observe the proceedings as neo-Nazis and far-right activists, the KKK and others marched to make their point that the United States belongs to red-blooded white Americans. None others need apply. They were reacting to the demands by left-wing activists and members of the Black Lives Matter group and their supporters that a century-old statue of a Confederate hero of the American Civil War, General Robert E. Lee, be removed, taken down, hidden, destroyed.

Like sensitive, progressive leftists and self-styled human-rights activists everywhere they demand that history be rewritten to obliterate all traces of those who fought for rights and values today recognized as contrary to the current social values of an enlightened society. Those who were once victims decry and embrace their victimhood at one and the same time, and any visual reminders of what, how and why they suffered, they claim triggers new pain and humiliation.

The past cannot be undone. It happened, and it is called history. We are meant to view history with today's vision, but we are not meant to believe that if we reject the history that betrays our humanity history will be re-enacted and everything will turn out just fine. There are statues of Civil War heroes to the Confederate cause in countless places in the United States. There is also the undeniable fact that the hallowed fathers of the American Constitution like humanist, intellectual and scientist of his day Benjamin Franklin was a slave-owner.

And so was George Washington, and so too was James Madison. Of the 55 founding fathers of the United States of America, 49 percent were slave owners. Should they be expelled from the annals of American history? If monuments and statues must be destroyed, why stop with Robert E. Lee? The absurdity of the righteous demands that such reminders of a dark place in history be abolished and with it the history they represent is beyond impossible.

Setting that aside as a provocation, there is nothing that can explain or exculpate the actions and counter-accusations of those who embrace fascism and express their frustrations in the form of verbal violence, let alone physical violence. That the current President of the United States issued an oblique condemnation of a violent far-right reaction to the entitled demands of those who wear their victimhood with pride and vehemence readily interpreted by the far right as support of their position is a signal that the polarized position of right and left in their extremes have much in common.

The deranged James Alex Fields Jr. whose use of a vehicle to ram the left-wing protesters marks him as an unrepentant murderer, is also someone who was once treated for psychotic behaviour. David Duke and others of his ilk are not insane, but they are dangerously threatening to those who do not subscribe to their fascination with the belief in superior and inferior humanity. And it seems that President Trump has given those threats to the universality of human equality an unspoken lift.

The mother of Fields Jr. whose name is Samantha Bloom may be a woman, given her name and its possible connections, whose offspring is a self-hating Jew by birth to a Jewish woman. It is not unheard of that some fundamentally troubled people detest that from which they were derived; this son of a woman named Bloom appears to have always venerated Adolf Hitler and everything the Fuhrer represented.

His horrified, stricken mother does not believe that her presided supports fascism though those who admire him, fascists, nationalists, anti-Semites and Hitler enthusiasts shouted "Blood and Soil", as they marched through the streets of Charlottesville in defence of a Confederate statue. And counter protesters were there in their numbers to oppose the fascists before one woman died and 35 people were injured by an incoherent man who might have shouted at a Jewish reporter: "My mother says I’m a Jew! My MOTHER! Does that mean I’m entitled to something?"

He is entitled to a fair trial. And the nation is entitled to justice.

Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Steve Helber/AP

Germany's Love Affair with Neo-Nazism

"There's this ideal of the German Wehrmacht [the unified armed forces of the Third Reich] -- they're seen as these tough, experienced fighters. When I was there, there were repeated references to the toughness of the Wehrmacht soldiers. The people who trained us in basic training always made references to that time [Nazi era]."
"In the cantina, you could buy sweaters and keychains with letters in the fractured font of the Nazi era, [with motifs like] Don't complain, fight."
"I think the fraction of people with worrisome motives [joining the military] has gotten larger since mandatory service has been disbanded."
Philipp Liesenhoff, researcher, German Marshall Fund Europe program

"East Germans are disproportionately represented within the Bundeswehr."
"The reason that's significant is that obviously, within the former German Democratic Republic, neo-Nazism is more of a problem than in the west."
Hans Kundnani, senior fellow, German Marshall Fund

German soldiers of the 291st Jagerbataillon take part in a military ceremony on 5 July 2012 in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, eastern France. AFP

It seems the concept of romantic Aryan 'supermen' is difficult to dislodge from a nation's consciousness, particularly among those with an especial penchant toward the appeal of racial superiority. And as much as Germany officially expresses its shame and regret over its serial roles in sending Europe into a tailspin of two world wars responsible for the deaths of millions of people, combatants and civilians alike, with fascist Germany extending its warmongering to include genocidal extermination of Jews, there will always be those who wax nostalgic over Hitler.

The German news outlet Der Spiegel recently produced an expose over the presence of neo-Nazis in the German military. Where the military authorities had full knowledge of the presence of these right-wing extremists, but preferred not to 'notice' their presence. The situation, according to Ursula von der Leyen, the German Defense Minister, represented a failure of the leadership of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces).

The Military Counterintelligence Service issued a report last month that it is in the throes of investigating no fewer than 274 instances of right-wing extremism in the last year, among service members. According to Christian Molling, deputy director of the research institute at the German Council on Foreign Relations, this kind of extremism has a tradition in the German armed forces where far rightwing values persist alongside an ongoing obsession with the Wehrmacht of the Nazi era.

There are ample examples where the military itself invites the normalization of far-right extremism to continue to be entrenched in the German armed forces. When, for example, in 1994 the invitation went out to a notorious neo-Nazi known to have been imprisoned for years in relation to a bombing, to lecture at an elite military school. Video footage of soldiers uttering anti-Semitic sentiments, imitating the Nazi salute surfaced in 1997.

A German conservative member of Parliament made statements comparing Jews to Nazis, and he was congratulated by a former general of the German special forces, Reinhard Guentzel, in 2003. While the general was fired, he published a book in 2006 titled Secret Warriors, championing the Nazi-era roots of German special forces; a reflection of the ongoing reverence held by some members of the current military, for the Wehrmacht.

Philipp Liesenhoff, during his time in the military witnessed other soldiers listening to neo-Nazi bands. He described scenarios where one person would shout out "sieg", while another would respond "heil", mimicking a Nazi chant common during WWII political rallies in Germany. Authorities, he stated, knew of these things occurring, but preferred to behave as though they had no knowledge of them.

The number of violent crimes; threats, arson, attempted homicides being committed by right-wing extremists increased by 42 percent from 2014 to 2015, a situation noted in an intelligence report produced by the country's domestic intelligence agency, with the number of such crimes targeting foreigners reaching a historic record. The report attributes this radicalization to a presumed backlash against Islamic terrorism resulting in rising xenophobia in the aftermath of immigrants flooding Germany.

East Germany in particular has distinguished itself for its violent anti-immigrant riots. And the sentiments in the East reflect what happens in the nation's armed forces. While one-fifth of the country's population is represented by East Germany, one-third of military recruits come from the East. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, while fighting both right-wing and left-wing extremism, along with Islamic extremism, must also give protection to the democratic principles to which Germany is dedicated. No easy course to follow.

In 2011, the national policy of mandatory military service was scrapped, even though it was seen as a check on extremism within the military. Conscription had drawn recruits from all segments of society throughout the entire country. Now the military is reliant on volunteers to comprise its recruits. And since more volunteers come from the East, where far-right extremism is endemic, the end result is anything but palatable.

In an effort to come to grips with the problem, the Military Counterintelligence Service has increased its staff to perform security clearances and investigate those in the armed forces who reflect political extremism. New rules are to require every new applicant to undergo a security clearance to ensure that no extremists enter the military to begin with.

Growing extremism, and a Wehrmacht fetish, riddle the ranks of the Bundeswehr   Foreign Policy