Good Luck with That

Vincent J. Curtis

20 Sept 20

Nearly twenty-five years ago there was a guided discussion concerning the dangers of “western hate groups” infiltrating the Canadian Forces.  In those days, the Heritage Front, founded in 1989 by Wolfgang Droege, Gary Lincoln, and CSIS agent Grant Bristow, was the most infamous of Canada’s “far-right.”  The Heritage Front was, by then, practically defunct, and went officially defunct in 2005.

After some discussion, one of the course candidates said that he knew a couple of members of a “western hate group.”

“Really?”  asked the instructor.  “Tell us about it.”

“Well,” replied the candidate quietly, “they have guns.  They wear these uniforms, and they practice fighting in the woods.”

The other candidates leaned in, eyes widening.

“Can you tell us who they are?”  asked the instructor.

“I don’t know the name of the group, but their initials are P-P-C-L-I.”

Everybody laughed.  They liked the association of western Canada’s Regular Force infantry regiment with ‘western hate group.’ 

The Canadian military has dealt with “far-right” “hate groups” before.  The promise by Lt-Gen Wayne Eyre, the new Commander of the Canadian Army, to deal with the “infiltration” of “far-right” “hate groups” is ploughing old ground.

Eyre told CBC News that he wants to rid the army of soldiers who are “suspected of hateful conduct and extremism.”  (One wonders if killing people, destroying things, and the practicing thereof are acts hateful conduct and extremism.  But, I digress.)

Eyre faces legal obstacles.  The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of thought, belief, expression; peaceful assembly, and association.  On the face of it, holding unpopular political beliefs is protected by the Charter and protected from disciplinary or administrative action under the National Defense Act.  So long as the member causes no disciplinary issues and acts on his beliefs lawfully on his own time, he should be in the clear.  Reservists especially.

This crusade for ideological purity began with Corey Hurren’s mad-cap attack on Rideau Hall, where the Governor-General resides and Prime Minister Trudeau currently has a hovel.  Hurren allegedly had firearms in his truck.  Nobody was hurt, Hurren arrested, and neither the GG nor PM were on the property at the time.  It so happened that Hurren was a member of a Canadian Ranger Patrol, and a rather good one at that.  Being a Ranger was all the hook needed for the CBC to associate the Canadian Armed Forces with an alleged attempt on the lives of Julie Payette and Justin Trudeau.  Hurren’s alleged connection with “far-right” “hate-groups” juiced the story.

Then, in hot pursuit of ideological enemies, the CBC revealed that Erik Myggland not only supported two “far-right” groups, but was allowed to continue as a Ranger.in northern B.C.  after a counterint investigation.

It gets worse.  Former reservist sapper Patrik Mathews allegedly became a member of “The Base” (al-Qaeda in Arabic), another alleged “far-right” “neo-Nazi” group.  A naval reservist in Calgary, Boris Mihajlovic, reportedly administered a neo-Nazi hate forum that gave rise to a group called “Atomwaffen Division,” both now defunct.

The harassed Lt-Gen Eyre admitted to the CBC that “the army has a growing problem of “right-wing extremism,” and reiterated his determination to “crush hateful ideology and acts in the ranks.”  He expressed his disappointment at members who hold Nazism as a way of life.

“There is absolutely no place in the Canadian Army for those who hold hateful beliefs and express these beliefs through hateful behaviour.”

The CBC, the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and no doubt Superior Commanders are pressuring Eyre for “action.”  However, high-handed and possibly unconstitutional disciplinary action to eradicate certain political beliefs sets precedent for morale crushing hypocrisy as other, politically sensitive, beliefs are allowed.  BLM, Islam, anyone?

Perhaps education in how the Canadian Army kicked Nazi ass in Sicily, Italy, and from Juno Beach to Wismar might get the point across.  Or is that culturally insensitive?  An over-reaction to mollify the far-left by savaging a small number of losers could be worse than patiently letting the problem disappear on its own. 

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