They were young, male, and unforgivably stupid, which works both ways, one way against us and the other for.
The downside is that every man-jack of these idiots were acting service members of the Canadian Armed Forces, all of them infantry soldiers. These are the boneheads who fight for our country, at least when the time comes, and as long as it doesn’t offend their ideological beliefs. They are professional soldiers, although the use of the term professional is entirely undeserved.
The upside is the fact that every one of these losers is a card-carrying idiot-stick, and so extremely easy to discover, reveal, and as of yesterday, arrest.
IMVE — Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism — was something that was generally thought to be the exclusive purview of Islamic Terrorist groups. But honestly, anyone paying attention could tell you that Good Ol’ White Boys have been coming together over Bud Light and firearms for years, plotting their vengeance against a society the seemingly left them out in the cold when it evolved past the primeval thinking that had one race — theirs — as the superior race and all others subservient, or lesser than. Historically, many of these types fought back by draping themselves in bedsheets and lynching Good Ol’ Black Boys, with the odd cross-burning thrown in for taste.
And if you were to round all these assholes up, you couldn’t possibly be surprised to see the guy who owned the hardware store among them, perhaps an elementary school teacher as well. Then there’s Jim, the guy who runs the local Dairy Queen. He’s in there too, despite the fact that Black folks like their ice cream as much as anybody does. You might find other people you’re familiar with, like your dad, or your husband. Your uncle or somebody’s boyfriend. Kind, gentle, church-going Grampy Tim. All of them, regular salt-of-the-earth types by day, murderers and terrorists under the cover of night and the anonymity (cowardice) afforded by a white sheet with cartoonish eye and nose holes.
And underneath one of those sheets you might find the county sheriff, but please don’t let that surprise you, because beneath other sheets you could find most of his deputies. Men charged with keeping law and order. Men who have pledged to serve and protect.
Keepers of the peace who break that peace with impunity, and often insecure men full of hatred and learned white privilege.
This is not a story of the deep American south, where the KKK — Ku-Kux-Klan — still operates more or less in the open even today, some 160 years after the emancipation of the slaves.
Instead, this is a story of Canada, and of our own home-made but easily influenced right-wing terrorists, or wannabe terrorists, with their membership rituals, secret handshakes, and arsenals of weapons, many of them lifted from their day job as a soldier in the Canadian Army. Or as an member of any given Canadian police force.
Young men, disenchantment, radicalism and guns. Just throw in some alcohol to make things truly newsworthy Stir in some racism and homophobia, and some radicalized internet just for some texture.
Give them a ballot on election day and I will almost guarantee — albeit unscientifically — that every single last one of them is going to vote Conservative here and Republican there, that is if they don’t support a group even farther to the right of the political spectrum. Not the best look for Conservatives, who might want to take a legitimate look at the kind of kooks they’re willing to consort with. As to the Republicans, they’re much farther down that rabbit hole, so extricating themselves will be more difficult and take more time, something the manufacturers of white bed sheets with custom eye holes are thankful for.
Islamic terrorism is definitely a thing. Right-wing white extremism is an even bigger thing.
Remember that Trucker Convoy a couple of years back? Remember the police that “held” the line against the malcontents? Well I’m sorry to report that some of those men in blue — this is almost entirely a male thing — were sympathetic to the truckers that had taken and occupied a key section our nation’s capital, terrorizing the residents in the process, proclaiming “freedom” while at the same time taking it away from the local residents. A lot of those cops were completely down with what happened in Ottawa a couple of Februarys ago, but said/did little for fear of being fired.
Days ago, four active soldiers in the Canadian Army were arrested recently for “preparing” an insurrectionist fantasy of forcefully taking land in the Quebec City area and establishing it as their base, their homeland, vowing to defend it to the last, their version of Alamo North.
There was no word on how they planned to defend their bastion of white purity, no mention on any kind of “What are we gonna do now?” plan for after they launch their successful coup d’etat against, well, nobody in particular. My first instinct would be to just ignore them, since that would bother them the most, but I do understand that a bunch whack-jobs armed to the teeth with lethal weaponry and throwing out threats of violence is not something one can conveniently ignore. I’ve seen photographs of the four accused and there’s nothing there that indicates to me that that these guys, despite the weapons, are going to be too much for the rest of us to handle. They may outgun local law enforcement (maybe not) but they’re certainly not going to out-think anybody.
The four of them are all young, twenty-something males, and I’m not sure what regiment they came from, but it doesn’t matter, because all of our regiments have the same types embedded in them, just like the various police forces and detachment areas. Men entrusted with the sacred task of protecting their country and its citizens from harm, yet at the same time sympathizing with those intent on causing harm, if not active participants themselves.
The seized weapons displayed by the RCMP — Royal Canadian Mounted Police — show an impressive arsenal of anti-personnel weaponry and associated gear, like night vision goggles, tactical vests, and all those things that certain young men need to have in their lives in order to achieve orgasm.
These losers are embarked on a “White Jihad,” a phenomenon every bit as real as any islamic Jihad, only statistically much more malevolent, present, and dangerous.
White supremacy is not some small section on the bottom of a ripped page of some well-worn history textbook. If you live in Canada, if you live in Renfrew, it’s right there in front of you. Something that’s inconvenient to say, even more difficult to say, but said with certainty.
It can’t be a good feeling knowing that an uncomfortably significant percentage of law-enforcement and military, both active and retired, are absolutely okay with it, if not actively involved on some level.
In no way would I ever want to paint a whole wall with a bunch of really bad brushes, so please understand that when I say a significant percentage, I’m not by any means suggesting a majority, or anything approaching a majority. But even if that percentage is measured in single digits, is that not significant enough? Is 5%, a number i just grabbed out of the air, not too much? Is that not a significant enough percentage? To me, there’s no such thing as human perfection, but one white supremacist sympathizer out of any number is one too many, especially if they’re armed and have a built-in bias that pre-disposes them to certain, unequal attitudes around the citizenry they’ve taken an oath to protect.
I come from a proud military family, complete with many veterans of Canada’s military involvement around the world and over the years. Of all of those, only my dad was a racist, yet he wasn’t the type to wear a bed sheet and stock up on Spam cans to ready himself for the race struggle or race war a lot of these losers would like to provoke. His racism was there, but it was suppressed, and I’m not sure why, but can only speculate that, even then, most people knew in their hearts that it was wrong, and maybe he did too. I know that every single one of those people fought for their country and the citizens of their country, rather than fight against citizens of their country with different skin colours and religions. My family fought, not for riches, not for loot or treasure, and not for glory or fame. They fought so that others may be free from violent tyranny. They didn’t do this so that they could come home and inflict violent tyranny of their own upon their fellow citizens.
I once had nothing but respect for the military, but today its been diminished, mostly because of the actions and attitudes I encounter from either serving or retired military, self-assured as some are in their barely suppressed racist attitudes.
I suppose you can do you and i can do me. An me says that if you’re a racist, and you wear my country’s uniform, I can’t, won’t, nor will I ever, respect you.
My mom was upset that I didn’t attend Royal Military College in Kingston when I had the chance. She was a World War 2 veteran herself, along with her five brothers who all saw action, faced enemy fire, and managed to come home without throwing sheets over themselves and burning crosses into their neighbour’s lawn. She was sort of hoping that the family military tradition might continue, seeing as how my older brother Jeff, the unpatriotic laggard, had somehow managed to ignore the clarion call, the sound of the trumpet, the call to arms. So it was Steven or nothing, since my two sisters were, well, girls, an almost unforgivable condition in the eyes of many in the military.
Alas, I chose not to go to RMC, since I wanted to be a cop instead.
Growing up I watched every single television show I could find that featured a police story, like Police Story, FBI, Dragnet, Adam 12, and all those private investigator shows that had police characters as co-stars, like Dennis on the Rockford Files. I can’t tell you of the thousands of stories, the many fantasies involving me being a cop, fantasies that never once had me rescue a cat from a tree, but rather had me trading bullets with bank robbers, alone, a single copper against the bad guys. Sometimes I won, and became the hero. Other times I lost, but was still the hero, because in cop fantasies, you get to control the storyline. I can’t tell you how many times I was shot and wounded, or even shot and killed, an event that would trigger the most fantastical heart-break of a police funeral. But then my mom would call, supper would be ready, and I would return to my day job as a ten year-old.
I loved the police, how they were the good guys, the protectors, and how everyone respected them. I never once considered the salient fact that police almost always encounter people who are having the worst day of their lives, or often the last day of their lives. I never factored in how decidedly unglamorous a gunfight might be, or any violence, or what it might be like to be first-on-scene at a devastating car crash, or a suicide, or a murder, or any of the other things that you’ll probably see every day in your brain for the rest of your life.
I was ten. I just wanted the gun, the uniform, the badge, and the car. The odd free coffee wouldn’t hurt. Never mind all that other stuff.
But I respected police. I’d do anything to help them as a citizen. As I said, they were the good guys, and I was a good guy, so we’re a perfect fit, right?
So it saddens me, but I’m going to have to repeat something I said earlier, with a small alteration.
So here it is.
If you’re a cop, and you wear the uniform, and sport the badge, then good for you and thank you for your service. But if you’re a racist, or anything else inconsistent with your profession of choice, then just like the soldiers, I can’t respect you either.
I want to end by being absolutely clear about one thing.
Although somewhat sullied by the actions of a misguided few, I’m always going to be a pro-military and pro-police kind of guy, so long as those sectors, and the actions of their membership, align with my own.
Arming yourself, radicalizing yourself, and inciting hatred backed by the prospect of violence are bridges way too far for me. As such, there is no military or law-enforcement uniform I want to see you wearing.
Such people bring our military and police a degree of disrepute, something entirely unfair to the vast majority of soldiers and officers who go about their day as heroes, deserving of our thanks and respect. These reputational stains need to be identified and weeded out, and our ability to screen for them needs to be enhanced.
We can’t have people like this serving in our military. And we can’t have them serving as our police.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 