Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

“Vague bleue”: The Racist, Islamophobic Fringe of Québec Nationalism Comes Out to Play

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Apr 282019
 

From Montréal-Antifasciste

What Is the “Vague bleue”?

The “Vague bleue” is a gathering that will be held on Saturday, May 4, at 2:00 p.m., at the TVA building in Montréal. It was initially announced as an extension of the weekly rallies of the so-called Québec “Yellow Vests” (we’ve written about this in the past), which has held rallies at the same location every Saturday since December 2018. Initially, the main objective of the “Vague bleue” was a call for a popular civic referendum to establish a Québec “citizen’s constitution”, a reworking of one of the Yellow Vest’s demands in France. Initially, the rallies were contextualized as an expression of civic patriotism by identitarian groupuscules generally known for their online and social media activities. The one thing they all share is an obsessive and hard-line attachment to an independentist project that is openly xenophobic and proactively Islamophobic, with barely disguised racism.

The social media echo chamber created by these so-called patriots has coalesced into a “fascistic milieu” of sorts in recent years, where a mix of toxic xenophobic and racist perspectives and fake news spread like wildfire supporting a confirmation bias that affirms conspiracy theories and increasingly radical ideas about immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity, ranging from reactionary comments to full-on fascist theories that draw on information sources moderated by white supremacists and other far-right individuals.

This nebulous movement, largely confined to social media and only occasionally leaving the realm of the virtual world, has seemingly made a few minor adjustments to its usual means of mobilizing, and we may well witness a reconfiguration of the Islamophobic far right in the wake of the “Vague bleue” (the disappearance of some groups, new alliances, fusions, new groups). We will see.

In the early weeks of the organizing, the “Vague bleue” mobilization already differed from other far-right mobilizations, with several hundred people expressing an interest in the event. But the decisive moment came in April, about a month before the rally, when the organizers shifted the “Vague bleue” messaging to focus on support for Bill 21 “on secularism” (which essentially seeks to legalize discrimination by forbidding state employees from wearing religious symbols). In a matter of weeks, the Facebook event blew up: hundreds upon hundreds shared the event and signalled their interest, resulting in the callout being sent out thousands of times. One would not necessarily be remiss in thinking that the many successive mobilizations against Bill 21 in Montréal (in particular, on March 24 and April 7 and 14), some of which included thousands of people, have pushed the Islamophobes to come out of the woodwork for a mass mobilization.

As such, the tiny “Yellow Vest” mobilization has strayed from its initial objective, an eventual Québec constitution, which few people are now talking about, to reorient around a vociferous support for the CAQ’s secularism bill.

To sum up, what we have here is:

  • a rally of frustrated xenophobic nationalists;
  • outside the (nationalist) media empire Québécor’s television studios, which daily stoke the fires of xenophobia and Islamophobia in Québec with an army of reactionary commentators;
  • in support of the anti-liberty and Islamophobic bill advanced by the CAQ, a conservative party leading a majority government!

It’s hard to even imagine something so entirely absurd!

Who’s organizing it? Who’s participating?

A number of organizations and groupuscules have supported the rally by sharing the callout. It is not a straightforward proposition to untangle which of the groups that are mobilizing are more than a “one-man show,” as is, for example, Donald Proulx’s Parti patriote. But we can identify the main groups at the heart of the mobilization, both on social media and, in the case of some of their more overexcited members, “in real life.” Keep in mind that even when these individuals are associated more intimately with one group or another, they associate and interact on Facebook with innumerable other individuals of their ilk.

The screenshots below should suffice to demonstrate that the run-of-the-mill “patriotic” militant is more marked by a rabid Islamophobia than by any genuine concern for the independence of Québec.

— Québec Libre en Action (connected to the Recours collectif contre Revenu Québec), a group formed by Jonathan Héroux (known as John Hex on Facebook) after he left the anti-immigrant group Storm Alliance, in which he used to hold an executive position. His biggest achievement to date was organizing a rally of fifteen people in Malbaie during the G7 summit in Jun 2018. Héroux/Hex appears to be the initiator and main organizer of the “Vague bleue.” He is well regarded in the Québec fascist milieu, with numerous people following the video livestreams he produces at the identitarian right’s various gatherings. Jocelyn Houle, another crank who genuinely believes “the mass media and politicians are controlled by Freemasons”, is another active member of Québec Libre en Action.

— Les Gardiens du Québec is a “security” group that offers “operational support on the ground.” LGDQ is the organization that replaced La Horde, an on-again, off-again splinter from La Meute. Jonathan Héroux designated Martine Tourigny, alias Tina Gauthier, the coordinator of the “Vague bleue.” Martine Tourigny’s partner, Stéfane “Gizmeaux” Gauthier, is another key member of the security group. Éric “Wild Wolf” Rochon is another very active member of this group.

— The Front patriotique du Québec (FPQ) and its Groupe de sécurité patriotique (GSP) led by Robert Proulx gathers together a fair number of the usual suspects found at identitarian gatherings, including Mario Dallaire, Robin Simon, Sylvain Lacroix, and Stéphane Dufresne, who was recently the subject of an article on the Montréal Antifasciste website for proposing a fake terrorist attack. Over the last two years, the FPQ was behind spring demonstrations that in a certain sense were the precursor to the “Vague bleue” (April 23, 2017; April 15, 2018). The GSP is very close to the III % Québec, an anemic imitation of the far-right patriotic militias that arose in the U.S. in 2008. Their mission is to dress up like members of the cast of a GI Joe operetta and “protect” the various Québec identitarian demonstrations against imaginary enemies. It seems that the III%, under the stewardship of its “provincial commanding officer” Éric Vachon, is currently either dormant or in a period of restructuring.

— The so-called « Gilets jaunes du Québec » [Yellow Vests] (which has an extremely tenuous if not nonexistent link to the French movement of that name) brings together a handful of members and militants of various identitarian groups, a variety of free radicals, and a number of “special” people (including the “Patriot Pirate” Michel Éthier, and the Styrofoam goof Claude Roy, among others). Michel Meunier, alias Mickey Mike, a notorious white supremacist who celebrated the massacre of fifty Muslims in Christchurch and hoped for another attack like that against the Muslim community in Québec City in 2017,  volunteered to carry out the reconnaissance in the area where the “Vague bleue” is to be held, as well as coordinating the postering. Luc Desjardins, another “Yellow Vest,” is also actively mobilizing for the “Vague bleue.” A key figure in this gaggle of goofs is the super-clown Pierre Dion, whose unquenchable thirst for attention makes his presence a virtual certainty.

Storm Alliance (SA) (and its security group, the “DFSA,” which stand for Défense fortifiée Storm Alliance [Storm Alliance Heightened Defense]) is also calling on its members to attend the rally. SA, the result of a split within the Soldiers of Odin Québec, made a name for itself by organizing a number of anti-immigrant gatherings in recent years, particularly at the U.S. border. Nadia Fradette, alias Nadia Dumont, a Storm Alliance member, is organizing the buses to the “Vague bleue.”

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Almost all identitarian groupuscules are mobilizing for this rally, the exceptions being La Meute, which, nonetheless, has authorized its members to attend without flying their colours,  and hard-line fascists like Atalante or the not-so-secret Nazi Fédération des Québécois de souche.

The fact that the presence of notorious Islamophobes and racists like Michel Meunier among “Vague bleue” organizers and the mountain of evidence of the organizers’ racist intolerance has not led other militants to dissociate themselves clearly exposes the true nature of this event. It’s not a pro-Québec rally but, in fact, an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rally.

Montréal is and will remain antiracist. The “Vague bleue” is not welcome in Montréal! It is only with the concerted action of the residents of our fine city that we can block the way for xenophobes and reaffirm the city’s welcoming and diverse character.

NO RACISTS IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS

Anti-racist demonstration against the xenophobic “Vague Bleue” rally

May 4th, 2019, NOON Métro Papineau

–> https://www.facebook.com/events/395532084510020/

III% Québec Member Caught Proposing Fake Terrorist Attack

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Apr 082019
 

From Montréal Antifasciste

It would have been easy to miss a story that barely made the news last year – the story of Stéphane Dufresne (III% Québec, Front patriotique du Québec) and his leaked chat discussion about the need for a “fake terrorist attack,” along with his multiple allusions to having mysterious “concrete plans.” Although the story broke online early in 2018, the only response from the mainstream media was an article in the Montreal Gazette six months later. Montreal Antifasciste was able to establish a direct link between Stéphane Dufresne and a person that that was suspected by the RCMP of attempting to import weapons to Canada for terrorism-related plans. The context of this story is worrying, to say the least, and so we feel Dufresne merits a closer look.

The chat room leak

It all started in March 2018, when it was revealed on Le Troupeau’s Twitter that a discussion between a somewhat strange mix of folks from the far-right had been leaked from a private chat room called “Patriotes du Québec” on the MeWe platform (MeWe being a sort of imitation-Facebook). A user named “Phénix le Patriote” (who later changed his handle to “Stéphane le Patriote”) let drop a bombshell, saying: “We need a fake terrorist attack to wake up the fucking sleepyheads,” to which user “Heinrich Himmler” (!) replied: “Yeah… but be super careful.”  It is always difficult to discern empty talk or posturing from actual possible action, but Phénix’s reply seems to point to real plans for an attack: “Yes obviously!!!!! Don’t worry… Multiple actions are coming up”.

Phénix le Patriote shares his thoughts on terrorism.

In the same chat room, Phénix boasts of his shooting skills and that he is training in KravMaga, an amalgam of different martial arts techniques.

Le Patriote’s shooting range target practice.

Le Patriote trains in KravMaga.

Who was in the chat room?

So who are the people in this private chat? Phénix le Patriote, who changed his handle during the chat to Stéphane Le Patriote, leaves a trail of clues exposed by Le Troupeau’s leak. The most obvious one being that he posts a picture of himself in the group chat, and then later also posts a picture of himself in the same clothes, under his personal Facebook account (Stéphane Dufresne):

Red tuque, green jacket with Patriotes patch, from the private chat.

Red tuque, green jacket with Patriotes patch, from Facebook.

Taking a look at Stéphane Dufresne’s Facebook account, we can see that his profile also features the name “Patriote”, just like his MeWe account:

His profile name is “StéphaneDufresne (Dit Le Patriote)”

And that he takes KravMaga classes in Joliette:

Dufresne is “feeling awesome at Dojo Yosanryu” at a KravMaga course.

Joliette also matches up with the target practice photos from above, which, if we zoom in on the logo, we can see are from the Club de Tir de Lanaudière, located in Joliette, QC:

The logo from his shooting practice matches Club de Tir de Lanaudière’s logo.

The jacket was also key to identifying him from protests that he has attended (see below), since he is never without his Patriotes patch on one arm (and his Québec flag patch on the other), like here at the “Tout le monde se lève contre le PLQ” protest in Montréal last April 23, 2017.

Dufresne, on the right, with the same jacket as in the MeWe chat.

So that settles it for Dufresne, but what about the others in the chat room? The person using the alias “Heimlich Himmler” (named after the high-ranking Nazi official, one of the main architects of the Holocaust), who advises Dufresne to “be super careful,” was also easy to identify, since Dufresne refers to him by name: “Alan kovak”:

Dufresne refers to user Heinrich Himmler as Alan Kovak.

Alan Kovak (real name: Martin Minna) is known for hanging out with Atalante members, as seen here in his Facebook post with Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald and others after a night out putting up anti-leftist posters around Montréal in January 2017:

Martin Minna’s Facebook post.

Or showing off what might be his tattoos…

Les (présumés) tatouages nazis de Martin Minna.

He also used his real face pic in the MeWe chat room:

Himmler’s pic matches Kovak’s Facebook pic, belonging to Martin Minna.

… and also is probably referring to how he fucked up by posting the Atalante crew’s image above, which was used by antifascists to identify him and others as authors of Atalante’s 2018 anti-leftist postering run, when he says “I got caught when I did a little job with Atalante… Next time it’ll be ultra secret”:

Himmler talks about working with Atalante.

Screenshots also show that Lucien Lalonde and Carl Blanchette were participating in the chat room; these two are both members or associates of the Front patriotique du Québec. Lalonde has a penchant for macho talk, for instance in this screenshot from August 2017 where he suggests using an AK-47 as a “solution” to deal with migrants (many of them refugees originally from Haiti) who were crossing the border at the time:

Lucien Lalonde is a known associate of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Lucien Lalonde fantasizing about using an AK-47 on migrants.

 

Carlito (Carl) Blanchette is a known associate of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Portrait of Stéphane Dufresne

Taking a closer look at Stéphane Dufresne, as there is a lot that can be learned from his online activity.

Dufresne’s “About” page on Facebook.

We can see above that although he works for la Société de reconstitution du Bas-Canada, re-enacting the Patriotes Rebellions of 1837-8, he also runs a construction business, “Constructions Stepco”, out of his home address in Saint-Charles-Borromée, on the outskirts of Joliette, QC.:

Constructions Stepco is listed as belonging to Stéphane Dufresne at his home address.

Life is good in Saint-Charles-Borromée, although he doesn’t seem super pleased about the new house that was built alongside his backyard, talking about how he’s “on the verge of setting it on fire”:

Dufresne talking about his neighbour’s newly built house…

His Facebook likes (below) reveal that he is a strong supporter of “hardcore” Québec nationalism, from the Front patriotique du Québec (the group he is most active with) all the way to the white supremacist Fédération des Québécois de souche, as well as not one but four self-styled militia groups: Milice du Québec, Milice Québecoise des Droits et Libertés du Québec, Milice Patriotique Québécoise, and Milice Patriotique du Québec (and this is not including the III% Québec group he is part of). (Click on the image to enlarge). None of which stops him from also being a strong supporter of the Parti Québécois, like most other members of the FPQ.

A couple dozen of Dufresne’s “likes” on Facebook.

Dufresne is not only an active member of the Front patriotique du Québec, he is an administrator (and active contributor) to their Facebook group. One can only wonder if the FPQ’s poorly attended events, and the rapidly ageing profile of the dozen or so people who do show up, are possibly a factor in him repeatedly referring to the need to wake up the population.

Dufresne is an administrator of the Front patriotique du Québec’s Facebook page.

Dufresne has also become very active with III% Québec; he shows up consistently to do security with them at events, wandering around tepid, poorly attended protests in camouflage clothing, taking part in their group photos… at one point he even looks like he’s trying to throw up the III% hand sign in the group photo below:

Dufresne, first on the left, with III% Québec.

Who are the III% The III% is an armed militia group which was started in the USA in 2008. The Canadian III%, although they describe themselves as “patriots… standing up for our rights,” are mostly concerned with two issues: what they see as the “invasion of Islam” into Canada (much like most other far-right groups), and firearms. Most group chapters require members to have a Possession and Acquisition Licence (a gun permit), and the group operates in a hierarchy imitating that of the military. The III% (also referred to as Threepers) most often show up to provide security for far-right Islamophobic speakers or events, such as for Faith Goldy or La Meute. In Québec, many members of the group signaled their involvement in the 2017 (failed) plan to hold a pro-gun rally at the park commemorating the Polytechnique anti-feminist massacre, on the anniversary of the killings of 14 women there (the failed rally’s organizer, Guy Morin, was also a member of the III% Québec Facebook group).

The irony must not be lost on Dufresne that he is now an active member of the III%, a pan-Canadian patriot group, which is patriotic towards… Canada. One can only imagine his grimace (pictured below), standing in front of the Parliament of Canada with his proud Threeper bros and a Canadian flag in front, when his whole raison d’être seems to be a violent uprising to win Québec’s independence from Canada.

Dufresne standing in front of the Parliament of Canada behind a Canadian flag. Awkward.

Dufresne is also a member of La Meute’s secret Facebook group, even though La Meute spokesman Sylvain Brouillette made a point of saying that he’s “not the type of person we’re looking for as a member,” in the aforementioned Montreal Gazette article.

Dufresne is still a member of the secret La Meute Facebook group, as of January 1, 2019.

Protests… and more protests

Dufresne is probably one of the most, if not THE most, prolific individuals at far-right protests in Québec. Although he started out as a bit of a floater, showing up with La Meute (“Contre la motion M-103”, March 4, 2017), alongside the Soldiers of Odin (trying to intimidate people at the “Learn to Resist” weekend at Concordia, March 25, 2017), or with random Islamophobes (outside the Ahlillbait mosque in Montréal, December 15, 2017), in 2018 he seemed to have settled down to doing security with the III% (“Unis pour la protection des frontiers” at the Lacolle border, “Dehors les libéraux” in Montréal, or against the UN migration compact in Ottawa).

Dufresne spotted at ten protests in the past two years.

Dufresne’s online chatter

It becomes apparent, while looking through Dufresne’s online posts, that he is severely disappointed in the state of the Québec independence movement. The following exchange, after the protest against Bill M-103, is a representative example: “I get the impression Québec is finished… They found a way to crush us.” “We’re fucked.” Near the bottom of the chat he says “We need to get out our ‘teaser’ to wake up a shitload of them” (“teaser” possibly means Taser gun).

Dufresne saying “We need a ‘teaser’ to wake up a shitload of them”.

He also displays the xenophobia that is prevalent in far-right circles, as in the following exchange where he declares that “my religion forbids me from being served by someone who doesn’t respect my fundamental values and who wants to impose their own in MY COUNTRY!!!!,” followed by “what I say is, if you’re not happy GET THE FUCK OUT. Seeing what they did in the Middle East… We’re not out of the woods yet with our fucking governments shovelling them in…”

Dufresne saying, “If you don’t like it… GET THE FUCK OUT”.

Dufresne is also clearly dedicated to the idea that there needs to be a militia in Québec. The below conversation contains a couple of his recurring themes: disappointment in the current state of things, plans he has, and the need for a militia. He starts with “Geez, we are really at the point where we have to justify our existence in our own country? Things have gotten bad.” Once again, he says, “We should buy some ‘teaser’ because people are sleepy as fuck.” Later in the discussion, he says, “It’s time for a Québecois brigade (militia).” Later in the thread, Martin Bédard posts a video of the Milice Patriotique Québécoise, a now defunct armed militia that existed until recently, and was headed by far-right militant Serge Provost. Dufresne replies “I already saw that, I tried to contact Serge Provost last fall.”

Dufresne’s conversations about militias.

He also posted that he is “already ready” to the Milice du Québec Facebook group, following up with “structures are already in place. PM me for details”.

Dufresne invites people on a militia page to get in touch because there are “structures in place”.

He repeatedly refers to having plans, as in the following exchange where Alf Turcotte says, “Before the elections we’ll fight even more,” to which Dufresne replies, “I hope so… I have multiple actions ready to go!!!! These next elections will have a huge impact on our existence… And people are still asleep at the wheel! I’m raging”

Dufresne has “multiple actions” ready to go.

Or, as was revealed by Le Troupeau, his exchange with Dave Tregget (ex-leader of Soldiers of Odin Québec and founder of Storm Alliance), where he says, “Dave, we have some projects that are ready to go… Let’s see what gives J”, to which Tregget replies “We need to talk about it Stéphane,” and Dufresne replies “J real soon” (Image 28 projets-cles.jpg)

Another mention of Dufresne having “projects ready to go”.

From the above chats we see Dufresne is someone disillusioned with the decline of the independence movement, who wants to shock people awake, who is hoping to start or join a Québécois militia, and who makes allusions to having multiple “plans.”

Connections to a person arrested under terrorism-related charges

In 2017, the RCMP was alerted by US authorities that a Montrealer named Alexandre Louis Fallara was attempting to bring in arms from the USA. Further investigation uncovered that Fallara was not just a nationalist but also some sort of “National Bolshevik”, or “Nazbol”, who was posting a wide range of comments online stating he was ready to kill others or sacrifice himself for Québec.

What is Nazbol? While historically, National Bolshevism refers to a tendency within the international communist movement, in the context of contemporary antifascism, National Bolshevism (often referred to as “Nazbol”) is a strain of neo-fascism that emerged following the fall of the Soviet Union, shepherded into existence in part by elements within the former Soviet state security services. Nazbols take on the symbols of, and identify with, selective parts of the history of the communist and anti-imperialist movements, often with an emphasis on the Stalin era and Anti-Zionism in their crudest forms. The social and internationalist content of these movements is downplayed or distorted, while the conservative and xenophobic aspects of their history are emphasized and are often reframed within a racist narrative. National Bolshevism is a highly eclectic ideology; today its main expressions include extreme nationalism, opposition to “mass immigration” (especially of Muslims into Europe), anti-Americanism, and being against “western liberalism” or decadence, which translates as being against Jewish and LGBTQ people. While not identical, it overlaps with Aleksandr Dugin’s “Fourth Position” ideology, and both have been encouraged by elements of the Russian State under Vladimir Putin.

As was reported in a La Presse article last year, the RCMP picked up Fallara under Article 810.2 (3) of the Criminal Code, which is used as a way for authorities to impose conditions on someone that they fear will commit a serious offense, even though the person may not have done anything criminal as of yet. His conditions included being prohibited from possessing firearms, explosives, or what they described as “terrorist material”. (While we are completely opposed to what we know of Fallara’s politics, the repressive implications of this state tool and the conditions imposed should be obvious to readers).

Screenshot of the La Presse article reads “Severe conditions placed on Montrealer suspected of terrorism.”

Buried near the end of the article, it was mentioned that Fallara was also banned from speaking to his friend, Stéphane Dufresne. This led us to wonder: was this the same Stéphane Dufresne as the person this article is about?

Fortunately, Fallara’s Facebook and VK.com accounts are still online and uncensored (he was banned from using social media, but his accounts have remained intact since the date of the trial). On his VK.com profile, he uses the alias Vladimir-Velikayavich Zaytsev-Zorrov, where we can see him in the same outfit as in the photo La Presse used to illustrate their article.

A picture of “Zaitsev” with the same getup as in the La Presse article.

His VK.com profile still features a large number of call-to-arms type posts, such as the following, where he states that he “doesn’t care if he goes to prison or gets killed or executed. I will be proud if the Québécois people finally rise up”. He also mysteriously mentions “I have another wish. My second in command will pick up the baton if something happens to me”. Later in the post he also says “If what I’m preparing comes to fruition and I manage something (I’m not going to elaborate here on FB), know that our revolution will start with a huge BOOM.”

One of Fallara’s posts that probably got the RCMP’s attention.

He shortened his name to “Vladimir Zaitsev” on Facebook, which is still online as he left it before he was banned from using the internet. It is filled with his own toxic blend of Québec nationalism, Islamophobia, and homophobia.

A few of the hundreds of hateful photos Fallara posted on Facebook.

And, as it would happen, it turns out that he was indeed friends with our Stéphane Dufresne: We can see Fallara commenting on a private photo Dufresne posted of the front of his house.

Vladimir Zaitsev (Alexandre Fallara) posting a supportive emoji on Dufresne’s private photo.

In fact, they seem to be quite good friends, tagging each other in multiple posts, such as the following, which Dufresne was tagged in, where they refer to each other as “tovarisch,” which translates to comrade, or friend.

Clear friendship between Dufresne and Fallara.

Or another, where Fallara indicates that he is “with Dufresne and 3 other people”, he refers to Dufresne as “one of our most patriotic steadfast comrades.”

Fallara and Dufresne back-and-forth supportive comments.

As might be expected, they also publicly discuss violent uprisings together, like the following interaction where Fallara asks in Russian “When are we going to war,” to which Dufresne replies: “Currently.”

Fallara asks “When are we going to war?”

Dufresne also is tagged in a creepy video of Fallara stabbing the air with a knife, that he says will “come in handy for close combat”. Dufresne “liked” the video.

Fallara showing off his knife, which Dufresne “liked”.

In another post by Fallara, where he is extolling the virtues of armed uprising (and again tagging Dufresne), we can see Dufresne replying not long after with the comment “Citizen’s militia❤”. Fallara “liked” this reply.

Stéphane Dufresne et Alex Fallara semblent tous les deux avoir une affection particulière pour les milices et les soulèvements armés.

Fallara was picked up by the RCMP and charged under terrorism-related offenses, and one of the conditions of the trial was that he can’t be in touch with his friend Stéphane Dufresne. This brings up some obvious questions, like: Why was Stéphane Dufresne named as someone he wasn’t allowed to associate with? Was Dufresne involved in the same type of activities that Fallara was suspected of planning?

Conclusion

When the Le Troupeau chatroom leak surfaced, it revealed that Stéphane Dufresne was talking about the need for a terrorist attack to wake people up, followed by the assertion that he had “multiple actions coming up.” This in itself was worrying, but a closer look at his online activity shows a man displaying many more warning signs: he is someone who repeatedly states that he wants to wake people up, who practices shooting and street-fighting techniques, who is searching for the perfect Québécois militia (but in the meanwhile has joined a Canada-wide one), and who makes multiple ominous allusions to having “plans.” Dufresne’s name coming up in a non-association clause of a terrorism-related trial makes all of the above even more concerning. The fact that his friend, Alexandre Fallara, was attempting to import arms from the USA and was placed under surveillance by the RCMP, further cements Dufresne as someone who must be monitored closely.

We realize that this story is murky: our own politics run directly counter to the State’s “anti-terrorist” and repressive agenda, which is why we feel the need to carry out our own investigations. We do not rely on State sources, but we cannot exclude what we learn from their investigations and manoeuvres. In a context in which “revolutionary” far-right acts of violence are becoming more and more common, we must remain vigilant, while trying to figure out the answers to the difficult question of what is to be done and how we can most efficiently intervene.

In the broader context, this story is another example of the mixing of scenes and crosspollination on the far-right: in Québec we now consistently have the III% militia providing security at rallies of far-right nationalist groups, and in this case we see neo-Nazis (Martin Minna) planning in private with self-styled “Patriotes” (Dufresne and Lalonde). With the independence movement currently in decline, some proponents have turned to more desperate measures to promote their movement – whether by instrumentalizing islamophobia, or for a much smaller “hard core,” by preparing for violence. What is clear is that the far-right is continuing to fragment and re-form in new ways, and needs to be challenged at every turn.

Report-back on the March 16 Solidarity Vigil/Counter-demo

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Apr 082019
 

From Montréal Antifasciste

On March 16, the day after the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, Montréal Antifasciste organized a rally in solidarity with the victims, which was simultaneously an antiracist counter-demonstration, given the presence on the site of notorious Islamophobes, one of whom publicly “thanked” the terrorist responsible for the attack.

Here’s a report back:

The day after the white supremacist and fascist terrorist attack in New Zealand found us in a state of shock. Besides the absolutely despicable nature of the attack—the killer filmed and live streamed the murders of fifty people at two different mosques—two things jumped out at us. First, the terrorist’s manifesto indicated the influence of an “ecofascist” discourse, which calls to mind ideas advanced by Atalante Québec and other neo-fascists. Second, he paid homage to Québec terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette by inscribing Bissonnette’s name on one of his cartridge clips.

We were also shocked by what was being published by the Québec fascist scene, which at best claimed the attack was a false flagaction and at worst celebrated it. Adding insult to injury, we soon found out that a number of Islamophobes were planning one of the weekly demonstrations of the (phoney) “Yellow Vests” outside of the Montréal offices of TVA television on Saturday, March 16.

Wishing both to honour the memory of the people who had been murdered and to prevent racists who were celebrating the event from gathering outside of the TVA building we decided to hold a solidarity rally at their usual meeting point. Time was short, and we didn’t know that approximately ten other solidarity events would follow ours, with hundreds of people in attendance. We had hoped that our gathering would make the Islamophobes think twice about showing up outside of TVA out of a basic and obvious respect for those who were in mourning.

We had underestimated their lack of basic decency…

By 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, about a hundred people from different scenes had responded to the Montréal Antifasciste callout to gather outside the doors of TVA behind a banner reading “Contre le racisme et la haine” [Against Racism and Hatred]. The people present were taking turns leading chants, when, at 11:30 a.m., people sporting yellow vests arrived on the sidewalk across the street from us. We were (disagreeably) shocked to discover that the leading the packwas none other than Pierre Dion, the Islamophobic militant recently banned from social media following a series of threats and a pattern of verbal aggression. Eventually, the “Yellow Vests” numbered a few less than twenty. We know that there were people among them who had no idea they were surrounded by Islamophobes, and we don’t hold them in any way responsible. We do, however, believe that this article should be a wake-up call for them.

Here’s a list of the far-right militants who were present:

Pierre Dion, homophobe, and conspiracy theorist who aspires to be the leader of a motley crew of nationalist whack jobs who make La Meute look like diplomats par excellence.
Michel Meunier, aka Mickey Mike, Mickey Mayer or Mickey Myers, Islamophobe and apologist for terrorism (for example, he has called for another Islamophobic attack at a Québec mosque and expressed his “gratitude” for the terrorist attack in Christchurch).
Michel Ethier, aka “Le Piratriote” [roughly, the Pirate Patriot], a vulgar Islamophobe, a fan of ALL CAPS insults, and a member of the Front patriotique du Québec.
Mario Dallaire, an Islamophobe regularly spotted at Storm Alliance rallies and on the “security”team at far-right demonstrations.
Robin « Le prophète » Simon, member of the Front patriotique du Québec and its securityteam, the GSP, now associated with the III % militia.
Claude Roy, an Islamophobic tinkerer known for his Styrofoam creations of questionable taste (and repeated complaints that nobody wants his shit).
André Boies, Islamophoboic propagandist and conspiracy theorist, owner of the Les Manchettes disinformation website, and the translator into French of the manifesto released by the terrorist responsible for the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Boies says he was there by mere happenstance, but we are highly skeptical.)

Without really having to work at it, we identified seven known Islamophobic and racist militants in a group of at most twenty people, which raises some serious questions about the Québec “Yellow Vests” pseudo-movement!

Obviously, as antifascists and antiracists, we couldn’t either just sit around twiddling our thumbs or limit ourselves to a silent vigil. From 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the time set for the “Yellow Vests” rally, we drowned out their chants and their diatribes with our own slogans and prevented them from crossing the street twice, in spite of a muscular police presence.

We were astonished to discover what this “Yellow Vest” movement actually is and who it is made up of. Honestly, up to this point, we hadn’t paid all that much attention to them, but we must say, we did learn some interesting things. . .

Four years of experience tells us that the Islamophobic far-right groupuscules in Québec (first and foremost, PEGIDA Québec, as well as La Meute, Storm Alliance, the Front patriotique du Québec,and all their sad little spinoffs) have a consistent need to demonstrate to justify their existence and disguise their lack of significance, a sort of mad plunging ahead that grows increasingly laughable. They are calling their upcoming ritual demonstration, called for May 4, the“Vague bleue” [Blue Wave]. . .Once again, outside of the TVA offices. It’s obviously an obsession! All of the Islamophobic groups—real and virtual—with the exception of La Meute, are apparently calling for people to join this“Vague bleue.”

Another thing we’ve noticed in this four years is that every time we prevent the far right from demonstrating it grows weaker…

Critical Balance Sheet

We are aware that our gathering on Saturday, March 16, had more of the flavour of a counter-demonstration than of a memorial vigil. We would have liked to hold a memorial, but the presence of Islamophobes across the street made that impossible. Thankfully, in the following week, numerous gatherings reflected the true nature of Montréal: a dignified and diverse city.

In spite of everything, we came out of the experience feeling stronger. We mobilized rapidly (in less than twenty-four hours) and in good numbers (more than one hundred people turned out),including some our closest allies, as well as members of many of Montréal’s diverse communities.

Also notable and encouraging was the obvious popular support we received, even though the chosen site—outside of TVA on Maisonneuve—is in a low-traffic and unappealing area: for example, the group of joggers who passed by middle finger erect in Pierre Dion’s direction, the cyclists and taxis that gave us regular shout-outs, the neighbours who brought us gallons of coffee and hot chocolate, those who came to thank us, infuriated by the weeks of Islamophobic and racist comments on their doorsteps, and the occasional passerby who stopped for a few minutes to talk and share their thoughts with us or to shout a few choice words at Pierre Dion and his gang. We are grateful for everyone’s support. Solidarity is also a matter of small gestures.

– Montréal Antifasciste

///

P.S. Things fall apart for the “Yellow Vests”

When we were outside of TVA on March 16, it was impossible not to notice the silly antics of Anderson Dufresne, who spent the day flailing about in all directions on his “hoverboard,” dancing, singing, not infrequently falling down… and providing a useful foil in the face of accusations of racism (Dufresne is black). The phoney “Yellow Vests,” with Pierre Dion at their head, repeated at least fifty times in three hours: “We can’t be racist; we have our black friend with us!” However, in the few weeks since that gathering, things have gotten tense between Anderson Dufresne and that racist piece of shit Michel Meunier, whom we mentioned above. Things have heated up, with Meunier calling multiple times for Dufresne to be purged from the “Yellow Vests.” Meunier finally let loose with a stream of racism of the vilest kind, egged on by a few other “Yellow Vests,” shining the light of day on the internal contradictions that plague this pseudo-movement. Read Xavier Camus’ report for more details.

Collaborators of the CAQ

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Apr 042019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

** To be shared widely in teaching milieus and beyond **

The Coalition Avenir Québec is moving forward with its ban on the wearing of religious symbols by many public sector workers.

No matter the party in power, we’re against the government telling people how to dress, as well as feeding fear and hatred of Muslims, and Muslim women in particular, under the pretext of “secularism”.

Any government policy takes effect only through those who apply it and collaborate. For this reason we are making a call to identify those who participate in the enforcement of this law in public institutions. For example, someone who calls the police on an employee in their workplace for wearing a religious symbol, who harrasses them, who denounces them to their superior, who fires them, or who refuses to hire them for this reason.

We invite you to send the information you have about the person who is applying the law (name, organization, job title, photo, etc.) with a description of their actions and their consequences to doxxlescollabos@riseup.net. We’ll do our own research so that we can then publish as much information as possible about the person enacting state-sanctioned racism.

We’re aware that the law will also apply to cops of various types. Cops are the guard dogs of this rotten system based on colonialism and racism, so we have to say that we really don’t care about a cop’s job security, regardless of their religion. As a consequence, let us clarify as a matter of form that any information received about a police service or prison guard will only be used to support research into the links between these agencies and far-right groups in Quebec.

We won’t calm down. If you collaborate with the government by policing religious symbols in a workplace, we’re watching you!

On the same day as the Christchurch massacre, an Islamophobic Québécois propagandist translates and publishes the terrorist’s manifesto

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Mar 262019
 

From Montréal-Antifasciste

On Friday, March 15, 2019, less than 24 hours after the Islamophobic massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, a Québec internet site published a French translation of the killer’s manifesto.

Why would someone be in such a rush to translate this document and amplify the killer’s message? This wasn’t a just some error that we can chalk up to a serious journalistic blunder: it was the intentional signal boosting of an Islamophobic manifesto. The translator’s online Islamophobia is extensive and well-documented.

Let’s not forget that what we’re talking about is a seventy-four-page document published by the killer as a part of a propaganda and public relations operation meant to explain why he did what he did, and that in it he pronounces his allegiance to fascism and calls on white supremacists the world over to imitate his actions.

So who was it that published the manifesto in French?

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to read the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to download the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

It appeared on the Les Manchettes website, a website that has existed since 2017 and that specializes in sharing and spinning fake news, conspiracy theories, and nationalist, conservative, and Islamophobic texts. Everything points to Les Manchettes being the work of one person, who maintains the site and signs most, if not all of the articles André Boies, who goes by the alias Bo Bois on Facebook.

The Lesmanchettes.com website is registered to André Boies.

André Boies posts the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to his Twitter account.

There is no doubt that Boies is the French translator of the manifesto and that he posted it. For one thing, he was quick to brag about it on Facebook:

André Boies admits to having translated the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to French.

If that weren’t enough evidence that he was the translator, Boies either did not know how or forgot to remove the metadata from the pdf of the document posted online, which identifies the owner of the software used in its production:

Metadata extracted from the pdf file of the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto show “André Boies” as author.

In a discussion with some fellow Islamophobes, Boies says he made a copy of the video of the attack “au ka qu’on (le) censure” (sic) [in case it is censored]:

Who Is André Boies?

 

André Boies is a graphic designer who lives in Montréal. He is very active in Québec’s nationalist fascistic milieu on Facebook and Twitter and publishes at least one article a week on the Les Manchettes website. He owns a web design company called “Graphixab,” which is just one in a long list of ephemeral companies connected to him. He hopes to be of service to the Québec nationalist milieu, offering his skills to design stickers for far-right militants.

 

Boies, like most of the legion of goofs who make up the Québec far right, is obsessed with Islam, as he indicates in a number of ways, including in his online comments (Coudonc, tout le monde la [sic] dit que l’islam c’est de la grosse marde!) [Come on, everyone says that Islam is a pileof shit!]. He also uses his various company façades, including his “Sticker Deal” Twitter account, to advance conspiracy theories, e.g., that the action was a “false-flag attack”(Sondage: Pensez-vous que l’attentat survenu en Nouvelle-Zélande soit un possible false flag?) [Poll: Do you think that the New Zealand attack might have been a false flag?].

On line for only a few years now, his website includes dozens of bluntly and unrestrainedly Islamophobic articles of the kind that resonate with the vast majority of right-wing and far-right nationalist circles in Québec, and which are becoming increasingly normalized in Western society. Boies also uses his website to advance absolutely absurd and slanderous conspiracy theories, such as the idea that halal certification in Canada is used to finance terrorism! One only has to make a summary Google search to realize how obsessed he is with Islam and Muslims.

An example of the Islamophobic headlines found on André Boies’ website.

Here is a sample of his Islamophobic and xenophobic posts (including a graph supporting the “great replacement” theory, which is at the core of the Christchurch killer’s manifesto):

Boies’ tumultuous criminal history shows that he is no stranger to slander! He even had a pissing contest with the SQ in 2012 about which of them was the worst of slanderer. This obviously wound him up, because it remains an obsession of his even today…

André Boies is concerned with slander.

A Québecois de souche who even the Parti Québécois finds embarrassing

Boies is clearly part of the hard core “patriot” movement of the variety that finds La Meute insufficiently radical and too federalist. In the summer and autumn of 2018, when internal splits within the far-right were multiplying and an election was forthcoming, Boies decided to campaign aggressively for the PQ.

André Boies, Parti Québécois activist.

 

André Boies campaigns for the PQ…

He was even pathetic enough to cover his car with PQ themed stickers when he went to intimidate Québec Solidaire volunteers in Rosemont! (VICE documented his humiliation when, in August 2018, the Parti Québécois demanded that he remove their logo and party colors from his car.)

André Boies’ car covered with the Parti Québécois’ colours.

André Boies recounts his encounter with police after he allegedly harassed people around a private Québec Solidaire event in Rosemont.

Why would he publish the killer’s manifesto?

Boies may claim to have translated and published the manifesto for purely journalistic reasons, but any professional or specialist in information technology will tell you that a signal boosting gesture of this sort is ethically challenged in the extreme and doubtless motivated by other concerns.

André Boies spins the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto with the Lesmanchettes.com Twitter account.

From our point of view, publishing this manifesto in French is more than a simple error in judgement. Given Boies’s Islamophobic history, we can be forgiven for thinking that his incentive was a desire to spread as broadly as possible the killer’s message and his motivations for a terrorist act that cost the lives of fifty members of Muslim communities in New Zeland.

It is also no coincidence that on the day after the action André Boies was seen sniffing around the (phoney) Islamophobic Yellow Vests outside of TVA, across the street from a gathering honoring the victims of the massacre. He obviously wasn’t there to join either gathering, because he only stayed at a distance for a few minutes taking photos of the antiracist and antifascist militants. He published an article the same day bemoaning the waste of public resources that this solidarity gathering led to.

A call for vigilance and for action against Islamophobia

At this point, Islamophobia has been so trivialized in Québec that on the day fifty people were massacred a far-right nationalist militant could rapidly translate —albeit poorly— and diffuse a terrorist manifesto on social media platforms without a single comment in the mainstream media or, for that matter, without anyone denouncing it. (At the same time, in Ontario, the authorities “launched an investigation” of a notorious neo-Nazi who posted the manifesto on his website and of another who published a list of proposed targets for lone wolf attacks.)

It’s about time that we collectively address the depth of the problem with Islamophobia in Québec and Canadian society and that antiracist forces combine their efforts to counter by any means necessary the increasing normalization of hate and intolerance, particularly against Muslim communities.

One of the simplest things we can do that is to identify and denounce those like André Boies who actively promote Islamophobia.

P.-S. Boies also came sniffing around the Manifestation contre le racisme et la Xénophobie, in Montréal, Sunday March 24. He was baffled when antifascists called him by name and asked him to leave stat. He even wrote an article about the encounter for his site…

 « Je n’ai vraiment aucun commentaire négatif contre ces antifas, ils ont été quand même sympathiques, ils m’ont quand même demandé très poliment de quitter les lieux. »
[I don’t have anything negative to say about the antifas, they were friendly, they politely asked me to leave.]

Thanks, André. Now you’ll know that we’ve highlighted your name in our little book of scumbags to keep an eye out for.

Montréal Antifasciste: Statement of Solidarity With the Victims of the Islamophobic Attack in Christchurch

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Mar 162019
 

From Montréal-Antifasciste

We from Montréal Antifasciste extend our solidarity to all Muslims and to all people of color and antifascists in Christchurch and across Aotearoa.

It was with horror that we learned of the massacre that took place in Christchurch on March 15th. Horror that only deepened with every new detail, as we read the assassin’s manifesto, as we learned that racists around the world – including in Aotearoa, including in Quebec – were shamelessly sharing his diy snuff film and cheering his acts.

An unbearable feeling, as we recalled the massacre in Quebec City in January 29, 2017, when another young racist entered that city’s Islamic Cultural Centre with the intention of killing as many people as possible.
Six people died that night; at least 49 died today in Christchurch.

Words fail us.

We recognize the name of the Quebec City killer, Alexandre Bissonnette, scrawled along with others on the ammunition cartridge that Brenton Tarrant photographed and uploaded before his attack. We recognize the ideas in Tarrant’s manifesto; we’ve come across them before, too many times. The mix of fear of a clampdown and admiration for the killer and laughs at his humour on 4chan and facebook and other social media networks have come from around the world, including our own backyard. We remember just last year as you provided us all with a positive example in resisting as two of “our” racists, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, traveled to your country to spread their poison. We recall, too, that one of “your” far-rightists, Trevor Loudon, has been welcomed in Canada at events organized by “our” Islamophobes. And of course we have all heard about how far-right zillionaires à la Peter Thiel have decided New Zealand is just the right place for them to relocate to, to ride out their accelerating nightmare, and perhaps to try out some of their own dystopian ideas.

Clearly, your situation and our situation are not foreign to each other; addressing them is part of the same deeper and broader struggle for a world without exploitation or racism.

We already knew this, as we’re sure you did too. We didn’t need this latest reminder, but we got it anyway.
With anger and sorrow, we honour the memory of those who died in Christchurch, as we renew our pledge to resist the rising tide of far-right, racist, and misogynist violence around the world.

Solidarity with Wheao ā-Ihirama
Solidarity to all targets of Islamophobic, racist, and far right violence, in Aotearoa and everywhere
Solidarity with antifascists in Aotearoa and around the world

Kia kaha.

Athan Zafirov: The Montreal Nazi Scumbag Who Thought He Could Get Away With It…

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Feb 182019
 

From Montréal-Antifasciste

(Content warning: many of the links included in this article lead to extreme racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic content. Proceed with care.)

In May of 2018, Montreal anti-fascists leaked the contents of a private neo-Nazi chat room called “Montreal Storm” (short for Montreal Stormer Book Club*), which was active from August 2016 to January 2018, and included 55 users.

The leak made it possible to identify several members of the chat room, including Shawn Beauvais MacDonald, Vincent Bélanger Mercure and Gabriel Sohier Chaput, alias Zeiger. The latter was revealed by the Montreal Gazette to be a prolific propagandist for the most radical wing of the Alt-Right and a frequent contributor to The Daily Stormer, arguably the most influential Alt-Right/neo-Nazi website in the world in the 2016-2017 period, and to this day.

Partly through their unfortunate (and unplanned) participation in a Vice report on the now infamous white supremacist “Unite The Right” rally, the three activists named above were also shown to have traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, to join forces with assorted fascists, Nazis and ultra-nationalists to protest the removal of a stupid fucking statue. Tragically, Anti-racist activist Heather Heyer was killed and several more people were gravely injured in the afternoon of August 12th when white supremacist James Alex Fields plowed his car into a group of counter-protestors.

> The full contents of the Montreal Storm Chat Room have been accessible on Unicorn Riot since May 2018.
(Content warning for extreme racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny.)

Several more members of the Montreal Storm chat room (and adjacent “Book Club”) have been identified by anti-fascists, including its likely initiator and main moderator, Date, aka DateOfLies, aka LateOfDies, real name Athanasse “Athan” Zafirov,

Meet Athan Zafirov, the Montreal Nazi scumbag who thought he could get away with it…

“Date” was featured prominently in a National Post article published on May 14th, 2018, where his role in the Montreal Storm chat room and local Stormer Book Club was detailed. Zafirov’s name, however, was never mentioned.

>> Zafirov, aka Date’s posts to the Montreal Storm chat room
(Content warning for extreme racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny.)

A few months later, in July 2018, as part of a larger callout to identify members of ID Canada (a European-style, neo-fascist, “identitarian” organization trying to get off the ground in Canada), the good folks at Anti-Racist Canada put together a more complete exposé on DateOfLies.

The ARC exposé first establishes that Date is a central figure of ID Canada (formerly Generation Identity Canada), since Date himself bragged about his role in episode #65 of now defunct Alt-Righ/neo-Nazi podcast “This Hour Has 88 Minutes”. ARC and their anonymous source go on to show, from some messages posted by Zeiger to the Montreal Storm chat room, that “Athan” (misspelled “Athen”) is the organizer of a secret Facebook group called “Alt-Right Montreal”.

A subsequent post by Date from July 2017 reveals that he helped organize a Canadian delegation to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville:

Right after the post above, Date proceeds to list his various Alt-Right credentials and ongoing projects, including organizing an “Alt-Right Canada” event in Ontario with Alt-Right mentor Jared Taylor, and arranging for University of New-Brunswick ultra-conservative professor, Ricardo Duchesne, to speak at Ruby Foo’s, in Montréal, in June 2017 (a video of that talk was formerly available on Zeiger’s YouTube channel, which has been de-activated since his doxx). He also brags about running the “local bad goy group”.

ARC’s anonymous source goes on to provide detailed evidence, from Zafirov’s own online activity going back several years, that Athanasse Zafirov and Date (and various other aliases) are one and the same.

A key piece of this convincing demonstration is that Athan Zafirov was found to be one of the “manosphere” activists who had arranged a Montreal visit for Roosh V. Valizadeh, a notorious misogynistic scumbag, “pick up artist” guru and rape apologist, back in February 2016. (Amusingly, Zafirov was trapped by local feminists and showed up, befuddled, to a compromised meeting spot shortly before the Roosh V. event. The video below documents the ensuing farce.)

Additionally, Zafirov made the fatal mistake of coming out in real life on July 1st, 2017, to heckle an anti-colonial protest in Old Montréal, alongside other members of the Montreal Book club, including Shawn Beauvais MacDonald, Alex Boucher, Sergej Schmidt and other chuds.

We know from from various sources that Zafirov lived until fairly recently in an apartment building located on Saint-Urbain street, in Montréal, where he hosted at least one Book Club meeting. His whereabouts were unknown following the May 2018 Discord leak.

Until now.

Zafirov has recently re-emerged at the other end of the continent, no doubt hoping that his online presence would escape the gaze of anti-fascists. Quite to the contrary, we believe that his academic comeback is the perfect opportunity to give this little Nazi piece of shit the attention he fully deserves.

Meet the new avatar of Athanasse Zafirov, “Dimitri”:

Zafirov, proven white supremacist activist, is now enrolled as a PhD student at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, which is in line with his previous academic course at Montreal’s John Molson School of Business (Concordia University).

Evidently, his picture was recently removed from the students’ roster page on Anderson-UCLA’s website. Could it be that Athan is feeling the heat? Unfortunately for him, we made the screen capture above a little while ago, and his smug-ass face still pops up in the Google image search page, as well as UCLA’s internal search engine. He also seems to have recently shifted his area of study from Global Economics and Management to Accounting.

If you would like to drop a line at Zafirov’s supervisors and flag his (very) recent white supremacist activities, we’re sure they will be interested to learn about their clean-cut Canadian student’s dubious extracurricular activities. You will find a number of addresses by visiting the School’s directory, as well as the Faculty listing and the students’ roster page.

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/about/whos-who

ms.phd.admissions @ anderson.ucla.edu (PhD Program)
al.osborne @ anderson.ucla.edu  (Interim Dean)
john.mamer @ anderson.ucla.edu (Faculty Chairman)
heather.caruso @ anderson.ucla.edu (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)

Faculty:
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/meet-the-faculty

And fellow students in the Accounting Phd program:
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/meet-the-students

 

 

 

 

* Stormer Book Clubs are regionally specific “in real life” meetings, sort of like “social clubs” for followers of the hard-line, neo-Nazi wing of the Alt-Right (white males only need apply…) The original idea for Book Clubs came from The Daily Stormer founder, Andrew Anglin, in 2016. You may also have heard about TRS Pool Parties, which are essentially the same thing, but sprung from The Right Stuff, another Alt-Right platform of the same general tendency.

Atalante and its Sympathizers – Part 1: Heïdy Prévost, the Influencer

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Feb 132019
 

From Montréal Antifasciste

Montréal Antifasciste recently published an in-depth report on the neo-fascist organization Atalante Québec. That article covers Atalante’s links to similar organizations worldwide, as well as the group’s fascist-inspired political project. It also reveals the identities of most of the group’s core members based in both Québec City and Montréal.

One part dedicated to the RAC band Légitime Violence revealed that this type of organization needs to cultivate a presence in very specific communities, namely counter-cultural musical scenes, in order to recruit new members. This is precisely the role played by Légitime Violence, whose members are also all members of Atalante and which was started by the fascist group’s leader, Raphaël Lévesque aka Raf Stomper. We have also seen that a large proportion of Atalante’s members and sympathizers are fans of Légitime Violence, as well as fans of so-called “extreme” music subgenres such as National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM).

Many other scenes and groups (musical scenes, particularly those related to heavy metal; tattoo artists and shops; political communities; universities; the LARP scene…) also have links to Atalante and/or its members, to various extents. This means that the work of identifying all of the organization’s members and associates is far from over.

In the coming weeks and months, we will publish a series of short articles entitled ‘Atalante and its sympathizers.’ The overarching goal of the series will be to present public figures, individual members, or group associates who participate, in one way or another, in normalizing and popularizing Atalante Québec as a political organization.

In this first installment, we will introduce you to Heïdy Prévost, aka Heïdy Valkyrie, an active member of Atalante who dreams of a career as a social media influencer.

Portrait

Heïdy “Valkyrie” Prévost was born on December 14, 1990. She lives in the suburbs of Québec City and is a mother to three children. She works at the Québec City Centre des Services partagés du Québec (CSPQ) (Quebec Shared Services Centre) and is a member of the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec (SFPQ) (Quebec Public Servants Union). On weekends, she occasionally works at the ParadoXe tattoo and body piercing salon (2480 Chemin Ste-Foy, suite 025 G1V 1T6 Québec).

Heïdy works in public service, at the Département d’accompagnement et de la logistique du Centre des Services partagés du Québec (CSPQ).

On the weekends, she works at the ParadoXe shop (she wears their T-shirt in this photo).

Heïdy Prévost is a multidisciplinary artist (singing, drawing, photography …) who has recently been developing herself as an “alternative model”, with the objective of becoming professional. She also seeks to represent brands, bands, etc. Like any good influencer, she is very active on Facebook and Instagram, where she shares her daily life. On both social networks, she maintains separate personal and professional accounts. Even though her professional accounts do not have a very strong audience yet, having only started a few months ago, she already has several photography contracts to her credit and has just signed a contract with the Montreal agency Dress 2 Impress.

From black metal to fascism

Heïdy would be just fine – if she wasn’t also an active member of the neo-fascist organization Atalante Québec. In fact, Heïdy has been close to the far-right for years. She probably entered the movement through her involvement with the Black Metal scene in Québec, many of these bands being openly racist and/or claiming to be National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM). To read more about the Black Metal scene, check out this article “Épidémie de peste noire dans la scène black métal”, written by French antifascist group La Horde.

Heïdy is pictured above with Burzum and Peste Noire patches, both NSBM (National-Socialist Black Metal) bands.

Heïdy’s tattoo of the band Peste Noire.

Heïdy wearing a La Messe des Morts shirt – La Messe des Morts is a metal festival that attempted to feature NSBM band Graveland in Montréal, in November 2016.

It’s likely that Heïdy developed her political identity through the NSBM musical scene, drifting further and further right before finally converting to hardline fascism.

We see her here wearing a shirt branded with the Black Sun symbol – this is a variant of the swastika, now recognized as having been created by Nazis.

On the above photo, we also note her Odal Rune tattoo (on her hand), a symbol taken from ancient Nordic imagery and widely used by neo-Nazis as an identifying sign. (See also our visual guide of the Far right.)

 

Member of Atalante

It’s hard to say precisely when Heïdy began campaigning alongside Atalante. That said, the next series of photos constitute proof of her direct involvement with the organization and its activities. The following are photos of a food distribution activity conducted by Atalante in the summer of 2018, and shared on the organization’s website and official Facebook account. Furthermore, Heïdy Prévost proudly shared the same images on her personal Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Heïdy, pictured here with Jonathan Payeur, Sven Côté, Raphaël Lévesque, Simon Gaudreau and Renaud Lafontaine.

Heïdy Prévost in the middle of one of Atalante Quebec’s food distribution excursions.

She is therefore an active member of the organization, and recently announced her participation in an Atalante training, which took place over the weekend of November 24-25. On the program: ideological training and boxing. « Jeunesse au cœur rebelle » (Rebel-hearted youth) is an Atalante slogan.

A simple overview of Heïdy’s publications confirms that she is friends with Atalante’s overall membership, and particularly with the core of the organization: the Québec Stompers. Here is a screenshot of people who reacted to one of her Facebook publications:

Screenshot of the reactions to one of Heïdy Prévost’s Facebook posts. Jonathan Payeur, Benjamin Bastien, Yannick Vézina and Raf Lévesque are all prominent members of the Québec Stompers crew.

St-Jean Baptiste 2018 : Heïdy (right) with two other Atalante activists – “Evymay” Lacroix (center) and Laurie Beaudin (left). They are each wearing a bandana bearing the Atalante logo. Lacroix is also sporting the group’s « Jeunesse au cœur rebelle » (Rebel-hearted youth) T-shirt.

Very recently, we saw Heïdy posing with Jean Mecteau (Jhan Delabanniere), bassist of the group Légitime Violence. On another occasion, when unrepentent Nazi scumbag Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald (Hans Grosse) – a member of Atalante’s Montreal branch who was present at the deadly Charlottesville protests – posted an anti-Semitic reaction photo in response to the name of a party Heïdy and her friends were attending (a photo of him with a long nose, a typical racist caricature of Jewish people), Heïdy responded with an amused reaction emoji.

Heïdy shares a picture of Olivier Gadoury (left), of the Québec Stompers and Atalante. Note the “Arbeit macht frei” (work sets you free) tattoo, the infamous phrase posted at the entrance of the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz.

Undeniably, Heïdy Prévost is therefore an active member of Atalante; her immediate entourage includes fascist activists, and she supports anti-Semitic messages.

Normalising fascism

The other problem – and the reason we are devoting an article to her – is that she is one of the key people working to give Atalante a respectable, even glamorous, image. How is she doing this? She slips references to Atalante (stickers, clothing, chants, …) into more innocuous posts and updates on her photo shoots, her daily life, her professional life and her projects – just like product placement in a TV show.

A photo of one of Heïdy’s sons wearing an Atalante sticker, captioned «La relève» (the succession).

Her guitar, decorated with an Atalante sticker. A few months later, we find the same guitar with multiple other Atalante and far-right stickers, including this one:

Sporting the «Jeunesse au cœur rebelle» (rebel-hearted youth) T-shirt, she’s given Atalante free product placement on various occasions throughout the year.

Even more disturbing is the fact that Heïdy seems to be very successful in creating confusion even among anti-racists, since she is booked as a “one-night waitress” on February 21, 2019 for a special event at Scanner Bistro, a pillar of Québec City’s punk community – the same punk community which has a reputation for not tolerating the far-right.

Scanner Bistro announces a special evening with Heïdy Valkyrie as a “one-night waitress.”

[Update: the Waitress for Night event at Scanner with Heïdy Valkyrie was cancelled within two hours of publishing this article.]

Fighting fascism – in all its forms

We can conclude that Heïdy Prévost, aka Heïdy Valkyrie, is not an ideologue for the organization, nor is she its most active member. But, much like Légitime Violence, she represents Atalante in her own way.

We implore the punk and metal music scenes, the tattoo and piercing scenes, and photo artists – don’t be fooled, and firmly refuse the presence of fascism in whatever forms it may present itself.

Mobilize Against the Pro-Pipeline Truck Convoy

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Feb 052019
 

From Ottawa Against Fascism (Facebook)

Call to Action from Ottawa Against Fascism

Currently, pro-pipeline reactionaries are planning a truck convoy from Alberta to Ottawa. This intended show of force is meant to pressure the federal government into taking more forceful actions to get major new oil and gas pipelines built. At a time when Indigenous peoples are heroically resisting massive industrialization in the Pacific Northwest, we must fight back against this foray of far-right forces into pro-pipeline activism before it becomes a real threat.

We call for mass actions in support of Indigenous sovereignty to be organized in Ottawa and in all the cities along the planned route of the truck convoy, from February 14 to 19.

While it may turn out that moving hundreds of oil trucks across the continent will be too tricky and expensive for these inexperienced organizers to pull off, we believe it is important that such an initiative does not go unopposed.

We call for a counter show of force by all anti-colonialists and anti-fascists to push back this movement for further theft and destruction of Indigenous peoples’ territories, and to maintain the mobilization in support of the Wet’suwet’en people who are currently fighting a vital battle against Canadian armed forces and an energy company to preserve their territory.

The truck convoy, which was originally conceived by industry-sponsored institutes, was quickly taken over by far-right organizers, who intend to use this convoy to advance an agenda including anti-Muslim, anti-immigration and white supremacist elements. Their participation, along with the realization of the logistical difficulty of the initiative and the presence of notorious scam artists pushing their own fundraisers under its name, led the industry groups to officially disassociate themselves from the convoy, leaving all the room to the far-right elements. As such, the goal behind the truck convoy is no longer only about pipelines, but also the promotion of a racist, anti-immigrant agenda. Let us seize this occasion to unite the anti-colonial and anti-fascist forces in a mass deployment!

The itinerary of the convoy is as follows:

February 14 – Red Deer

February 15 – Regina

February 16 – Dryden

February 17 – Sault Ste. Marie

February 17-18 – Arnprior February 19 – Ottawa

Participants in this convoy will be looking to book hotels, truck stops and other accommodation facilities to make the journey possible. We anti-fascists will be doing our best to monitor these plans and intervene when necessary, and we encourage people along the convoy’s route to do so also, and to share information with us.

The far-right organizers intend to use the town of Arnprior as a staging ground before the arrival of their caravan to Ottawa. To this end, they have enlisted the support of the Greater Ottawa Trucking Association, with the support of that organization’s ultra-conservative president Ron Barr. The presence of a truck stop right by the Trans-Canadian highway makes Arnprior a strategic location for entering Ottawa from the West.

As we get closer to the date and continue to monitor the far-right planning, we encourage all anti-fascists to join actions in support of the Wet’suwet’en people, as well as other anti-colonial struggles. TransCanada’s recent decision to hire RBC to sell its stake in the Coastal GasLink pipeline strongly suggests that the Wet’suwet’en are winning. If pressure can be maintained and increased, CGL may be forced to abandon their plans. Colonialism is the main system breeding fascism on this land, and so any struggle to smash fascism must include a fight to destroy the colonial state and the capitalist corporations in its midst.

Sources on truck convoy organizing:

https://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2019/01/conflicting-ottawa-convoy-commitments.html

https://anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2019/01/guest-article-from-ottawa-yellow-vests.html

https://rdnewsnow.com/article/612246/pro-pipeline-convoy-ottawa-cancelled

https://edmonton.citynews.ca/video/2019/01/25/organizer-of-yellow-vest-convoy-leaves-group/

To contact Ottawa Against Fascism: ottawa.againstfascism@gmail.com

29 January: Day of Action against Islamophobia

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Jan 262019
 

From Montréal Antifasciste

Almost two years ago, on January 29, 2017, Alexandre Bissonnette entered a mosque in Quebec City in Canada and in the course of a few minutes, murdered Azzeddine Soufiane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Ibrahima Barry and Abdelkrim Hassane. Nineteen others were injured, many severely.

What follows is a list of events commemorating the massacre on Tuesday, January 29, that we at Montréal Antifasciste are aware of. Please note that inclusion of an event does not necessarily indicate endorsement of the event or organizers. Thank you to those comrades who helped put this list together.

Presence in front of the offices of François Legault
8:30am to 9:30am in front of the HBSC building; corner avenue McGill College and Sherbrooke

Commemoration Event: Victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting
noon at the mezzanine of the McDonald Engineering building, McGill University
https://www.facebook.com/events/557027084765626/

Rally/Vigil in Montréal Nord
4:30pm at the corner of Henri Bourassa and Lacordaire
www.facebook.com/events/1203012229847708/

Commemorative Vigil and Workshop on Islamophobia in Côte des neiges
Vigil at 5:30pm at the corner of Plamondon & Van Horne (Plamondon metro)
To be followed by a workshop on opposing Islamophobia at 4755 Van Horne, office 110, at 6:30pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/381473549078387/
info: cdnseleve@gmail.com

Rally/Vigil in Verdun
5:30pm in front of Verdun metro
after the rally, we are invited to warm up at the Islamic Centre of Verdun, refreshments will be served
www.facebook.com/events/1927861947311168/
info: verdunlibre@gmail.com

Panel, “Face à l’islamophobie: lutte et résistance”
6pm in room D-R200, Pavillon Athanase-David, UQAM
Panel with Arij Riahi, Laïty Fary Ndiaye et Idil O. Kalif
www.facebook.com/events/365849160865598
Inscription obligatoire (sans frais): criec2@uqam.ca

Other events will be added here : https://www.facebook.com/January29Action/

Also, on February 2:

Community Dinner at the Khadijah Mosque in Pointe Saint-Charles
2385 Centre St, Saturday February 2, 2019, 17:30-19:00

This event is meant to bring the different religious, local and activist communities together to discuss issues and social problems that concern us all. This event is also being held to commemorate the victims of the January 2017 shooting at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Québec City and in solidarity with Muslims who are targeted every day in small and large ways, including as targets of the so-called secularism law that the current CAQ government intends to pass. There will be short presentations from local activists and community members addressing a number of pertinent topics, followed by a community dinner. To help us determine how much food to prepare, please RSVP! soupercommunautaire2019@gmail.com; Khadijah Mosque 514-691-8331

Also check out the list of events during Muslim Awareness Week (January 25-31) : https://ssm-maw.com/activities/

Ibrahima Barry
Mamadou Tanou Barry
Khaled Belkacemi
Abdelkrim Hassane
Azzedine Soufiane
Aboubaker Thabti

We refuse to forget. We reject Islamophobia and racism.