Friday, August 29
Nine months ago, an employee of Hillel at the University of British Columbia put up forged stickers falsely accusing the UBC Social Justice Centre of supporting Hamas. The lie was so egregious that within 24 hours Hillel had fired the employee and publicly dissociated itself from the forgery. Not so the BC Conservative Party. BC Con executive director Angelo Isidorou still has it up on his Twitter feed. Seems like a pretty simple concept, to press John Rustad to force his ED to retract a lie, or admit to the BC electorate that he’s OK with it. When is someone going to call him out on this?
The guy in the middle? The one wearing the MAGA hat and making the white power sign? That’s Angelo
.Some of these guys are probably for the chopping block — “As John Rustad plans to reevaluate candidates under an “improved vetting process,” a leaked list of Freedom Convoy donors appears to show the names of several candidates for the Conservative Party of British Columbia…. According to data reviewed by PressProgress, names and postal codes matching Jaclyn Aubichon, BC Conservative candidate for West Vancouver–Capliano, and Rosalyn Bird, BC Conservative candidate for Prince George-Valemount, appear on the Freedom Convoy donor list.
The names of Anna Kindy, BC Conservative candidate for North Island and Ndellie Mwanangulu-Massey, BC Conservative candidate for New Westminster-Coquitlam, also appear on the list of donors.” https://pressprogress.ca/freedom-convoy-donor-list-includes-names-of-several-candidates-for-john-rustads-bc-conservatives/
Maybe add BC Conservative candidate for Bulkley Valley–Stikine Sharon Hartwell to that list as well, given that she “has also advocated for Trump’s re-election and agreed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be “tried for treason.”
Mind you, Rustad’s shared a stage with Convoy leader (and current defendant) Chris Barber, along with candidate Anna Kindy and ex-candidate Stephen Malthouse, so maybe he’ll have to fire himself? Unlikely.
“The majority of registered voters believe “there is a real possibility of more political violence erupting before and after Election Day,” according to a recently published Deseret News/HarrisX public opinion survey. The survey, which was conducted online from August 2-3 and recorded responses from 1,011 registered voters, found that 64% believe that “political violence in America has gone up,” and 54% are either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” of “violence from Republicans who don’t accept the election results if Vice President Harris wins.”
The overwhelming majority of registered voters were confident in the validity of both state and local elections, however, there is a sharp partisan divide regarding the validity of federal elections. Only 57% of self-identified Republicans were “very confident” or “somewhat confident” in the validity of the results of presidential elections.” https://www.radicalreports.org/p/morning-briefing-americans-fear-violence
The far right is having an utter hissy fit over the arrest of Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov — https://globalextremism.org/post/telegram-arrest/
Saturday, August 31
Alexandra Wright used to be the BC Conservative candidate in Kelowna-Mission until August, when John Rustad turfed her to make room for former BC United honcho Gavin Dew. Dew was a longtime BC Liberal backroom boy and an unsuccessful candidate for the leadership of BC United. https://www.bcndp.ca/releases/gavin-dew-bc-liberals
Rustad seems to have cultivated Stalin’s knack of rewriting history, given the BC Con’s bio of Dew deftly conceals the fact he had anything whatever to do with BC United.
Wright’s response to the expulsion has been to throw her lot in with Amrit Birring’s crypto-Nazi Freedom Party of British Columbia. Birring is busily reaching out to disgruntled ex-BC United candidates and trying to recruit them into his party..
Trump spoke at the Moms For Liberty Summit in Washington, and admitted he lost in 2020 – Biden “beat us by a whisker.” There’s a reason they call Moms For Liberty “Klanned Karenhood.” Here seen flashing the white power sign with the Proud Boys.
“One of the forces driving the wall of flame that consumed Jasper is almost beyond imagination and belongs to no political party. Scientists can now measure the amount of energy absorbed on Earth from the sun and the amount going out. The amount of incoming energy must equal that flowing out to space in order to maintain a Goldilocks climate. Carbon dioxide emissions act as an enormous blanket that skews the balance. As a consequence, the Earth energy imbalance is changing, and rapidly. About 10 years ago the amount of energy being trapped by CO2 emissions equalled the force of 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs per day, every day. Now it equals the force of 800,000 Hiroshima bombs every day.” https://www.thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/07/30/Wildfires-Grief-Paralysis/
John Rustad could care less. “British Columbians are NOT facing an existential threat from our changing climate. It isn’t a crisis. In fact, our changing climate is not the most pressing issue facing us in BC or around the world.”
Sunday, September 1
Police, man. Ottawa cops stand by and do nothing as swastika-wearing fascists surround and harass an indigenous veteran at the National War Memorial…. https://x.com/TrumpDownfall/status/1829981859880845511
While Toronto cops prevent anyone wearing a keffiyeh from entering the Canadian National Exhibition…. https://x.com/farzanadoctor/status/1830003888126034079
And Alberta RCMP shoot and kill a 15-year-old kid from Samson Cree Nation who had called 911 asking for help. https://x.com/cie1947/status/1829688448581845449
Remarkably, white supremacist and Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes has hit the nail on the head. “Wokeism may seem like it’s on the way out, but only because it was successful. Society is now irreversibly browner, gayer, more female, less religious and more liberal than ever before. And everybody is fine with it.”
There’s a clip up on Twitter featuring a young, unidentified Asian woman saying
“I’m dating a white nationalist” and “he really likes Nick Fuentes!” Odd that Langara College economics prof (and BC Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Langara) Bryan Breguet interjected, saying “hey, that’s literally my wife!”
Not a problem for the Cons, apparently. Rustad’s spokesperson Anthony Koch is backing Breguet to the hilt. “Keep Bryan as a candidate or I’ll quit,” sez he. https://x.com/_llebrun/status/1830338667639972084
Bryan’s issues seem to extend well beyond the white supremacy thing and far into the misogyny thing. Surprise. https://twitter.com/kellipaddon/status/1830316588710715833/photo/2
Alternativ fur Deutschland wins election in Thuringia. The first time a fascist party has won power in Germany since the Second World War. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/01/german-far-right-party-afd-state-election-victory-thuringia
And in the wake of the AfD victory Elon Musk is fostering a very specific type of white supremacy. Let’s call it Johannesburg-meets-Silicon-Valley — “Racist pseudo-science is making a comeback thanks to Elon Musk. Recently, the tech billionaire has been retweeting prominent race scientist adherents on his platform X (formally known as Twitter), spreading misinformation about racial minorities’ intelligence and physiology to his audience of 176.3 million followers…. X, and before it Twitter, has a long-held reputation for being a breeding ground for white supremacy.
Dating as far back as the 2016 election, these extremists have used the app to sow seeds of misinformation and spread racism…. Musk is amplifying users who will incorporate cherry-picked data and misleading graphs into their argument as to why people of European descent are biologically superior.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/elon-musk-racist-tweets-science-video/
Monday, September 2
Too soon to say for certain, but first indications are that Rustad’s lunge for power may not have worked. https://x.com/KirkpatrickWVC/status/1829268223101149299
Billboard Chris Elston insists that you know he’s a Trumper –
Rachael Weber seems to be the first victim of The Purge. She was the BC Conservative Party candidate in Prince George-MacKenzie until her bio disappeared from the party’s website today. Still the chair of the PG school board, tho’. Seems John Rustad has figured out her screeds about 5G towers causing Covid weren’t going to fly with the local electorate. Scratch one, more to come. https://x.com/queergranddad/status/1826135128357351893
Here’s the BC Cons endangered species list –
Han Lee, Burnaby North
Heather Maahs, Chilliwack North
Marina Sapoznhivov, Juan de Fuca-Malahat
Ndelie Massie, New Westminster=Coquitlam
Anna Kindy, North Island
Rosalyn Bird, Prince George-Valemont
Jaclyn Aubichon, West Vancouver-Capilano
Bryan Breguet, Vancouver-Langara.
More to come on these candidates’ wretched far right politics. Suffice it to say they were all vetted by Rustad’s people and found compatible with his party before they got their respective nominations. For example, it was well known where Dr. Stephen Malthouse, the antivaxx quack from Denman Island stood on things, but Rustad had no problem with him until it became politically opportune to axe him. Expect more of the same.
BC Cons candidates turfed today – A.J. Wolfe (Columbia-Revelstoke) and Dupinder Saran (Surrey-Panorama Ridge). Saran was an unsuccessful candidate with the far-right Parents Voice slate in the October 2020 municipal elections. She’s pissed, and will be running provincially as an independent.
Tuesday, September 3
Seems like the BC Cons may have turfed Rachael Weber, not for her 5G towers = Covid batshittery, but because she opposed the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.
“A Regina man who once ran as a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is facing a number of criminal charges. Trevor Wowk made an appearance in Regina provincial court Thursday. The 62-year-old man was in custody and, as such, appeared before the judge from the prisoner’s box…. Wowk appeared on a charge that alleges between July 20 and July 23, at or near Regina, he intended to “provoke a state of fear” in a police officer in order to impede him in the performance of his duties.
Wowk also faces two additional charges relating to offences alleged to have happened on June 12, 2020 at or near Regina. The first alleges that he knowingly used a forged document (confirmation of employment letters) as if it were genuine. The second alleges he knowingly possessed the identity information (the name and signature) of another person “in circumstances giving rise to a reasonable inference that the information was intended to be used to commit the indictable offence of fraud.” https://leaderpost.com/news/crime/former-ppc-candidate-facing-intimidation-false-documents-charges
“Wowk was later the subject of a 2021 investigative report by the CBC, which alleged that, among other things, he was involved in the management of a massage parlour network that offered “sexual encounters.” https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/trevor-wowk-regina-saskatchewan-massage/
Wowk (not to be confused with woke) is posting irate diatribes on his Facebook page — “On June 21, 2024 I was able to remain calm in the face of a military style home invasion and kidnapping. By doing so avoided the blatant attempt to assassinate me by cop. Somebody has decided they want me dead. My wife, whom I deeply love, accepts I will die to defend the truth, protect my family and those I love before giving in to armed intimidation by Regina Police.”
Found on bcpolitics Reddit feed — “During the event attended by some members of the trial lawyer association and other professions (like medical professionals) on August 8 at Camp Beer in Langley, John Rustad stated that he would remove the cap for annual increases for renters. I do not remember his exact wording, but the focus was on how that removal, along with some other measures, would help the provincial economy overall.” Pretty urgent to verify this if true, as it likely would cost Rustad the election.
“The leader of B.C.’s Conservatives says there needs to be a conversation about nuclear power’s role in the province’s energy future and a review of educational materials he says are designed for “indoctrination” of children. John Rustad, speaking on an episode of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson’s podcast released Monday, says he also wants to get rid of the carbon levy, which he calls “a vain attempt to change the weather.” https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/rustad-tells-jordan-peterson-bc-needs-nuclear-talk-end-to-school-indoctrination-9465500?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
What kind of mental breakdown lead former NDP MLA Gwen Mahoney to leave the party, wind up a BC Conservative Party candidate, and start giving interviews to fascists on how harm reduction is evil? Especially when her own sister died from toxic drugs only two months ago. Answers, please!
Condolences to A.J. Wolfe (Columbia River-Revelstoke), Dennis Giesbrecht (Kamloops Centre) Dupinder Saran (Surrey Panorama Ridge) and Brian Tepper (Surrey-White Rock), the latest BC Conservative candidates to be purged to make room for some more token ex-BC United retreads.
They go to join a steadily growing list of excommunicados that includes Michael Geoghan (Chilliwack-Cultus Lake), Damon Scrase (Courtenay-Comox), Jan Webb (Esquimalt-Colwood), Alex Wright (Kelowna-Mission), Stephen Malthouse (Ladysmith-Oceanside), Viraat Thammanna (Nanaimo-Gabriola), and Rachael Weber (Prince George-MacKenzie). Tune in tomorrow for an updated and expanded list.
Wednesday, September 4
“In late December, a 26-year-old construction worker in Sarasota County, Florida, used his phone to send a flurry of ominous online posts. Alexander Lightner, tapping away on his Samsung Galaxy, announced his intention to commit mass murder, according to federal court records. He used the coded language of a new breed of neo-Nazis who call themselves Accelerationists. Lightner wrote that he planned to become a “saint” — the term followers use for someone who advances their racist cause through lethal acts of terror — and to set a new “Highscore,” or death toll.
Lightner launched what federal prosecutors allege were threats on Telegram, the sprawling, no-holds-barred platform that has become a hive for the movement. Accelerationists aim to speed the collapse of modern civilization and create a white ethno-state from the ashes of today’s democracies. Deep in the chatter of the platform’s roughly 900 million users, these extremists have created a constellation of Telegram channels where they encourage followers like Lightner to assassinate political leaders, sabotage power stations and railways, and commit mass murder”.
https://www.propublica.org/article/telegram-pavel-durov-arrest-domestic-terrorism-extremism
“CUPE Ontario executive board issues statement of support for Pres. Fred Hahn, says it passed motions this wk “in support of Brother Hahn as both CUPE General VP and as CUPE Ontario’s president. We passed these motions as recognition of the democratic will of CUPE members.”
Libertarians foster the far right. Case study, Argentina — ““Javier Milei’s government has breathed life into Argentina’s far right. His alignment with global far-right movements that push anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-woman ideologies threatens democracy and human rights and signals a troubling turn away from decades of progress on that front.”
https://globalextremism.org/post/gpahe-report-reveals-far-right-argentina
Nice long thread here from Windward Antifascist – Danielle Kinchella-Pistilli used to be co-chair of Freedom Rally World, which was the main antivaxx organization in Vancouver in 2021. Now the North Vancouver chapter leader of the virulently Christofascist Action4Canada. Now campaigning for West Vancouver-Capilano BC Conservative candidate Jaclyn Aubichon (herself a financial contributor to the Ottawa convoy).
https://twitter.com/windward_afa/status/1831409516702994657
Kinchella-Pistilli is also the campaign coordinator for David Splett, the BC Con candidate in North Vancouver-Lonsdale.
Local girl with an international reach. You’ll remember Lauren Southern as the BC-based fascist arrested in Italy for working to make sure migrants drown in the Mediterranean. This hasn’t been detrimental to her political career here, like when she shared a stage in Victoria last June along with convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, and a host of antivaxx luminaries. https://www.timescolonist.com/local-events?_evDiscoveryPath=/event/105562731n-zuby-reclaiming-canada-conference-2024
The official host of that conference was Lauren Chen. The conference speakers’ list was a Who’s Who of local and national antivaxxers, neo-NAZIS and conspiracists.
Chen and her husband were the two founders of Tenet Media.
Southern is a prolific content creator on the Tenet Media Youtube channel. Now it turns out that Tenet Media is a mis/disinformation channel secretly working with Russia Today (RT) and funded by the Russian government. Take a bow, Lauren. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-rt-employees-indicted-covertly-funding-and-directing-us-company-published-thousands
Southern has deep connections with Russia. Especially Russian fascists. https://thinkprogress.org/why-is-this-pizzagate-truther-meeting-with-a-russian-neo-fascist-b84eb73aa549/
She’s not the only Canadian implicated in Tenetgate. So’s Kat Kanada (R.) of the Counter Signal. Here with Pierre Poilievre. Even more interesting, it appears Tenet Media is actually itself owned by a Canadian. It’ll be fascinating seeing where this leads.
Thursday, September 5
The Canadian government seems more interested in protecting the privacy of Waffen-SS members than having their names come to light (even though they’re mostly dead now. “A list of 900 alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to Canada could remain secret as federal officials come under increasing pressure to censor the records because they could prove embarrassing to this country.” https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/releasing-names-alleged-nazi-war-criminals-canada-could-embarrass-federal-government-bureaucrats
The U.S. Department of Justice indictment of Tenet includes the talking points being pushed. Which sound exactly like Pierre Poilievre’s. https://x.com/Asskickerleague/status/1831534205471240432
Another Canadian far right influencer carried on Tenet is True North’s Harrison Faulkner. He likes to hang around with Nazis. And Consevatives. And get funding from millionaires like the owners of Shopify and Gwyn Morgan, the former chair of SNC-Lavalin and himself an oil and gas multimillionaire. https://pressprogress.ca/shopify-executives-right-wing-media-website-rails-against-immigrants-while-defending-a-legally-designated-terrorist-group/
The Great Replacement Theory is standard fare on Tenet. https://twitter.com/_llebrun/status/1831760810764361954
Here’s local coverage of the Southern/Tenet thing from the Maple Ridge / Pitt Meadows News. Better read it here, you won’t find anything on Postmedia. https://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/former-langley-candidates-youtube-channel-linked-to-russian-operation-7519169
Why is Lisa Robinson (elected city councillor in Pickering, Ontario) defending Adrian Thomas (self-identified neo-Nazi who sports a swastika tattoo on his tummy)? Tip – the answer is probably what you think it is.
An unvaccinated kid in Hamilton died from measles, but at least they died free from government tyranny. https://x.com/DennisKendel/status/1831147198429721009
Friday, September 6
Turns out Tenet Media posted more than 50 videos targeting Canada. More than half of them were done by Lauren Southern. https://pressprogress.ca/far-right-media-outlet-linked-to-secret-russian-influence-campaign-produced-50-videos-focused-on-canada/
“The YouTube channels of Lauren Chen and Tenet Media have just been deactivated one day after the [Department of Justice] indictment against their alleged Russian handlers was unsealed. Chen had over 571,000 subscribers and years of video content.” Alt-right Andy Ngo upset.
Meet the Laurens (Chen and Southern). An excellent piece from the CBC. https://x.com/CBCNews/status/1832004522337513915
BC Conservative candidate Bryan Breguet (Vancouver-Langara) is desperate for you to know that his party is not racist. https://x.com/dacoulter/status/1831831282877444246
Kind of hard to do when your party’s policies are so, well, racist.
https://twitter.com/FNSummit/status/1831724470203289729/photo/1
BC Conservative Party executive director Angelo Isidorou appears maybe a tiny little bit awkward about his history with Tenet Media podcaster Lauren Southern as he responds to routine inquiry from a Tyee reporter with a tortured non-response on his “X” account.
Angelo and Lauren go way back. To at least 2019, it seems.
When Nazis hug – Here’s Tommy and Tamara.https://twitter.com/milly72810023/status/1831905791026327792
Here’s the CUPE Ontario executive board statement defending president Fred Hahn — https://cupe.on.ca/a-message-to-cupe-members-in-ontario-from-cupe-ontarios-executive-board/
Update on the BC Conservative purge. So far, none of the overtly fascist candidates the party has fielded have been axed since Rachael Weber was fired. This includes all four of the candidates who donated to the Ottawa Convoy, apparent white nationalist Bryan Breguet and antivaxxers Anna Kindy and Marina Sapoznhikov. Looke like the only housecleaning he planned on was shoving a few candidates out of the way to make room for a few BC United apparatchiks. We’ll see within the next week or so if he’s going to bump off any more.
Pic of the week —
Historical footnote of the week – Why Damon Scrase got axed as BC Conservative candidate in Courtenay-Comox — https://twitter.com/carriemae68/status/1796044361232273891/photo/1
Footnote #2 – When Stephen Malthouse was perfectly acceptable (2o22-2024) — https://x.com/suestroud/status/1830995692086808645
Today’s homework – Russian disinformation and the “Freedom Convoy” —
Part 2 – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/02/13/analysis/fox-news-freedom-convoy-russian-propaganda
RT carried more coverage of the Ottawa convoy than every other media outlet in the world combined, and more than twice the coverage given by Fox News. https://x.com/Libs4Canada/status/1831867339425640680
Going camping. Far Right Week In Review will resume on September 18, with a focus on pre-election coverage. See you then.