By Scott Taylor
In his final media interview as Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff, General Jonathan Vance openly addressed the issue of white supremacists within the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Specifically Vance pointed to a July 2017 incident involving members of a right-wing, anti-immigration group known as the ‘Proud Boys.’
What was a fairly benign confrontation in Halifax between indigenous protestors and the ‘Proud Boys’ quickly garnered national media coverage when it was revealed that these particular five Proud Boys were serving members of the CAF.
At that juncture most Canadians were heretofore blissfully unaware of this alt-right violent fringe group. The Proud Boys were founded by Canadian Gavin McInnes. They are a male only organization of self-proclaimed chauvinists who are dedicated to preserving “western values” and they “refuse to accept any guilt for the current state of the modern world.”
To become a Proud Boy requires four basic rites of passage for would be recruits; must publicly declare their membership, get a Proud Boy tattoo, receive a beating from fellow Proud Boys while reciting the names of five breakfast cereals and last but not least, refrain from masturbating.
According to founder McInnes the breakfast-cereal-beating is to ensure that the Proud Boys keep a cool head during a fistfight.
Their trademark uniform is a black polo shirt with yellow trim, but quite frequently they don body armour before assaulting ‘leftists’ and ‘antifa’ protestors.
It was the media spotlight on CAF members belonging to this right-wing group that purportedly caused General Vance serious concern. “Before that, I was quite confident that our stance on values was strong and well-articulated,” Vance said to the Canadian Press. “I did not see this as a dangerous phenomenon, but one that needed to be dealt with. Proud Boys, that got me.”
Unfortunately, Vance’s alarm did not translate into any immediate disciplinary action. Within just a few weeks four of the five Proud Boys were back at their jobs, while the fifth member was already finalizing his voluntary release from the CAF. There was no punishment meted out to these individuals, only counselling.
As an organization, the Proud Boys openly boasted on their social media platforms that these Proud Boy – CAF members were fully reinstated without sanction by military officials. “We win, our brothers, the Halifax five are returning to active military duty with no charges, let the social justice warriors tears pour. Proud of our boys!”
Since that incident allegedly opened General Vance’s eyes to the seriousness of the white-supremacists-in-the-ranks problem, across North America the Proud Boys have only grown in numbers and infamy.
Last summer during the wave of Black Lives Matter protests and riots, the Proud Boys were at the forefront of the violence, busting leftists heads and pounding on Antifa supporters.
During the September 29 presidential debate, Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacy and specifically called upon the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
They obviously took his words to heart and consequently were seen at the forefront of the unhinged mob of Trump fanatics that stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.
Many of those Proud Boys at the Washington D.C. debacle wore body armour patches which were emblazoned with “6MNE.” That is an abbreviation for the phrase “6 million, not enough” which promotes the sick notion that Hitler’s Holocaust did not kill enough Jews. Disgusting.
In Canada NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has called for the Proud Boys to be listed as a terrorist organization.
Whatever label is eventually bestowed upon them, none of the Proud Boy members should ever wear the uniform of the CAF.
General Vance has just passed the torch to incoming CDS Admiral Art McDonald. It is now his task to root out the white supremacists and I suggest he start with a Forces-wide search for those tell-tale Proud Boy tattoos.
One is too many.
