By Scott Taylor
On 2 July there was a bizarre incident at Rideau Hall when an armed intruder drove a pickup truck onto the premises and subsequently stalked the grounds on foot. Police were able to defuse the situation peacefully. After this arrest it was discovered that the alleged perpetrator – Corey Hurren, 46 – was in fact a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Hurren has since been charged with multiple crimes, not the least of which stems from him threatening the life of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Neither the Trudeau family nor Governor General Julie Payette were at Rideau Hall at the time of Hurren’s intrusion, but the disgruntled service-member had detailed his intentions to his Ranger detachment commander prior to driving to Ottawa from his home in Bowsman, Manitoba.
While this incident is now awaiting trial, it did serve to launch a CBC investigation into Hurren’s military unit, the 4th Ranger Group. It did not take reporter Murray Brewster long to discover a rather disturbing story involving another member of this same Ranger group.
It turns out that Erik Myggland – a serving member of the reserves – had openly supported two far-right groups on social media, and had called Trudeau a “treasonous bastard” on his Facebook account.
What was most disturbing about Brewster’s findings was that the military counter-intelligence unit had already flagged the fact that Myggland promoted the far right Three-Percenter ideology and was a member of the notorious Sons of Odin. Three-Percenters promote themselves as embodying the values of the supposed 3% of colonists who took up arms against Britain during the Revolution, while Son’s of Odin began in Finland as an anti-immigrant movement.
However, after interviewing Myggland, the counter-intelligence gumshoes (aka detectives) allowed him to continue serving in uniform.
After this story broke, the Canadian Army has launched a summary investigation into why Myggland was not disciplined or discharged earlier.
Last week, Army Commander Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre admitted to CBC that Myggland could not be disciplined because his transgressions had taken place during his own time – not while he was on duty. “A reservist is only subject to the code of service discipline while undertaking duty” explained Eyre, adding “But to be very clear on this, we expect our individuals, whether they be full timers or part timers to embrace the values of our organization.” Eyre also said he expects Myggland will be formally discharged from the ranks within a matter of weeks.
While that is a step in the right direction one has to wonder whether none of this would have come to light had Hurren not driven his pickup truck through the gates of Rideau Hall and set the media investigation in motion.
I do not believe that the CAF is rife with white supremacists and far-right sympathizers but as evidenced by the Myggland case such individuals do wear the uniform. For counter-intelligence to spot such activity and to allow the member to keep serving totally sends the wrong message.
As much as we Canadians like to think that we are removed from the Black Lives Matter movement for social justice south of our border, the truth is that Canada – and in particular our Armed Forces have a tarnished history of institutional racism.
During the First World War the enlistment of black recruits was vehemently opposed by Canada’s top soldier. In April 1916 at the height of the Great War recruiting crisis, General W.G. Gwatkin, Chief of the General Staff issued a memo which stated, “The civilized negro is vain and imitative; in Canada he is not impelled to enlist by a high sense of duty; in the trenches he is not likely to make a good fighter.”
Just over a century later such a racist statement by a senior general is unthinkable.
While this contrast in attitudes shows how far the CAF has come in terms of improving social justice, things like allowing Myggland to continue serving despite knowledge of his abhorrent beliefs, only illustrates how far we still have to go.
