Responding to Anti-Muslim and Anti-Native Racists

Anti Racist Action (ARA) and the First Nations Solidarity Working Group (FNSWG) are calling on all anti-racist allies and activists in London, Toronto and Ottawa to mobilize opposition and respond to the racist and anti-Muslim/Islamophobic Dutch politician and leader of the Anti-Islamic Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, who will be speaking on May 8th in London, May 9^th in Toronto and May 10^th in Ottawa.

Anti-Native Rights Activist Gary McHale Charged with Assault

Anti-Native Rights Activist Gary McHale Charged with Assault

A public statement by Tom Keefer

March 17th, 2011

Longtime anti-native rights activist Gary McHale has been charged with assault today after he used physical force to repeatedly push Six Nations solidarity activist Tom Keefer at a so-called “truth and reconciliation” rally in Caledonia on February 27, 2011. The incident occurred in the context of an attempt by Gary McHale to provoke members of the Six Nations community by placing a 5 foot high wooden monument at the entrance of the Douglas Creek Estates (known by the people of Six Nations as Kanonstaton “the protected place”) as part of his so-called “truth and reconciliation” rally.

Blowing Smoke with Hot Air: On Helpless, McHale, and the “Truth and Reconciliation” Rally

By Luke Stewart

On 27 February 2011, over one hundred Six Nations solidarity activists gathered to hold a truth and reconciliation rally and celebrate the fifth anniversary of the reclamation of Kanonhstaton (the Douglas Creek Estates) by people of the Six Nations on 28 February 2006. Coinciding with the solidarity celebration was the counter “truth and reconciliation”[1] rally held by Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE).

Christians Supporting Six Nations’ Struggles for Peace and Justice

On February 27th, 2011, Christian Peacemaker Teams participated in the rally supporting the people of Six Nations in response to Gary McHale’s so-called ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ Rally. In response to McHale’s letter to Christian leaders, two members of the CPT had the following to say:

Speech by Julián Gutiérrez Castaño:
My name is Julián Gutiérrez Castaño. I have come here from Colombia and I work for Christian Peacemaker Teams. I was invited to a rally responding to McHale’s so-called ‘Rally for Truth and Reconciliation’ in Caledonia. I also see that he and some of his people are trying to inaugurate a monument of apologies for the rightful reclamation of Kahnonstaton. When I first (mis)heard about the apology, I thought, “good, finally we are going to apologize to the people from Six Nations”, because they are the people who deserve an apology and the reasons can be easily found in the history of this place. If the apologies are not being made to them, this can not be a rally for Truth and Reconciliation. Rather, it would be a rally for ‘Lies and Violence’.

McHale Misrepresents “Truth and Reconciliation”

February 28th, 2011
Kate Milley

Thanks to biased media coverage, by the likes of Christie Blatchford, most Ontarians know Gary McHale as a “civil rights activists” or the guy who pressed charges against Fantino in relation to the Six Nations land reclamation or “Caledonia Crisis”. For five years now McHale and company have been escalating tensions in Caledonia, trying to erect various things on Six Nations land and to march on it. Following the patterns of white backlash movements since the 1960s, they misappropriate the language of the civil rights movement and make the unfounded claim that white people are the victims of racism and race based policing. McHale goes so far as to compare his work to that of Dr. Martin Luther King’s, even while in 2009 he helped to form the defunct “Caledonia Militia.” On Feb 27th McHale and Mark Vandermaas held a “Truth and Reconciliation Rally” to ERECT an apology monument on Six Nations reclaimed land (psychoanalysts would have a field day with this). Outrageously they wanted the Six Nations to issue an apology to Caledonia, akin to the one given by the Canadian government for residential schools. The violence inherent in such a move and this sickening comparison is obvious. It is no wonder, then, that right-wing extremists and white supremacists have long been supporters of Gary McHale.

Paul Fromm, one of the leading white supremacists in Canada, and best known for his support of holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, has advertised McHale-led events on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront. In fact Fromm has also attended several of McHale’s rallies. While McHale and Vandermaas steadfastly deny any connections to explicit white supremacist movements, the public should be aware that these men are forging ties to extreme right-wing groups even as they have the support of several elected Ontario politicians including PC leader Tim Hudak, MPP Toby Barrett, and MPP Randy Hillier. Vandermaas has made connections to members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a group identified in a FBI report as a “right-wing terrorist group”. Recently McHale and Vandermaas linked up with the International Free Press Society (IFPS). Several articles and announcements by them can be found on IFPS’s website, , and the VP of IFPS Canada was supposed to speak at McHale’s rally on Feb 27th . The IFPS was founded by Lars Hedegaard, a Danish man recently charged with anti Muslim/Islamophobic hate crimes. In 2011 McHale and Vandermaas authored a letter in support of Hedegaard as well as Danish MP Jesper Langballe also charged with hate crimes. On Vandermas’ blog you can find a speech given by Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam Dutch Freedom Party. The speech is noteworthy as it bears an uncanny resemblance to Nazi propaganda grounded in anti-Semitic fears of a vast “Jewish conspiracy” to take over the entire world, for Wilder however this fear is of an “Islamic conspiracy.” Wilder has been brought up on 5 charges of inciting hate and discrimination against Muslims. While McHale and Vandermaas claim they are ‘anti-racist’ ‘non-violent’ activists inspired by Dr. King, their language, actions and connections reveal a much different story.

As Ontarians we should be gravely concerned by the formation of these kinds of political movements and the racist ideas they promote. Certainly we can all recognize this is not the path to Truth or Reconciliation.

Kate Milley is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, her research looks at historical and contemporary anti-Native movements in Canada.