Western Canada For Us - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Western Canada For Us was a short-lived Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

-based white nationalist group founded by Glenn Bahr

Glenn Bahr

Glenn Bahr is a Canadian neo-Nazi and was one of the founders of Western Canada For Us , a now defunct racist group based in Edmonton, Alberta...

and Peter Kouba

Peter Kouba

Peter Kouba was one of the co-founders of the now defunct Alberta-based white nationalist group Western Canada For Us . Kouba, along with Glenn Bahr started the group in February 2004...

in early 2004. The WCFU was formally dissolved on May 11, 2004, four days after Bahr's residence in Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

, Alberta, was raided by members of the Edmonton Hate Crime

Hate crime

In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

s division . The police proceeded to, "[seize] the computers involved in running the web site and Bahr’s extensive collection of neo-Nazi paraphernalia."

While it was in existence, the WCFU hosted a meeting in Red Deer

Red Deer, Alberta

Red Deer is a city in Central Alberta, Canada. It is located near the midpoint of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor and is surrounded by Red Deer County. It is Alberta's third-most-populous city – after Calgary and Edmonton. The city is located in aspen parkland, a region of rolling hills...

, Alberta attended by Paul Fromm and Melissa Guille

Melissa Guille

Melissa Guille is a white supremacist and the leader of the Canadian Heritage Alliance. Founded in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, the group, which has been characterised as white supremacist, was accused of having links with the Heritage Front and the Kitchener based Tri-City Skins.In 2001,...

as well as a rally in support of Holocaust denier

Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...

Ernst Zundel

Ernst Zündel

Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa,...

. A chapter of the WCFU was formed under the leadership of Jamie Murphy (Irishcream) in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

though after a disastrous rally Murphy ended the Manitoba chapter . Another chapter had been planned for Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

to be led by Chris Brown (mobil300) when Bahr's residence was raided by the police and the WCFU was dissolved.

While their website was very successful in garnering support for the WCFU - the forum was very active with members and supporters from all over Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

- the success of the WCFU website ultimately led to the group's dissolution. One of the reasons provided for the raid on Bahr's home were the links on the WCFU website to The Turner Diaries

The Turner Diaries

The Turner Diaries is a novel written in 1978 by William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym "Andrew Macdonald"...

and other materials deemed to promote hatred and as such are in violation of Canadian hate speech

Hate speech

Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....

laws.

The WCFU, Glenn Bahr and Peter Kouba were subjects of a Canadian Human Rights Commission

Canadian Human Rights Commission

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is a quasi-judicial body that was established in 1977 by the government of Canada. It is empowered under the Canadian Human Rights Act to investigate and try to settle complaints of discrimination in employment and in the provision of services within federal...

complaint initiated by Richard Warman

Richard Warman

Richard Warman is an Ottawa-based lawyer who is active in human rights law. Warman worked for the Canadian Human Rights Commission from July 2002 until March 2004...

which went before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is an administrative tribunal established in 1977 by the Canadian Human Rights Act. It is directly funded by the Parliament of Canada and is independent of the Canadian Human Rights Commission which refers cases to it for adjudication under the Act.The Tribunal...

for a hearing. The tribunal found that Bahr, Kouba and the WCFU had wilfully spread hatred "against Jews, mentally disabled people, aboriginals, gays, lesbians, Chinese, Arabs, blacks and other non-whites." The founders of the WCFU and the organization itself were each fined $5000.00 and issued to cease promoting hate speech online. In addition to the human right complaint Bahr is being prosecuted criminally for violating Canadian hate speech laws.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.