Front Burner - Tackling far-right activity in the Canadian military

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

The military has a problem with far-right extremism in its ranks. We've seen it rear its head before, most recently in a CBC News investigation into a Canadian Ranger unit, which found that a B.C. reservist who openly supported two far-right groups was allowed to continue serving even after being identified by military counterintelligence and interviewed as a potential threat. Now, the commander of the army says he will issue a special order to specifically tackle the problem. But will it be enough? Today, CBC senior defence writer Murray Brewster on far-right extremism in the Canadian Forces, and what's being done to address it.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. There is absolutely no place in the Canadian Army for those that hold hateful beliefs and express these beliefs through hateful behaviour. If you have those types of beliefs, get out. We don't want you. You bring discredit and dishonour upon our organization.

The Canadian military has a problem with far-right extremism in their ranks. We've seen it rear its head before. Like when a former army combat engineer from Manitoba was outed as an alleged recruiter for the neo-Nazi group The Base. Or when a naval reservist in Alberta posted on white supremacist forums about joining the military to get combat experience for the so-called race war. Now the commander of the Canadian Army, Lieutenant General Wayne Eyre, says he will issue a special order to specifically tackle the problem. I'm going to lay out my expectations about the actions that need to be taken, the proactive actions and the decisiveness that we have to deal with these cases.

But will it be enough? Today I'm joined by CBC's senior defence writer Murray Brewster to talk about far-right extremism in the Canadian forces and what's being done to address it. This is FrontBurner. Hello Murray. Hi. Before we get into the plan from Lieutenant General Eyre, I'd like to wind back a little bit and talk about the examples of the problem he's setting out to address here.

I mean, you started looking into far-right activity in one specific Canadian Ranger unit this summer after a member of that unit was alleged to have crashed the gate at Rideau Hall. His name was Corey Hurin. He's from Manitoba. Remind us of what he's alleged to have done. Police in droves. Rideau Hall's wrought iron gate smashed by a truck. Police say it was a soldier driving. Well, Corey Hurin is alleged to have crashed the gates at Rideau Hall. He was demanding to speak to people in authority. He is accused of making threats against the prime minister.

But he was, at the time, he was heavily armed. He had several weapons, several, more than one. The RCMP says Corey Hearn carried at least one of those weapons, what appeared to be a rifle, after he allegedly rammed this truck through the gates of Rideau Hall and roamed the world. And it took the RCMP a fair amount of time to talk him down. And the RCMP seized a letter that was allegedly written by Corey Hearn, where he expresses sympathy for a number of far-right causes, but we've not been able to uncover any affiliation, direct affiliation with any far-right groups. However, the Toronto Star

did dig up examples of where he seemed to be subscribing to some QAnon theories. What was in the letter that the RCMPC is told we know about the contents of that? Well, it was a rambling letter. And I mean, essentially, what it was is it expressed dissatisfaction and anti-government sentiments and suggested that Canada was becoming a communist state. But a lot of the language around that letter seemed to mirror a lot of what we see online when it comes to far-right activity. So you decided to take a closer look at this Ranger unit and you came across this member who caught your attention, Eric Meiglund. His social media feed is full of anti-government rhetoric.

One post calls the prime minister a treasonous bastard. You know, this guy served in B.C. and to be clear, there's no evidence that he's connected in any way to Corey Herron. But you and our colleague Elizabeth Thompson dug through his social media. What kind of post did you find? We found a whole bunch of anti-government posts and perhaps more disturbingly, his open affiliation with two far right groups, the Soldiers of Odin, which is a white supremacist anti-immigrant organization that was originally founded in Finland but has made its way to Canada.

Now in fairness the Canadian chapters that have come up have tried to cast themselves in the light of a community organization. The Canadian anti-hate network says don't be fooled. It points out the soldiers started out as neo-Nazis in Finland are known to conduct patrols in neighborhoods or even shopping malls where they harass immigrants demanding ID. So that's one of the groups that he was subscribing to online. The other is the 3% movement. Take a good look at the face of the militia and the 3% movement. These are patriots that are not going to have their rights infringed upon,

and our way of life will be preserved and maintained. So help us God. Guns up! Guns up! Which is essentially an American militia movement, a survivalist organization, which takes pains to state that it is not racist. However, in the States, the organization has been providing security

against some of the Black Lives Matter protests. There was the three person who showed up early and kind of right in the middle of it. And there was a little bit of like a standoff for several minutes but eventually the but he has been very vocal about his support and this goes back years and what really caught our attention was the fact that he had popped onto the radar of the canadian forces counterintelligence branch. And he openly admitted this online. And we had through our own investigation, uh, determined that they had the Canadian forces had interviewed him about this. And it struck us to be extraordinary that someone who is so openly supporting these

far right views was still a member of the Canadian Rangers and still a member of the reserves. He has posted things like Justin Trudeau is a, quote, treasonous bastard. I mean, this would appear to violate the military's own rules, right? Yes, it would. Yes, it would. And that was one of the questions that we have been repeatedly asking the military was, if the Canadian Forces Counterintelligence Branch was aware of this, then why wasn't some action taken by the unit? Because it would have been up to, even if the Canadian Forces Counterintelligence Branch had determined that Mr. Miglin was not a threat, then it would have

been up to the unit to discipline him. And when we presented all of this information to the Department of National Defense and to the Canadian Army, they began an immediate investigation, a summary investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Miglin's case, but also at the same time, what action the unit did or did not take. And I mean, that speaks to the larger question of how does the Canadian military deal with these cases when they arise? But the investigation is going to take probably until about the end of October. Well, so the Department of National Defense says he hasn't been an active member since June of 2019.

So as of now, what is his position within the Canadian Armed Forces? Well, he's still a member of the Rangers. He has not been released as of yet. And one of the lines of investigation is, why is that the case? lines of investigation is why is that the case? We have evidence and the army commander has admitted that there was an effort to release him as much as a year ago and yet he's still a member and likely will continue to be a member of the rangers although not an active member until at least later in later in the fall, perhaps into November. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem.

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Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. So that's what you discovered in this one unit that you looked at, but clearly the issue extends beyond that. We mentioned at the beginning, Patrick Matthews, and many of our listeners might remember this story. We covered it a number of times on the show. He was an army reservist in Manitoba. He's accused of recruiting for the white supremacist paramilitary group, The Base, and now he's in custody in the States on firearms charges. The FBI alleges he and his co-defendants made a functioning assault rifle, bought 1,650 rounds of ammunition, and practiced at a local gun range.

Agents say they talked about recruitment, creating a white ethnostate, and military-style training camps. There's also this naval reservist in Calgary, Boris Mihaljevic, who's accused of having connections to multiple neo-Nazi groups. One of them has been identified as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. He told the CBC he realized that he was wrong about a year after he entered the military and that he has since tried to turn his life around. But what do we know about him?

I mean, how was his case handled by the Navy? Well, we do know that he was investigated, but then reinstated. I believe in rehabilitation over retribution. And it's the time now for that member to come back and work with us again. To his unit, which caused a great deal of concern among some of his unit members. So I understand that this entire situation has created some incredibly strong emotions within our crew. There are some of you that have felt very victimized by this. I hear you. And that's prompted the Navy to go back and take another look

at it in what's called a command review. And there has been an enormous amount of pressure placed on the Navy by outside advocacy groups, such as the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which have lobbied hard for this individual to not be reinstated. Murray, do we have a sense of just how prevalent or widespread this issue is in the Canadian military? The short answer is no. The long answer is that the military will tell you that has a a full complete understanding of the extent

of the problem itself partly because uh when incidents arise they're dealt with through an administrative and disciplinary matter which is essentially dealt with behind closed doors and that's one of the biggest criticisms of experts who have been following right-wing extremism in the Canadian military, whether it is the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, whether it is the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, whether it is researchers such as Barbara Perry. All of these people have come out and said very clearly that the Canadian military has dealt with these things behind closed doors, and that obscures the problem and it obscures the accountability. Now, we are seeing some level of change in the sense that, for example,

Barbara Perry has been contracted by the Department of National Defense to study this, to get a firm handle on the extent of the problem. But even still, it's going to be a while before they truly know how bad it is. But they keep having cases popping up in public. I'm curious to know what these experts would say about why this seems to be a problem. I mean, like, what is it about the Canadian forces that seems to attract people with these far-right extremist views? Or maybe I can phrase it the other way. with these far-right extremist views? Or maybe I can phrase it the other way.

I mean, what is it about the Canadian forces that may be incubating these far-right extremist views in some people? Well, the Canadian forces is not alone in this particular matter. There has been an enormous problem of right-wing influence and infiltration in the German military. And this is where the experts point to other countries, and particularly Germany, and say, like, Germany has been extraordinarily open and transparent in their investigation of these matters and in how they deal with it. And the American military and the British military, all different militaries have faced this and are facing this kind of problem.

What makes it attractive for far-right groups is if you are an individual who has far-right leanings and far-right tendencies, you might want to join the military because of the structure. you might want to join the military because of the structure, but also too, these groups are very eager to see their members get military training, weapons training. Right. I saw that that Calgary Naval Reservist who at one time was frequenting the neo-Nazi forums, he encouraged others to enlist as well. I mean, he posted in 2016 that, quote, no one hates Canada and the Canadian military more than me. And yet here I am. They pay you to teach you the methods you need to destroy them.

Yes. And that's chilling, isn't it? That's utterly chilling. But there is some additional research that is going on. But there is some additional research that is going on, and it's only just beginning in the United States, but also in Europe, about how, not the ethos, but the structure of the military and how the military essentially strips away individual identities and replaces it with the collective. And how when soldiers go through combat or situations overseas, and then they come home and they leave the military, but there's no sort of deprogramming, if I can use that word. And in the United States, the research is focusing around what they call the warrior bro culture and how that focuses on a small group, small units with like-minded views rather than restoring the sort of sense of citizenship that someone may have come into the military with.

So that's just an area of research that's just beginning. And it deserves a lot of attention going forward, I believe. So I believe, yes, we have a problem with far right activity across the army. This all brings us to the interview you had with the commander of the Canadian Army, Lieutenant General Wayne Ayer, where he forcefully condemned hate in the army's ranks. And he told you his plans to issue a special order to tackle the problem. What will that order do? We haven't seen the order and General Ayer obviously wasn't prepared to share all of it in the media before he issued it among the army. But what he is planning to do is to give unit commanders a roadmap, a framework to deal with these individuals as they appear. And we've got to do everything we can to stop this toxicity from seeping into our ranks. So stop it by screening it out before individuals who hold these types of beliefs come

in and crush it when we find it once they're in. One case is too many. It is harmful on so many levels. And that's very important in the army. What I think is most interesting is whether or not the individual unit commanders are going to be given the tools and the authority to be able to monitor their troops. monitor their troops and to be able to keep tabs on what's being said like perhaps social media posting and these sorts of things that touch on like very specific areas of privacy and it becomes even more difficult when you're dealing with reservists who are only part-time members and they're still like the reservists have one foot in the civilian world and one foot in the military world. And one of the reasons that the army commander gave for not going after Eric Miglin forcefully

was the fact that he was a reservist and his activities were taking place allegedly off army time or off ranger time. So how do you police that? So these are some of the aspects of the order that we're waiting to see. I suspect that the army will give itself full authority to be able to very quickly and very forcefully eject members who have espoused far right views. But we will have to see. Well, this order just covers one branch of the military. The army is. Is that enough?

If you talk to different experts and different advocacy groups, the answer is no. And what has been interesting has been the deafening silence that has come from the Navy and the Air Force where this is concerned and whether or not they're going to follow the army and issue their own orders. We do know that the federal government is working on some kind of overall strategy when it comes to far-right activity within the military. The details of which I'm still clawing away at, and I'm still trying to get a good sense of, a lot of it is going to probably be spooled around the upcoming throne speech. And I mean, there's been some suggestion that the Canadian military could pursue something like Operation Honorour, but Operation Honour against hate. Now,

Operation Honour is the five-year-long campaign that has been intended to stamp out sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. My orders were clear. My expectations were clear. And those who choose or chose not to follow my orders will be dealt with through disciplinary or administrative action. And that's been very high profile. It has resulted in a number of charges. There's been mixed results with Operation Honour, but there is a very distinct possibility that the government could follow along with its own version of Operation Honor, but for hateful conduct. Well, we'll be watching to see what happens closely. Murray,

thank you so much for your insight into this. You're welcome. That's all for today. FrontBurner is brought to you by CBC News and CBC Podcasts. The show is produced this week by Imogen Burchard, Elaine Chao, Ali Janes, and Shannon Higgins. Derek Vanderwyk does our sound design, with help from Mac Cameron. Our music is by Joseph Shabison of Boombox Sound. The executive producer of FrontBurner is Nick McCabe-Locos. I'm Josh Bloch. Thanks for listening. Back on Monday.