Thread by @ARCCollective

1. Over the past several weeks the January 6 committee has been exposing the length to which then President Donald Trump and his allies tried to maintain power which culminated in a violent insurrection, fomented my trump, and the Capitol. #Jan6Hearings

cnn.com/2022/07/21/pol…

2. I think most of us were pretty attuned to what was goin on that January 6, 2021 and Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in order to stop the certification of the presidential election lost by Trump which was immediately claimed by him and his allies to be fraudulent.

3. But while most people were focused on what was happening in DC itself, I was looking at the reaction of Canadian Trump supporters and considering the implications for Canadian political discourse.

4. So with that in mind, I'm going to look at the January 6 attempted coup through the lenses of the Canadian far-right extremists. It will include people and groups you know as well as some you don't. It will begin months prior to the insurrection and the days and weeks after.

5. In future threads I'll consider what this means for the future of Canadian democracy and institutions, but this thread will hopefully serve to set up that discussion.

6. First, that Trump refused to to accept the election results should have surprised no one.

Days before January 6, Canadian Trump supporters posted a political cartoon created by a far-right artist lauding Calgary-born Ted Cruz's efforts on Trump's behalf to stop certification.

7. This is especially ironic when one remembers that Trump accused Cruz of election fraud during the 2016 primaries which was perhaps the earliest proof that Trump would never accept a loss and would be willing to burn the system to the ground rather than accept defeat.

8. In the days leading up to, during, and immediately after the 2020 election in November, Canadian extremists, like their American counterparts, were predicting (and hoping for) political violence should Trump be defeated.

9. We know that Trump refused to accept the election results claiming election fraud, filing numerous lawsuits to stop counting. We know too that he and his allies tried to pressure state election officials to "find" more votes for him.

None of this was successful.

10. As the day Congress was to certify the results drew closer, individuals close to Trump and others who supported him began to organize a last ditch effort to keep in power.

In retrospect, these tweets by Trump should have been a clue that something dark was being planned.

11. The Canadian extremists who I was watching were also all anticipating something happening.

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14. Among those anticipating something "happening" was Pat King whom Canadians have all been introduced to these past few months.

15. The disinformation was also running rampant and unchecked.

16. One person who did state this was not an image of Trump supporters, Jay Riedel, is also someone I'm going to want you to watch as this thread continues as he and a few others will appear frequently.

17. Jay Riedel was also one of the co-organizers, along with Pat King, of the United We Roll convoy to Ottawa in 2019 that was linked to the Yellow Vests and which might now be considered a sort of dry run for the #OttawaOccupation in February this year.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ot…

18. On January 6 Trump encouraged supporters to go to the Capitol. As the crowd had been worked into a lather, the resulting hours of violence were inevitable.

19. Canadian extremists like Jay Riedel and others (Win Nay, Darcy Meyers, Steven Lane of the Urban Infidels, and Ruddi Bruce among them) were cheering it on.

20. More on Ruddi Bruce here.

leaderpost.com/news/saskatche…

21. Even more extreme figures were excited including Canadian Nazi founder John Beattie.

22. As well as racist troll Brandon Martinize who, while having no particular love for Trump, saw the insurrection as a step towards a general collapse of the government and democracy which would be followed by a white nationalist take-over.

23. antihate.ca/paul_miller_cl…

24. Far-right figures such as Keean Bexte, then working for Rebel Media, were also present to report/cheer lead the events that took place on that day.

25. Proud Boys founder and Canadian-national Gavin McInnes and white nationalist Faith Goldy (also two former Rebel personalities) were also cheering on events.

26. Eventually order was restored after several hours. And as it became clear that the optics looked really bad the narrative began to shift.

It wasn't patriots who stormed the Capitol.

No, it was "antifa" dressed as Trump supporters in order to make Trump supporters look bad.

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28. Some, who days or even hours before had praised the people storming the Capitol, also adopted the "antifa did it!" rhetoric.

29. Pat King and anti-Muslim Pegida Canada being among the individuals and groups who now claimed that the events were actually fomented my "antifa".

30. However at the same time antifa was being blamed for the violence because "patriots" would NEVER engage in violence, these same groups and individuals were calling for Trump to enact martial law and a a military coup.

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35. At the same time Canadian QAnon supporters were posting that all that had taken place was simply part of Trump's master plan.

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38. Jay Riedel also makes another appearance here.

39. As does a member of the Canadian Combat Coalition, Ryan Dunn, who was very deep down the QAnon rabbit hole.

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42. In the days after the insurrection it was clear that many Canadian extremists still believed that Trump would remain president.

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44. Jeff Sharpe of Edmonton was close to the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam, Soldiers of Odin, and other groups as well as being a frequent anti-mandate protester at the Legislature.

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46. But as the date of what was assumed to be Donald Trump's final triumph over the "deep state" came and passed, the reactions were all over the board.

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53. We also had the requisite antisemitic post from Diagolon's Derrek Harrison.

54. Attitudes about the use of violence to achieve political goals has seemingly become entrenched among Canadian right-wing extremists.

Some may remember this hope Harrison had for the events in Ottawa.

https://twitter.com/TonyYvce/status/1485630223995572233?s=20&t=PvkDFzngqAiJUinT6vAMBA

55. But it is more than just this.

Here are a tiny fraction of the posts I've collected that advocate violent means to remove democratically elected governments in Canada since the events of January 6, 2021.

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60. We've seen examples of elections in Canada being called into question by these groups and individuals, often invoking Dominion Voting in the conspiracy despite (a) that conspiracy being false and (b) Canadians use paper ballots and not voting machined in federal elections.

61. And we've seen examples of efforts to do the same thing in Ottawa that occurred in Washington DC.

62. Now these people are fringe and in no position to actually achieve their goals.

Maybe, though I should note that Jay Riedel was mayor of a small village in Saskatchewan while he was cheering on an attempted coup.

discoverestevan.com/articles/major…

63. But it isn't so much these people or groups or individuals who would be able to gain power, but those who might cynically use them as the basis for their power.

More on that in the next thread.