Part three of the underlooked Stephen Harper quotes from the leaked documents.
Part one and two here.
Neo-nazis and right-wing extremists.
He [Stephen Harper] likens the current anti-racism climate to medieval hysteria over witch-craft. ‘We’re talking about fighting unseen enemies,’ he says. ‘It’s getting spooky.’
16/04/2001
To provide context, this was commentary over some obscure event involving the Minister of State for Multiculturalism at the time brining up cross-burnings that weren’t actually happening or something.
Regardless, Harper downplays the activity of racists and right-wing extremists in Canada. Which is strange, considering his history and close-involvement in the Reform Party.
example, as Emily Dee and others documented, Stephen Harper was a co-founder (along with another Reform/NCC buddy) of the radical-right wing group Northern Foundation which existed to promote pro-apartheid views and give many other far right-wing groups one roof to conspire and collaborate under.
This group allowed for neo-Nazis and other general racists to naturally flourish. When you’re going to be expressing racism and sexism, of course sexists and racists are going to congregate around that messages. Beliefs beget beliefs. And beliefs, sometimes, beget action – especially if those beliefs are on the fringe.
Let’s look at the Heritage Front, a neo-Nazi group that felt its natural place was in the Reform party. The Heritage Front already had numerous connections and links to the Northern Foundation, which in itself had a plethora of connections to the Reform Party. It wasn’t too far of a stretch for the neo-Nazi group to saturate in the Reform Party, as it was already linked to another group that was very cosy with Reform. It got so bad that Preston Manning – then leader of the Reform Party – had to expel numerous members from the party in order to mitigate the “invasion” from the Heritage Front and other extremists. Preston wasn’t completely successful – the leader of the Heritage Front at the time claimed that many members were still active in the Reform party.
Neo-nazis and other radicals were so organized in Canada in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s that anti-racists groups were formed for the sole purposes of stopping these groups and raising awareness about them. Warren Kinsella, as you may know, was harassed and intimidated by members of the Heritage Front in Ottawa – which prompted him to write his book.
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It’s highly doubtful Stephen Harper had no idea this was happening, and it’s far more likely he tried to downplay racism in Canada because he doesn’t care that they exist – it’s easier to push your pro-“traditional” white-man dominant agenda when you’re convincing people that there’s no problem that comes from a result of that. Considering he helped create some extremists himself.
In this particular instance, Harper may be right that it was an “unseen enemy”, but this isn’t an isolated thing. It’s a common conservative tactic to downplay and dismiss right-wing extremism, or any negative result of right-wing policy and fear-mongering. The likely reason for this is that right-wingers don’t want to admit that any consequence whatsoever has resulted from their ideology and public statements. If you promote the idea of completely innocence, you’re deliberately attempting to absolve yourself from the very same creatures you’ve helped forge.
Much like witch-craft, Harper prays that this information goes away like *poof*. It doesn’t help that our docile media is part of the heresy that Harper wishes for.
