Name: Canadian Forces investigates after mystery man in secret recording claims to be a soldier — and a neo-Nazi
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Canadian Forces investigates after mystery man in secret recording claims to be a soldier — and a neo-Nazi

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close This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To orderpresentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distributionto colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire aboutpermissions/licensing, please go to: OTTAWA—The Canadian Armed Forces has launched an internal probe into suggestions that one of its members belongs to a neo-Nazi extremist group and attempted to join militant white supremacists in the U.S.In leaked audio recordings obtained by the , the unidentified man — who goes by the name “Dakov” — claims to be in combat training with the Canadian Forces while belonging to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups. A transcript of the audio, which is included in the centre’s , was shared exclusively with the Star.“We are certainly concerned by this serious allegation,” wrote Daniel Le Bouthillier, the head of media relations at the Department of National Defence, in a statement to the Star on Wednesday.“We are reaching out to the (SPLC) so that we can learn more about this individual in hopes of determining whether he is, in fact, a member of the CAF. Should these audio recordings help identify that the individual is CAF, he will be dealt with accordingly.” · Parts of Dakov’s story are questionable — he claims to be on track to take specialized paths within the military despite still being in basic training — but the recording reveals that he is clearly familiar with some of the military’s more esoteric jargon.And he says he wants to put skills purportedly gained through the Canadian Forces to use for the U.S. white supremacist group The Base — and to learn skills from The Base that he could apply to a Canadian-based neo-Nazi group, Northern Order.“I know, uh, here in Northern Order, it’s a bunch of guys spread around different cities doing prop runs, that type of s - - -,” Dakov tells The Base’s leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, according to a transcript provided by the SPLC of a September 2019 phone call.“With The Base it’s more so about, uh, sharing skills with people in different parts of the world, people that have seen s - - -, that have experienced different s - - -. And I definitely think that, um, it would be good knowledge to bring the skills they would learn from being in The Base, they could apply whilst doing Northern Order activities.”The Base is active in several countries, including the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Soufan Centre, a non-partisan security research group, has described it as “a small insular organization” that is “intent on by provoking a race war.”The organization relies on encrypted chat rooms and a vetting process to ensure new recruits’ commitment to its racist goals. The feature Base members repeatedly talking about “operational security” — a military term referring to protecting the integrity of a mission.Despite the emphasis on security, internal conversations within The Base have leaked out. In addition to the recordings obtained by the SPLC, the FBI was able to monitor its encrypted chats, leading to the arrests in January of four members, including Canadian Patrik Mathews, a former Canadian Forces reserve member who fled the country after the .Mathews left Canada in August 2019, shortly after the Free Press named him as the person responsible for distributing neo-Nazi propaganda across Winnipeg. In the call with Nazzaro, Dakov suggests he’s familiar with Mathews.“We’re trying to build trust. We’re trying to build camaraderie, um, but, you know, we also have to constantly remain vigilant, you know what I mean,” Nazzaro tells Dakov.“Yeah, especially after that f - - - - - - one guy from Winnipeg, like, infiltrated the group and he was in a main chat,” Dakov replies, referring to Free Press reporter Ryan Thorpe.“I’ve never been public with my affiliations or anything … I’ve heard that the reason (Mathews) got so f - - - - - was because he told a guy, like, I’m pretty sure he told him his first name and where he works. Like, he’s a member of the CAF.“And he talked about, like, he was in, like, logistics, reserve force, stuff like that. So, in a way, he basically, like, like, if he never told a guy, like ‘Yeah, I’m with the CAF,’ (Thorpe) never would have been able to find him. Just like keep your mouth shut. That’s what I go by.”Within the extreme right, is the description for adherents who keep their racist and extremist beliefs to themselves while rising in the ranks of law enforcement and the military, while gaining training and access to weapons.That gets to the heart of the difficulty facing the Canadian Forces in keeping extremists out of its ranks.If an extremist kept his mouth shut outside encrypted chats and the dark corners of the internet, how would the military identify him as a risk? If he made no moves to act on his racist beliefs, how could it discipline him?“This is precisely why we have issued orders and instructions to address this challenge to our values and ethics and, importantly, importantly as a message to those who elect not to treat others with respect and dignity,” wrote DND spokesperson Le Bouthillier in a statement to the Star.“Our message is simple and clear: If you perpetuate or condone hateful conduct, you do not belong in the CAF.”All three branches of the Canadian Forces — the army, navy and air force — have While the orders cover all forms of discrimination, reporting over the past few years has repeatedly shown that white supremacy within the ranks is a particular concern.A user named “Dakov” was extremely active on Fascist Forge, a now-shuttered online forum for Neo-Nazi extremists, according to researcher Megan Squire.Squire, a computer science professor at North Carolina’s Elon University who researches online extremism, said a user who went by that name was a prolific poster — one of the top five or 10 most active users on the platform, which boasted more than 1,200 members.According to Squire, Dakov listed his politics as national socialism, and his religion as ONA — a Satanic neo-Nazi group that dabbles in the occult. Though he claimed to be only 19, he boasted of having two children with two different women as a sign of his “virility.” While Squire said he never mentioned exactly where he lived, he frequently spoke of Canada and talked about relocating further north.He also talked about speaking directly with American neo-Nazi James Mason, and being friends with “Dark Foreigner” — the online handle of another Canadian believed to be one of the chief propagandists for Atomwaffen Division, an American neo-Nazi terrorist group linked to a number of murders. VICE News reported in 2018 that . According to the SPLC, Dakov also told Nazzaro he was the temporary leader of the Sonnenkrieg Division, an international offshoot of Atomwaffen.Squire says Dakov was in the orbit of “some pretty well-known, high-up people in these organizations.“He wasn’t some newbie or whatever.”The conversation with Dakov is not the only mention of Canada in the recordings, which the SPLC is releasing in three-part podcast series.“If f - - - - - - s - - - pops off, Canada’s right there to the north. That’s an unarmed, soft population, man,” one recruit said to Navarro.“You raid those m - - - - - - - - - - - -on sleds, fast and hard, like the Vikings of old, steal their f - - - - - - women and bring ‘em back over.” In recent years, Canadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have expressed growing concern with extreme-right violence and domestic terrorism, although the Canadian Security Intelligence Service prefers to lump far-right extremism with other forms of “ideologically inspired” acts.But some of the deadliest attacks in Canada in recent years have had a far-right connection. Alexandre Bissonette, who murdered six worshippers at Quebec City mosque in 2017, told investigators he acted out of concern about immigration. Aleks Minnassian, who was arrested after 10 people were killed and 16 injured in a 2018 van attack in Toronto, described himself as part of the “incel” movement motivated by a violent hatred of women.In May, the RCMP added terrorism charges to the case of a 17-year-old boy who is accused of stabbing a woman to death at a North York massage parlour. The RCMP believe he was also motivated by “incel” ideology.“Something is happening with Canadians,” said Barbara Perry, a researcher at Ontario Tech’s Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism.Perry pointed to recent research that showed Canadians are among the more active users on extreme right online forums like Fascist Forge.“Obviously (far-right extremists are) still a relatively small proportion of the population, but there does seem to be a hardening of their resolve.”Read more about: Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Allrights reserved. 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close This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To orderpresentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distributionto colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire aboutpermissions/licensing, please go to: OTTAWA—The Canadian Armed Forces has launched an internal probe into suggestions that one of its members belongs to a neo-Nazi extremist group and attempted to join militant white supremacists in the U.S.In leaked audio recordings obtained by the , the unidentified man — who goes by the name “Dakov” — claims to be in combat training with the Canadian Forces while...

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Canadian Forces investigates after mystery man in secret recording claims to be a soldier — and a neo-Nazi

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