Five men who are members of the Canadian Armed Forces may find themselves in hot water after participating in a protest as part of the right-wing political group “Proud Boys.”
Proud Boys define themselves as a “Western Chauvinist” fraternal organization. They are multiracial and their founder and leader, Gavin McInnes, said that the only two things one had to do to join the group was to be, “a man and a Western chauvinist.”
“If you think the West is the best and you’re a guy, you’re in,” McInnes told The Daily Caller.
The Proud Boys group counter-protested Native American groups who were demonstrating in front of the statue of Admiral Cornwallis in Halifax. Cornwallis is offensive to Native Americans after he is supposed to have issued a bounty for the scalps of natives in the 1700s, Newsweek reports.
Now the men may find themselves in trouble with the Canadian armed forces. They have been pulled from service and may be expelled altogether.
General Jonathan Vance told the CBC on Tuesday, “Their future in the military is certainly in doubt,” adding, “We are the nation’s protectors, and any member of the Canadian Armed Forces who is not prepared to be the defender we need them to be will face severe consequences, including release from the forces.”
McInnes, who co-founded VICE and is a well-known political commentator, told TheDC, “The radical left painted a picture that the mainstream media ran with and it’s not even close to the truth. This was not aboriginals having a religious ceremony.”
“This was radical leftists having an anti-Canada day rally on Canada day. They vandalized a statue of Halifax’s founder and desecrated the Canadian flag (hung it upside down with ‘decolonize’ scrawled across it). They also demanded our guys NOT carry a Canadian flag,” he added.
On Twitter, McInnes added that two of his Proud Boys were actually Native themselves:
Two of the five #ProudBoys here are Native. One’s gay. They peacefully checked out an anti-Canada day rally and left.https://t.co/d1C6igPMct
— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) July 5, 2017
McInnes said, “The Proud Boys went to ask them questions and were completely civil. Then, they quietly walked away. They didn’t know what the ceremony was about. Two of the men are natives (they had one native there so we had twice as many aboriginals).”
“Three of these Proud Boys have grandfathers who fought the Nazis in WW2. We hire these guys to die for their country and now we’re going to fire them for simply asking questions at an anti-Canada day rally,” he continued. “It’s beyond shameful. It’s downright embarrassing. I’m embarrassed for my own country.”
McInnes also said that he didn’t think the consequences would be the same for military members participating in left-wing activism.
He is also planning further action to defend the men.
“I am starting a petition to stop this witch hunt and get the truth out,” the right-wing writer told TheDC. “They have been smeared by the media and their own military. The minister of defense Harjit Sajjan has apologized on our behalf for our racism and it doesn’t exist. Rear Admiral John Newton of the Royal Canadian Navy used the word ‘white supremacist’ several times in his statement thereby nullifying their chances for a fair trial.”
“As a Canadian, I am deeply embarrassed by this whole thing. We hire these men to die for us and when they dare question people who are attacking Canada, we attack them. What kind of soldier or sailor would NOT go and talk to these people? Probably the kind of sailor that would move up the ranks and become a Rear Admiral who throws his own men under the bus,” McInnes concluded.