Maybe not their proudest moment
Ido not rise in defence of the Proud Boys, a truly goofy sort of organization, so odd I can’t help but think it’s a joke perpetrated by its founder, Gavin McInnes, the Canadian ex-hipster and comedian who co-started Vice Media and is infamous for what in the United Kingdom is known as taking the piss.
McInnes started the Proud Boys just last year, and until recently, the group seemed to have been regarded as kooky but benign.
Two of its weirder tests, for instance, call for the prospective member to be beaten up by at least five guys until he can spit out the names of five breakfast cereals, and, secondly, to stay away from his own member and masturbate no more than once a month (its infamous #NoWanks policy) on the grounds that this gets young men off the couch and talking to actual women.
(I do rise somewhat in the defence of cereal, which like the Proud Boys I adore and eat at least twice daily, and in defence of the other as well.)
In any case, the group has been getting a good deal of ink since Canada Day in Halifax, when one of five young men who approached an Indigenous protest — carrying the old Red Ensign flag (Canada’s de facto flag until 1965) and apparently singing God Save the Queen, though the video I saw didn’t capture the latter — identified them all as Proud Boys Maritimes.
For the record, the protest itself was held at the statue of Edward Cornwallis, the former Nova Scotia governor who founded Halifax and notoriously issued a bounty on Mi’kmaq scalps (the Scalping Proclamation) after Mi’kmaq warriors, objecting to Cornwallis’ chosen site, fought against the English.
A small crowd was gathered around the statue, one of them carrying an upsidedown Canadian flag with the word “decolonize” written on it, there to mark the various atrocities committed against Indigenous people while Chief Grizzly Mamma, who is originally from British Columbia, shaved her head.
According to what McInnes later told the CBC, the five were in a bar on July 1, heard rumours of an anti-Canada protest, and decided to go check it out.
Also for the record, the men were well-spoken, polite and respectful; they were met by a young woman, from the protesters, who was equally polite and respectful. The men explained they were curious and wanted to see what was going on; she said they’d be welcome to listen quietly if they didn’t disrupt things.
But a couple of other protesters were not similarly inclined.
One snarled, “This is a f--ng genocide.” Someone else said, “This is Mi’kmaq territory, to which one of the Proud Boys replied, “This is Canada.”
Members of each side tossed about historically inaccurate facts in the manner of the young and unschooled. Another young woman bristling with hostility kept moving closer to one of the men until she was practically touching him. “You don’t seem to like me standing so close,” she said. “You’re very close,” he replied calmly.
But then the Proud Boys left, having been chastised for their pronunciation of Mi’kmaq and for their disrespectful tone, or, as a protester put it, got “the ---- out of here.”
There were no harsh words from the Proud Boys. There was even some humour; once, told by a protester to speak more softly, one of the men said, in effect, “What? This is a library now?” But he did as he was asked.
Not a blow was struck. Not a disrespectful word was uttered, unless, of course, one counts the mere questioning of Indigenous protest as disrespectful. Not a gram of cereal was consumed or thrown.
Then the men were outed on social media as being members of the Canadian Forces. Four, as it turned out, are sailors, one is in the army. (A sixth military person was on the periphery, but not involved.)
In short order, the men were smartly tossed under the bus by their leaders.
Chief of the Defence Staff Jon Vance condemned “what happened” (“confrontation” would hardly have done the low-key nature of it justice) as “deplorable” and said the men had been removed from training and duties (with pay) while the military police conduct an investigation.
“Their future in the military is certainly in doubt,” Vance said.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a Facebook post that “this kind of behaviour is not tolerated in the Canadian Armed Forces” and apologized to the M’kmaq community and Chief Grizzly Mamma.
“There will be consequences for CAF members who express intolerance while in — or out — of uniform.”
(You’ll remember ole Harj, he who wrongly claimed to have been “the architect” of Op Medusa in Afghanistan. Not so many consequences there.)
The lone sensible voice was that of Daniel Le Bouthillier, head of media relations for National Defence, who pointed out that the Proud Boys may not have lived up to the force’s Code of Conduct, which, under “Expected Behaviours,” demands that CF members act at all times in a manner that will bear “the closest public scrutiny,” an obligation that “may not be fully satisfied by simply acting within the law.”
But Le Bouthillier aside, and to borrow from my friend John Moore, there’s a lot of pearl-clutching going on from those who don’t look good in pearls.
THE PROSPECTIVE MEMBER (IS) BEATEN UP ... UNTIL HE CAN SPIT OUT THE NAMES OF FIVE CEREALS