Ousted La Meute member seen at Quebec City rally
Man ‘suspended’ by far-right group marches to protest illegal immigration
A member of La Meute who attended the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. on Aug. 11 was also at the far-right group’s march in Quebec City last Sunday.
Ahead of the Quebec City event, a La Meute spokesperson told reporters the group suspended Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald for his participation in the Charlottesville rally. The march in Charlottesville ended when a man with apparent ties to white militant groups drove his car into a group of anti-fascist protesters — killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
In public statements, La Meute has denounced the rally and repeatedly claimed that BeauvaisMacDonald’s membership was suspended because he stood alongside white nationalists that day.
But it appears that BeauvaisMacDonald’s suspension was loosely enforced in Quebec City.
“Yes, La Meute suspended me indefinitely,” Beauvais-MacDonald told the Montreal Gazette. “Yes I went to Quebec City regardless of this, in support of what I believe is an important cause. I kept a low profile.”
Hundreds of La Meute supporters marched in the provincial capital to denounce illegal immigration and Islamic extremism. Organizers refute claims that their group holds hateful views toward Muslims and immigrants, but some of its members have a history of posting white supremacist opinions online.
Beauvais-MacDonald, for instance, recently shared the infamous “14 words” slogan on his Facebook page. The slogan — coined by deceased American white supremacist David Lane — goes: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
“There is nothing inherently wrong with (the slogan),” said Beauvais-MacDonald, a 32-yearold Quebecer. “I posted (the 14 words) to expose the anti-white sentimentality that has been programmed into my friends and family. I posted them to make clear that love for your own people does not imply hatred for anyone else.”
La Meute spokesperson Sylvain Brouillette did not immediately respond to The Gazette’s interview request and wouldn’t say if organizers knew of Beauvais-MacDonald’s attendance at their event.
An image provided to the Gazette suggests that the 32-year-old was one of about 50,000 members of Clan 6 — La Meute’s secret Montreal Facebook group — as of 10:49 p.m. on Thursday. Another screen grab appears to show a prominent La Meute member “liking” Beauvais-MacDonald’s 14 words post on Facebook.
“The 14 words is a slogan almost exclusively used by neo-Nazis,” said Jaggi Singh, who participated in a counter-demonstration against La Meute on Sunday.
For his part, Beauvais-MacDonald claims he went to Charlottesville in defence of the beliefs espoused in the 14 words slogan and never set out to “spread hate or cause violence.”
“No one should have died that day,” he said. “No one would have died had the police done their job.”
He also strongly denies having ties to neo-Nazis. Footage from the Charlottesville rally shows marchers shouting Nazi slogans, wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods and carrying assault rifles.
Yes, La Meute suspended me indefinitely. Yes, I went to Quebec City regardless of this, in support of what I believe is an important cause.