Rally speaker a dangerous disinformer, not a patriot

Canadian military officials are constantly warning civilians to be on their guard against the ongoing disinformation campaign being waged by meddlesome foreign state actors. There is no specific objective sought by these sowers of "fake news" we are told, but rather their intent is to cause Canadians to lose their trust in official organizations — such as the Canadian military.

Which brings us to a rather bizarre incident, which occurred at an anti-lockdown rally in Toronto on Dec. 5.

The organizers introduced speaker Leslie Kenderesi as a serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces. To drive home this association with the CAF, Kenderesi wore his combat uniform complete with webbing. He wore a beret as he spoke, but carried a combat helmet in his hand and he had affixed a hunting knife to his web strap.

Why Kenderesi was dressed for imminent combat while speaking at a rally in Toronto defies logic, but even more illogical was the statement made by this would-be Rambo.

“I'm asking military, right now serving, truck drivers, medical, engineers, whatever you are, do not take this unlawful order (for) the distribution of this vaccine,” Kenderesi said to an appreciative crowd. “I might get in a lot of (expletive) for doing this but I don't care any more.”

No mainstream media broadcast Kenderesi's speech, but organizers of the rally posted it on Youtube.

It soon went viral on social media with most comments from the military community dismissing Kenderesi as an imposter and the whole speech to be a "fake news" hoax.

Unfortunately for the CAF, a brief internal investigation resulted in DND having to confirm to reporters that Kenderesi is indeed a serving member.

“We were made aware on the evening of Dec. 5 that a member of the Cadet Instructors Cadre — which is a subcomponent of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve — participated in a public demonstration in Toronto in his CAF uniform,” said DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier. “The individual made comments regarding the CAF participation in Operation Vector. These comments are not reflective of views of the Government of Canada nor Canadian Armed Forces policy.”

In attempting to convince fellow serving members of CAF to disobey orders, Kenderesi is at the very least guilty of attempted sedition. While I have no doubt that Kenderesi's ramblings will garner not a single serving servicemember to heed his advice, damage to the public trust will be more difficult to repair.

Members of my own extended family mistakenly thought the man in the combat gear raging against this vaccine was retired general Rick Hillier.

One can easily understand their angst at seeing what they thought to be the military officer tasked with distributing the vaccine throughout Ontario, calling on soldiers not to deliver it.

Personally I do not see much of a physical resemblance between Hillier and Kenderesi and I was somewhat amused to learn that my relatives would think a retired general still wears a combat uniform complete with a knife-strapped to his chest. But I digress.

At time of writing, the DND was continuing to investigate the incident.

While no one discussed criminal charges, such as attempted sedition, the DND did advise the media that punitive actions including Kenderesi's release from the CAF are an option.

The anti-lockdown rally organizers described Kenderesi as “the original Canadian patriot.” I would disagree with that assessment and consider him instead to be a dangerous disinformer.

He is not, however, a complete idiot as he publicly acknowledged that his actions might land him in a “lot of (expletive).”

Let's hope that DND makes that prophecy a reality.