The majority of the Proud Boys who dressed up in matching polo shirts and attempted to disrupt a peaceful protest in Halifax more than three years ago are still in the military, even though the federal government deemed the alt-right group a terrorist organization last week.
The five men — four of them in the navy and one an army soldier — attended a July 1, 2017 ceremony meant to honour Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women near the statue of former governor Edward Cornwallis, infamous for his 1749 scalping proclamation aimed at Mi'kmaq people.
“Of the five members involved in this incident, two have since released from the Forces, and three have completed required counselling and probation and have renounced their affiliation with the Proud Boys,” Jessica Lamirande, who speaks for the Department of National Defence, said in an email responding to a question about whether the new terrorist designation means the men would be kicked out of the military.
“These actions are absolutely not tolerated behaviour in the CAF. There are serious consequences for any CAF members who express intolerance while in — or out — of uniform.”
The three men still in uniform all turned down interview requests made through the military.
Ideologically motivated violent extremist groups
Last week, Ottawa placed 13 new groups on its “Criminal Code list of terrorist entities, including four ideologically motivated violent extremist groups: Atomwaffen Division, the Base, the Proud Boys and Russian Imperial Movement,” according to a news release from Public Safety Canada.
“Based on their actions, each group meets the legal threshold for listing as set out in the Criminal Code, which requires reasonable grounds to believe that an entity has knowingly participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity, or has knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with such an entity.”
The military is now reviewing how that will affect its policies, Lamirande said. “The naming of specific groups as terrorist organizations provides an additional safeguard against the infiltration of (ideologically motivated violent extremist) organization members into the (Canadian Armed Forces and in partnership with the RCMP, facilitates the investigation of any CAF member suspected of supporting their activities.”
People in Canada’s military "are not permitted to be affiliated with or be part of any terrorist organizations,” she said.
“It should also be noted that prior to the announcement, it was already not permitted for (Canadian Armed Forces) members to participate in any activity, or be a member of any group or organization, that is connected with hate-related criminal activities, and/or promotes hatred, violence, discrimination, or harassment on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination as defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act.”
These “strong institutional core values, and a Code of Service Discipline that demands the highest standard of behaviour,” were in place "long before these changes to the (ideologically motivated violent extremist) list,” Lamirande said.
'Unacceptable hateful conduct'
“Members who cannot live up to those core values are dealt with through a range of administrative or disciplinary tools.”
The military investigated the Proud Boys in Halifax and their “unacceptable hateful conduct” as soon as it heard about it and "undertook the appropriate corrective measures,” Lamirande said.
The matter was deemed so serious even the country's top soldier at the time, Jonathan Vance, a retired general who was then chief of defence staff, was being kept in the loop, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act.
"Definitely inconsistent with our values," Vance wrote in an email to several senior sailors and soldiers.
"Will want, as a minimum, for them to be told (as soon as possible) that their actions are not acceptable and that they must stop."
Peaceful ceremony
Rebecca Thomas is a Mi'kmaq poet who participated in the peaceful ceremony the Proud Boys tried to disrupt on Canada Day in 2017.
"There was an (Indigenous) woman who was cutting her braids off in mourning because of the legacy she'd experienced through residential schools, through being an Indigenous woman having lost some of her children," Thomas said.
The woman "was standing her ground against the Cornwallis statue," she said, noting the statue, which has since come down, represented a lot of that history.
As she was cutting off her braids, "these young, white dudes carrying the Red Ensign flag and chanting started coming into the park because they saw what was going on," Thomas said..
"Then you had a lot of non-Indigenous allies standing and blocking them. And there was a bit of a stare-down."
Trying for trouble
The men were trying to instigate trouble, saying things like, "It's a free country. We can walk through here. We're going to pay our respects to the founder of this great city," Thomas remembered.
The whole thing seemed unecessary, Thomas said. "They just wanted to be disruptive because they were told that they couldn't go through."
She questioned whether the men who took part have truly changed their ways.
"They can renounce it, but are their attitudes and behaviours still the same?" Thomas said. "They might not have an official membership card to the Proud Boys, for lack of a better word, but do they still kind of act in this kind of bravado, free country I can do whatver I want mentality? Because that's not any better."
Punishment is not necesarily the answer, said Thomas, who works as a student adviser at the Nova Scotia Community College.
"Consequence doesn't have to equate to punishment -- let's lose your livelihood," she said. "But consequence must mean something and I don't know what that something looks like."
Addressing the community they harmed is an important part of the justice process, Thomas said. "And I don't know if they've ever had to do that."
She wasn't surprised to learn last week that Canada has labelled the Proud Boys a terrorist organization, especially after they took part in storming the U.S. Capitol building in January. "A lot of folks will point to the United States and say, 'Look at all their problems that they have to deal with,' but then not recognizing that the Proud Boys were born in Canada. So I think, if anything, it is a moment for Canadians to look inward and say, 'This came from our country.' That we have issues; we can't just point to south of the border and say, 'Wow, it's so nice not to be like them.' Because ... we have our own issues, too."
We can't make laws retroactive, said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel who practises military law in Ottawa.
"I think it's water under the bridge," he said of the Proud Boys who tried to disrupt the 2017 ceremony in Halifax.
But going forward, this should give people in uniform pause for thought before doing something similar, Drapeau said.
"Anybody who's got two cents worth of intelligence would understand, whether or not they're a member of the military or the public service or anything else," he said.
"The law is quite clear: If you're part of that, then you're commiting a crime just by your association or membership in it," Drapeau said. "You'd certainly be putting into peril your security classification. And if you do, you're not going to be able to hold a job within the military or within the public service."
That message "is loud and clear," he said.
Designating the Proud Boys a terrorist organization sends a "powerful signal that we're not going to put up with it, and if you do this then you're going to be paying a heavy penalty," Drapeau said.
