The Heritage Front
The League for Human Rights has monitored and recorded hate group
activity in Canada for 30 years, and our experience shows that groups
with hateful platforms almost inevitably proceed to acts of hatred.
The Heritage Front is a volatile group with a violent leader who is
trying to mask his agenda in order to achieve his goals.
But as of June 1994, the
Heritage Front seemed to be on the decline.
Wolfgang Droege,
Kenneth Barker and Gary Schipper were in jail, and
the organization did not have enough money to pay a $5,000 fine.
Droege himself was unemployed, on welfare, and needed legal aid
to pay his lawyer. The Front hadn't had a rally in months, and had
largely fallen out of the headlines.
George Burdi, who at one time
had been an energetic recruiter for hate groups in Canada, had also
left the public eye. Elise Hategan, once seen as the future of the
Front, had been working with anti-racists to send Droege and others
to jail and was now in hiding. To add injury to insult, a member of
the Heritage Front had been beaten on the streets of Toronto in
December 1993.
But in August 1994, the Front once again grabbed the media spotlight
as it was alleged that CSIS had, in effect, bankrolled their
activities starting in 1989. The revelation that Grant Bristow
was an intelligence plant produced mixed reactions from racists and
anti-racists alike. Although many within the Front claimed that he
had done more good than harm, many were still shocked at the
revelation. Bristow's ties with
WAR concerned Canada's Jewish
leaders, who expressed publicly that if the allegations were true,
CSIS had lost control of its contact.
The startling allegations of CSIS complicity in founding the
Front gave the group two straight weeks of free national publicity, but
it remains to be seen if this will lead to an increase in
membership or activity. Other neoNazi groups, most notably the
Northern Hammerskins, have started to fill the void left by a
moribund
COTC and a slumping Heritage Front. It is quite possible
that the Front has outlived its natural life span, and that other
organizations are already starting to dip into its recruiting pool.
For five years, it was unclear how the Heritage Front paid for its
operations. While Libya gave early support to the group, it seemed
unlikely that they would have bankrolled the HF for five years. In
addition, Droege's own personal financial troubles made it more
apparent that he was not successfully raising funds for the
Heritage Front. However, if it is true that CSIS gave more than $250,000 to
Grant Bristow. who in turn used the proceeds to finance Heritage
Front activities, then with the expose of this source of income, it
is likely that the annual $50,000 grant from Ottawa will not be
continued. With such a large source of funding now gone, it is
difficult to see how the Front will continue to pay for its
operations.
As the actions taken against the Heritage Hotline and
Heritage Front propaganda have shown, community co-operation, joint forces
police operations and intergovernmental agency co-operation are
essential parts of an effective response to the activities of the
Heritage Front and to hate group activity in general. There must be
strong deterrents against racist activity enshrined in the legal
system, supported by the government and police. Inter-community and
legal efforts can send a clear message to the Heritage Front that
there is no room in Canada for racists and bigots. But beyond
addressing Heritage Front today, education, quality research and
training are crucial if the attraction of hate mongering racist
groups is to disappear from this country.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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The Future of the Heritage Front