Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Aryan Nations in Saskatchewan? Not so fast.

At one time the Aryan Nations had a more high profile presence in Canada. The Canadian branch of the Idaho-based hate group was led by Terry Long. After staging a rally in Provost, Alberta (AryanFest) in 1990, the movement in Canada fell apart due to some high profile criminal incidents. In Saskatchewan, the Klan member and who was leader of the province's Aryan Guard group was named Carney Nerland. Nerland was arrested and convicted in the death of Leo LaChance, a Native trapper who was shot by Nerland in January 1991. That same year Long was implicated in an attack against Keith Rutherford by skinheads that left Rutherford blind in one eye.

After leaving prison Nerland disappeared and hasn't been heard of in the media. Long moved from Alberta to BC, was divorced by his wife, and except for his relationship with Todd Conroy, former leader of Volksfront Canada, has also remained silent since the mid 1990s. There were some half-hearted efforts to start up the Aryan Nations in Central Canada in 2003 (Andrew Talbot and Joe Subic were the only two active members at the time) but all have appeared to have been for naught.

Then, we came across this:


So, what's the story?

Jody Issel of Regina, Saskatchewan looks as if he's trying to restart the Aryan Nation's in Saskatchewan based upon the poorly constructed website he set up. Unfortunately, he's run into a few problems. First, there doesn't look like there's more than a handful of people associated with his little gang. That's minor compared to the other issue. It seems that none of the groups in the United States who claim to be the true Aryan Nations (as the hate group splintered after losing it's Idaho compound in a law suit and the death of Richard Butler) know who this group is.

Not that we care, but if you're going to claim to be an official branch of the Aryan Nations, shouldn't you let the head office know about you? There are reports that the various factions in the United States aren't pleased that their name is being used without their permission. Also, we're interested to know how long this hate site will be hosted by GeoCities which has a policy of not allowing hate sites to use their system.

No comments: