By Lord Caliban

"Non-whites are raping the citizens of Canada, raping the citizens of the United States. They are trampling across your borders to destroy your culture and everything else. I think the young people are now starting to awaken to that fact" (Kinsella 261). Statements like these are the driving force for groups of people like the anti-Semites, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, racial separatists, Identity Christians, Klansmen, Creators, Dualists, or Odinists. Despite the wide array of names, these groups have one thing in common- they all preach hate; hate against non-whites, homosexuals, Jews and race-mixers. Groups like these have been around since World War II, but today members of groups like the Nazi Skinheads consist mainly of society's youth. From the killings of two gay men by a neo-Nazi group in Montreal to racial battles on the schoolyard in the Maritimes, hate crimes among Canadian youths have been on the uprise within the last few years. But what could possibly motivate these children, who at this stage in their life should be worrying about being part of the "cool-clique", to join such violent hate groups? Among these groups, the members are usually people from a troubled home looking for support, or people who are infatuated with committing violent acts and use the Nazi doctrine as a justification, knowing that they will receive no more than a slap on the wrist by the authorities.

The skinheads were "designed to make anyone who has even the smallest stake in the present scheme of things cross over to the other side of the street" (255". Fear has always been an inspiration of the skinheads, being dressed in skin tight jeans, Ben Sherman shirts and eight- eyelet Air Wear Doc Marten boots, and as their name implies, their shaved heads. However, the skinheads were not always a neo-Nazi or White Supremacist group. In 1966, London, the skinheads or Mods, were nothing more than a style of dress which was described as being "aggressively proletarian, puritanical and chauvinist" (Hebdige 55). Unfortunately the Mods split into one group that was attracted to the arts and one group that was violent and racist, feeling that non-while immigrants were a threat to their country's economic security.

Until the mid-1980s, the Canadian hate movement was growing very little, if at all. The skinheads were seen as ideal recruits because there was a lot of them, they were willing to fight and they were young and "primed to take their homelands back" (Kinsella 261). Many Youth Fests have been held by Canadian hate groups inviting skinheads to come and listen to their message. Prior to 1986, it was difficult to attract the youth to these functions, but within the last few years thousands have attended one rally or another on the basis that the current democratic system "is only democratic for Jews, queers and niggers" (262).

What kind of teenagers are hate groups looking for to recruit? It seems that the most frequently approached teen are ones "who were experiencing trouble at home or at school" (265). These types of children would be the easiest for hate groups to manipulate and mold into their ideal Nazi soldier.

Taking for instance Brett Hayes, a former skinhead from Edmonton, Alberta who bashed two Calgary gay men in 1988. At the age of sixteen he ran away from home and lived on the streets where he became familiar with the white supremacist movements. Hayes used to reside a the Skin Bin, a dirty house where a group of skinheads lived. In an interview he revealed that most people living there "were on welfare. And most, if not all, were from broken or dysfunctional families. There were parent problems, with parent abuse and stuff like that. There was lots of that. Lots of it. Skinheads have problems" (274).

The teenagers living in the Skin Bin are prime examples of the type of people Canadian racist leaders prey on. They realize that these children lack self confidence and are looking for support and a sense of identity. That is exactly what the racist leaders give them. Hayes remembered his feelings towards Terry Long, the leader of the Canadian Aryan Nations branch in Alberta. "Terry Long was like a father, you know. I never told him that or anything, and none of the other members tell him that. But you can feel it. You can feel it once you are in the organization. You can feel the family, you know. It is a tight-knit family. It felt really good" (275).

The skinheads had never received such support from their families like they were experiencing in the Skin Bin. It is only natural that they would want to remain in such a group where they were receiving support and praise for what they were doing. All they wanted was someone to be there for them, and the Canadian racist leaders, like Terry Long, saw this and seized the opportunity to expand their hate movement.

Many hate crimes against Canadian non-white citizens are no more that thrill beatings. The idea of what the neo-Nazi movement stands for is not always what many teenagers are attracted to. Many of the members were "just more into the violence and the neo-Nazism and stuff like that" (275).

The violence put together with the racist attitudes is what attracted many skinheads to such a cause. They felt this was a way that they could terrorize the non-whites, Jews and gays. But bad moods were sometimes the only motivation for some skinheads to bash someone. Daryl Rivest, a member of the Final Solution Skinheads, claimed that when he saw a non-white guy or a race mixer, he "would just jump on them, hit them in the head a few times until they hit the ground and then kick them in the face until they just quit moving" (279). It is hard to understand what could possibly drive anyone to commit such frightening acts of violence against another human being. With statements like, "If you are in a bad mood, the easiest way to deal with it is just to go out and kick the shit out of someone" (279), gives the impression that many of these hate crimes may have been committed only to act as a pacifier for that person's certain problems. These hate groups present violence as the only answer to dealing with problems, and they give their members the impression that they are accomplishing something. Having the ability to commit this type of violence in such a casual manner is not humane and should be prone to punishment by the law.

However, the majority of these violent criminals go unpunished and the ones that are punished usually serve no more than a few months in prison. Ironically, when many of these cases are brought in front of the court, the law gets so twisted around by the defense, that the crimes appear to be justified. Brett Hayes, for example, served a mere two months for the beating of two gay men in Calgary. It is obvious that the present laws have to be updated or new ones have to be created in order to stop people who's ignorance is tearing Canada apart.

It is depressing to see annual reports that show Canadian white supremacist leaders have been successful in recruiting young people to their cause within the last few years. By looking for teenagers living on the street and people who are obsessed with violence, the racist leaders are able to take advantage of them to aid in the growth of their movement. These teenagers are brainwashed by the propaganda presented by the leaders and shaped into "soldiers" who do not hesitate to use violence knowing that the present law will not take serious action against them. Unfortunately, the racist movements have been on a dramatic uprise, and the violence against non-whites, Jews, race-mixers and homosexuals continue on a similar path. But even though the future appears to be glum, one can hope that someday everyone will realize that there is only one race on earth- the human race.

Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. New York: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979.

Kinsella, Warren. Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network. Toronto: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 1994.