Adam's Notes for November 14, 2024
Nothing pithy here today, sorry everyone
“When I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.” –– Orwell
You remember a while back when the Canadian parliament gave a standing ovation to an actual Nazi, a guy who called his years in the in the 14th SS Division Galicia the happiest years of his life? It definitely came as a shock, but I don’t think it was the non-sequitur moment for me that a lot of people experienced it as, and the reason is that I was already following a number of journalists, activists, and researchers who were working on this story.
People like David Pugliese, Moss Robeson, Mark Ames, Dan Boeckner, Alex Boykowitch, Ivan Katchanovski and others have been on this story for almost a decade now, trying to get people to care that Canada has a very shameful record of commemorating Nazis.
One of the people at the forefront of this movement is Duncan Kinney, a journalist and editor of the The Progress Report, an independent media organization covering issues of interest to progressives in Alberta.
In October of 2022, the Edmonton Police Service charged Duncan with vandalizing, allegedly, two monuments he’d reported on. The monuments are dedicated to Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych and the other to the 14th Nazi Waffen-SS Division. Duncan Kinney has since pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. The graffiti on the monument said “Actual Nazi,” which is true. The monuments should not be allowed to stand.
The things is, the charges are politically motivated. Duncan Kinney has reported extensively on the Edmonton Police, holding them to account time and again. It’s hard to read this as anything other than police trying to silence a critic. And because this was investigated as a hate crime, Duncan is facing up to ten years in prison. Again, Duncan has plead not guilty. And that’s not all. The Progress Report has had their credentials arbitrarily revoked by Edmonton police chief Dale McFee1, meaning one of Alberta’s only adversarial journalism outlets can no longer attend police press conferences. And the police have not been idle. Court records have revealed that more than twenty-five police officers have been involved with the case, surveilling Duncan Kinney for more than 180 hours. Even if they were to drop these spurious charges tomorrow, they’ve already made Kinney’s life a living hell. And that’s the point. He’s been openly critical of the police, and they can’t stand it. This reeks of payback.
Every part of this story is outrageous, and would not have been allowed to happen in a society that actually cares about free speech, justice, or any of the ideals Canada claims to value.
Duncan Kinney has a legal defense fund set up on GoFundMe. I’ve made a small contribution and if it’s within your means I hope you’ll do the same.
It’s a short newsletter this week, as I’m at work on a few other things, some of which I’ll be able to share with you soon. Also, I’ve been mulling over a new feature, and think I’ll pull the trigger on it early in the new year. It’ll be a deep dive, sort of like my reading of Pepys’ diary, into a Renaissance text that I’ve recently become fascinated with, similar to the chansons de geste we’ve been looking at. I also think I’m going to cut back from weekly posting, maybe switch to two or three newsletters a month. We’ll see.
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No relation to yours truly, though I happen to have an aunt by that name.
I read the recent Walrus piece on the hidden list of Nazi-related entrants to Canada, yesterday. https://thewalrus.ca/why-is-canada-protecting-the-names-of-suspected-nazis/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us