Plans of John Beattie’s Canadian neo-Nazi group to “hang Jewish traitors on Parliament Hill” were described this weekend by Ron Battaro, a 28-year-old York University student, who joined the extremist group as an undercover agent on behalf of the Canadian Jewish Congress and another anti-Nazi group. Battaro testified in the trial of a number of Canadians charged with assault and creating a public disturbance in a clash at a Nazi rally in Allan Gardens last May.
Battaro told the court that he had attended numerous meetings of the neo-Nazi organization to learn the group’s plans and propaganda techniques. He identified two others associated with him in the undercover work as John and Christopher Dingle, brothers.
Beattie, meanwhile, admitted in his testimony his admiration for Adolf Hitler, and said that all he knew about Jews being slaughtered by the Nazis was what he read in the “Jew press.” He also admitted his close link with George Rockwell, head of the American Nazi Party.
One of the accused, Ignace David, 44, changed his plea to guilty from not guilty, after he explained that he had attacked Yves Moreau, a bystander at the rally, taking him for a Nazi. David, who will appear for sentencing on October 19, said that he had lost 50 relatives at the hands of the Nazis and that he him self had been an inmate in various concentration camps.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
