Church organizations and anti-discrimination groups in Calgary, Alberta, have formed a coalition to fight a planned incursion into the province of Alberta by the “Aryan Nations,” a violence-prone white supremacist and anti-Jewish organization.
“All have experienced a sense of outrage in our community over this issue,” said Harold Joffe, an officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress and chairman of Calgary’s Citizens Against Racial and Religious Discrimination.
Leading Canadian newspapers have also strongly denounced the group and its leader, Terry Long, and urged that the organization not be permitted into Alberta. Long, 40, has announced he will set up a neo-Nazi compound in the town of Caroline, 120 miles northeast of Calgary.
The Church of the Aryan Nations is currently based in Hayden Lake, Idaho, about 100 miles south of the Canadian border. In 1983, 24 of its members launched a two-year crime spree that saw them blaze a trail of death and destruction through the American northwest.
They were implicated in the machinegun murder of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host in Denver, and the death of several policemen and informants. They were also convicted of robbing banks and armored cars of up to $4 million and of torching a synagogue. The group, which preaches that “the Jew is the child of Satan,” claims to be a religious organization — the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian Aryan Nations.
ALERTING THE PUBLIC TO GROUP’S PLAN
In addition to Calgary’s Citizens Against Racial and Religious Discrimination, the coalition to fight the Aryan Nations’ incursion into Alberta includes the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, the Calgary Labor Council, Citizens for Public Justice, the Committee Against Racism, the Church in Society of the United Church, the University of Calgary Chaplains and the Jewish Community Council of Calgary.
The Coalition is planning a letter-writing campaign to alert the public to Long’s plan and a petition to pressure the Canadian Broadcasting Commission into airing a film called Aryan Nations by Calgary filmmaker Lawrence Ryckman. The coalition also plans a campaign to educate the public about the organization’s beliefs.
Meanwhile, the three Canadian Sun newspapers — in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary — which rarely coordinate editorial policy, are making a concerted effort to frustrate the entry of Long and his followers into Alberta. The Toronto Sun printed a front page editorial in its Sunday edition headed “Racist Thugs Are Not Welcome Here.”
Delicia Crump, president of the Vancouver-based National Black Coalition of Canada, has sent a telegram to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney demanding that the Aryan Nations be outlawed. B’nai B’rith and the Canadian Jewish Congress leaders have also expressed concern to government authorities. Alberta Solicitor-General Ken Rostad indicated that the Canadian Royal Mounted Police have the Caroline area under surveillance. Caroline’s Deputy Mayor Gary Umscheid said the town’s 431 residents “do not sympathize with Terry Long.”
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.
