VANCOVER: NAZIS A NO SHOW AT OWN MARCH

The Province

Hundreds of anti-racist protesters claimed victory after an expected neo-Nazi march failed to materialize in the Lower Mainland on Sunday.

Several hundred anti-racists – including about 30 black mask-wearing anarchists – gathered at New Westminster’s Braid SkyTrain Station, to repel the proposed “Advocates for White Civil Rights” rally.

A number of police officers monitored the scene, including a British Columbia Hate Crime Team investigator. Police said they took the threat of violence seriously, as a clash between supremacists and anti-racists occurred in Calgary last year on March 21, which is International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. At Braid station some among the anti-racists wore all black, and brandished thick wooden-handled black flags and carried ladders, just like the notorious anarchist group that rampaged through downtown Vancouver during the Olympics.

There was a confrontation when two men from Coquitlam approached the anarchist group and allegedly spit on a banner which read: Nazi Scum F-k Off.

The men, including Tyler Hill of Coquitlam, were quickly chased off by the anti-racists and escorted away on the SkyTrain by transit police, with no arrests made.

On the train, Hill told The Province he had no idea a racist rally was planned for Sunday, but when he came on the scene at Braid station he asked the anarchists what they were protesting for.

“I’m not racist,” Hill said, “but I hate gays.”

His companion, who did not share his name, started to cry on the SkyTrain, and bristled at being called a racist.

“I have a black girlfriend,” the man said.

The Province also spoke to one anonymous man who conveyed white supremacist views and was seen videotaping anti-racist protesters, without making his views known to the anti-racists.

When anti-racist groups dispersed at Braid station, Sgt. Mark Applejohn of Transit Police said there had been indications online months ago of a group planning a white pride rally on March 21, but in the end it was a “non-event.”

The original plan of the supremacists, Applejohn said, was to march through Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver, and then have a sort of “feast” honouring Nordic gods in a Burnaby forest.

At the station, Maitland Cassia, a spokesman for the Vancouver chapter of Anti-Racist Action, said he believed several “scouts” for the white pride group had turned up at the station but then retreated.”At this point they’ve obviously bitten off more than they can chew,” he said. “I’m pretty comfortable declaring victory.”