In my sporadic efforts to keep up with the news in my home country of Canada I came across this strange story, click the headline for the full article:
The Huffington Post Canada | By Michael Bolen
Posted: 07/26/2012 4:53 pm Updated: 07/26/2012 5:41 pm
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's office is responding after a photo of him posing with a neo-Nazi was posted online.
The image of Ford posing with Jon Latvis is making headlines after appearing Thursday on the blog of Sun commentator, and former Liberal candidate and strategist, Warren Kinsella. Kinsella posed the question: "Why is Toronto’s mayor pals with a former neo-Nazi icon?"
Latvis was a member of the neo-Nazi band RAHOWA (Racial Holy War), according to Kinsella and various web posts.
The photo first appeared on the Web on May 6 on a Facebook page in Latvis' name, according to the Toronto Sun. The caption? "Me meeting with Toronto’s Mayor, Rob Ford to get an endorsement for the Latvian Homeguard — at Toronto City Hall."
"At no time was the Mayor aware of allegations that this individual had made racist, hateful or otherwise offensive comments, nor were any such comments made during his meeting," the statement reads. "Mayor Ford is a strong supporter of Toronto's Jewish community and strongly deplores anti-Semitism in any form."
It is a little confusing that on Jon Latvis' FB page he states that he was meeting the Mayor to seek an endorcement for the Latvian Home Guard (Latvijas Zemessardze) which his wearing of the uniform would tend to confirm, but when given his meeting with Mayor Ford he chose to discuss public transportation issues instead. All this tends to link the Latvian Home Guard not only with Jon Latvis the Neo-Nazi but also with the Mayor's office's condemnation of anti-Semitism. Is that directed obliquely at The Latvian Home Guard or RaHoWa (Racial Holy War, Jon Latvis' last band)?
On his Facebook Page, Latvis calls himself a “European Nationalist, historian and anthropologist.”
He goes on to say as follows:
“Nobody can truly understand me anyway; maybe only big dogs and wolves. Bears maybe also, but I haven’t had the priviledge (sic) to speak to one yet. The Oaks and Holy Birches on my land can understand probably, but they don’t speak too much, only when they start moving their branches to make the wind blow do they make a sound. I’m sure the spirits of my Forefathers can understand me as I do them.”
While I picked up on this story from that horrible aggregator Huffpo who in turn got it from Warren Kinsella's blog it appears to have originated here.
So, Jon Latvis, the face of The Latvian Home Guard abroad? They might want to look into that.
<multiple edits> spelling, how does it work?
<multiple edits> spelling, how does it work?
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