At the Sept. 29 U.S. Presidential election debate, Donald Trump propelled the hate group the Proud Boys into the international spotlight. When asked by the moderator to denounce white supremacists, Trump balked and asked for the name of a specific group. Vice-President Joe Biden suggested the Proud Boys to which Trump stated, “Proud Boys … stand back and stand by.”
Within minutes, members of the Proud Boys took to those social media platforms, which they can still access, to assure Trump they are indeed ‘standing by’ for the president.
By the following morning the alt-right hate group had begun merchandising clothing adorned with the Proud Boys logo and Trump’s phrase “stand back, stand by,” which is now their adopted slogan.
In the days following the debate Trump tried to assert that he did not know anything about the Proud Boys and their beliefs prior to his public shout out to the hate group on all national TV networks. This claim of ignorance – like many things Trump has said to date – seems unlikely to be true.
The previous week the Proud Boys staged a protest rally in Portland forcing the Oregon governor to declare a state of emergency. Several hundred Proud Boys, decked out in body armour and helmets with many brandishing assault rifles, assembled to counter the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests that have gripped Portland’s streets for weeks on end.
Almost as prominent as U.S. flags among the Proud Boys were Trump election banners.
While the Proud Boys’ leadership denies they are white supremacists, the F.B.I considers them to be an “extremist group” that has “ties to white nationalism.” They are a male-only organization of self-proclaimed chauvinists who are preserving what they call ‘western culture’ and they refuse to accept any guilt for the current state of the modern world.
One has to wonder if the Proud Boys membership has increased throughout the CAF since the 2017 incident. If so, are they too ‘standing by’ for whatever it is that Trump intends to use the Proud Boys?
While they do allow non-white membership, their basic mantra is to hate Muslims, Jews and trans-people. On the flip side, they love Donald Trump and they love to fight.
One of the initiation rituals for the Proud Boys is to have several members punch the candidate while he recites the names of five breakfast cereals. I could not make this stuff up. The reasoning behind this cereal-pummelling stunt is that a Proud Boy must be able to keep a clear head in a fistfight.
That brings us to the next level of initiation rite, which is to actually fight with members of the ‘radical left.’ The Proud Boys have therefore figured prominently in the heated clashes that have occurred this past summer across numerous U.S. cities.
Last year two Proud Boys were convicted of assaulting left-wing protestors and sentenced to four years in jail in the U.S.
The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, a self-styled provocateur with dual British and Canadian citizenship. McInnes has subsequently distanced himself from his creation, but the Proud Boys movement now has chapters across the U.S, U.K, Australia and Canada.
In 2017, the Proud Boys Maritime chapter confronted a Canada Day Mi’kmaw ceremony in downtown Halifax. There was no violence but once it was discovered that the five participants in Proud Boys black and yellow polo shirts were members of the Canadian Armed Forces it became national headline news.
After a brief suspension and some counselling four of the five service-members returned to active duty while the fifth had already been in the process of obtaining his release at the time of the incident.
When it was announced that the CAF was fully reinstating these personnel, Proud Boys Canada chapters celebrated on social media. “We win, our brothers the Halifax 5 are returning to active military duty with no charges, let the [social justice warriors] tears pour. Proud of our boys.”
One has to wonder if the Proud Boys membership has increased throughout the CAF since the 2017 incident. If so, are they too ‘standing by’ for whatever it is that Trump intends to use the Proud Boys?
