TORONTO -- A student and singer from Montreal. A welder from Edmonton. A graduate student in Toronto. A non-profit worker in Vancouver. The list of usernames, emails and posts of the 88 users of the now-defunct neo-Nazi site Iron March with Canadian IP addresses spans provinces, age groups and religious affiliations.
But they all believe, and call for, the same thing 鈥 terrorism, death and genocide.
Earlier this month, an anonymous anti-fascist activist performed a 鈥渄ata dump鈥 of Iron March鈥檚 metadata into the public sphere, including usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, messages and posts.
Iron March was active from 2011 to 2017, and was considered a hotbed of modern fascist far-right neo-Nazi militant movements 鈥 key among them , an extremist neo-Nazi group and formed from users on Iron March.
The site also had links with international neo-Nazi fascist groups like Britain鈥檚 National Action, Greece鈥檚 Golden Dawn and the group Azov Battalion out of Ukraine. Users on the site idolized murderers like Anders Breivek and Dylann Roof, and often called and planned for a racial holy war 鈥 which they referred to as RAHOWA.
The as 鈥渁 series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse.鈥
SPLC marks 2015 as the date Atomwaffen was founded out of Texas, with members 鈥渄escribed as accelerationists [who] believe that violence, depravity and degeneracy are the only sure way to establish order in their dystopian and apocalyptic vision of the world.鈥
Used to working in the shadows of private forums and chat rooms, the data dump has exposed the inner network of an online hate group to the scrutiny of the media, researchers and law enforcement.
CTVNews.ca was able to verify the identity of several Canadian Iron March users through cross-referencing the raw data files and social media profiles, however it is possible that users utilized a VPN (virtual private network) that hid their actual geolocation or signed into the site while visiting Canada 鈥 therefore the number of Canadian users may be lower or higher than 88.
Map of hate
Upstate New York-based and , run by Naftali Botwin, is the creative force behind a website and interactive map that incorporates the geolocations of Iron March users by plotting their IP addresses.
Naftali Botwin is a pseudonym which CTVNews.ca has agreed to use in order to protect their identity.
鈥淭hese are people [Iron March users] who were openly plotting to instigate a 鈥渞ace war鈥 in America while training themselves and recruiting vulnerable young people to be the storm troopers,鈥 Botwin said in an email to CTVNews.ca.
Botwin said one of their readers called the publication鈥檚 attention to the data dump on Twitter and 鈥渟hared with us a tweet from a journalist wishing someone would make a tool that simplifies the task of searching through the data,鈥 they said. They obliged.
The by location, email or username, and displays an archive of posts and messages between users.
鈥淭he database provides a treasure trove of information linking individuals to Atomwaffen division, a neo-Nazi group responsible for numerous violent acts and plots targeting minority communities,鈥 Botwin said.
Botwin said it was 鈥渢errifying鈥 as they were feeding geolocation data from the forum鈥檚 users IP addresses into mapping software 鈥渢o see just how many of them were all around us.鈥
鈥淚 found one living just 15 minutes from me,鈥 they said. 鈥淚t only added to the urgency of making this data accessible.鈥
Using Jewish Worker鈥檚 web developer to assist them in determining which data they wanted to collect from the raw files and to 鈥渋dentify the links between the different database tables,鈥 Botwin and their team reverse engineered the forum software Iron March used, feeding the IP addresses and email addresses through application programming interfaces to 鈥済lean whatever identifying information鈥 they could to populate the map.
鈥淧eople have a right to know whether members of a murderous neo-Nazi terrorist group are living and plotting among them,鈥 Botwin said. 鈥淭his is essential information for targeted communities to safeguard themselves.鈥
Botwin acknowledged the delicate line between informing the public and being slapped with a privacy lawsuit but was emphatic that Jewish Worker is 鈥渘ot providing home addresses or telephone numbers and...not encouraging anyone鈥檚 harassment.鈥
Botwin said response to the map and database has been 鈥渙verwhelmingly positive鈥 with their tool being used by journalists and news organizations for research 鈥渟ome of which has exposed and [a man in] connected with Atomwaffen.鈥
But there is always a risk when dealing with online violent extremists.
鈥淲e were targeted by the Proud Boys, a violent white supremacist group,鈥 Botwin said. 鈥淭here have also been numerous efforts to hack into the web hosting account of our web developer.鈥
But Botwin says the team at Jewish Worker is undaunted.
鈥淥ur website states in the footer, 鈥榙edicated in memory of Blaze Bernstein, so that others may not suffer the same fate,鈥欌 Botwin said.
Bernstein was a gay Jewish college student by alleged Atomwaffen member Samuel Woodward.
鈥淭he goal of our project is to help journalists and anti-extremism researchers uncover and expose violent white supremacists before they can kill again,鈥 Botwin said.
Threats to public safety
Evan Balgord, executive director of the (CAHN) is on the forefront of monitoring, exposing and countering hate groups in Canada 鈥 including supporters, sympathizers and progandists, according to their .
Balgord said he and the organization had been aware of Iron March since mid-2017, and said while it was active it was 鈥渕aybe the worst neo-Nazi public-facing forum in the world.鈥
鈥淚ron March was the most concerning one,鈥 Balgord said in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca. 鈥淚ts entire ideology was that of promoting terrorism, it was just for self-avowed fascists and neo-Nazis too extreme for anywhere else.鈥
Eighty-eight of those extremists were users whose profiles were linked to Canadian IP addresses, according to CTVNews.ca鈥檚 investigation of the , the Jewish Worker鈥檚 map and CAHN鈥檚 own estimate
Balgord said previous monitoring of a Montreal-based Iron March administrator known as 鈥淶EIGER鈥 showed messages commenting on 鈥渉ow surprising it was that over 70 per cent of the forum traffic was Canadian,鈥 as the site itself was international.
鈥淶EIGER鈥 is actually , alleged to be an who was unmasked by the and went on the run after Montreal authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on the charge of 鈥渨illfully promoting hate.鈥
His whereabouts are unknown.
Balgord said that his team at CAHN and researchers 鈥渁round the world鈥 are working on the data released in the leak in the quest to 鈥渇ind as many of these individuals as possible and try to hold them to account.鈥
CAHN is in touch with law enforcement, the Canadian Armed Forces and security services about the Canadian Iron March users 鈥渂ecause they are a danger to the public...so we hope that if we do our job well we are thwarting terrorist attacks,鈥 Balgord said.
鈥淓verybody who was using that forum by nature of what that forum is, is a threat to public safety and should be identified,鈥 he said.
A suspected Canadian user of Iron March is seen asking to join the neo-Nazi militant group Atomwaffen in this exchange with a recruiter in the United States. Identifying information and publication titles containing hateful information have been blurred. (Jewish Worker)
Canadian hate groups on the rise
Dr. Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, and a leading global scholar on hate crime and right wing extremism, reports that the number of Canadian-based hate groups is on the rise.
鈥淭here has been a dramatic growth [of hate groups] since 2016 from approximately 100 active groups to well over 200, perhaps closer to 300,鈥 Perry said in an email to CTVNews.ca.
鈥淭his includes multiple chapters of some groups like Soldiers of Odin and PEGIDA,鈥 she said.
PEGIDA is the acronym for the group 鈥淧atriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident鈥 a Germany-founded nationalist far-right anti-Islamic movement.
Perry said it is difficult to say how many groups are actively recruiting in Canada as 鈥渢hey are moving targets and groups morph quite quickly,鈥 but says there are probably 鈥渁 dozen big players鈥 like Soldiers of Odin, PEGIDA and the Proud Boys, who are 鈥渧ery active online鈥 and off.
Online recruitment techniques for neo-Nazi and fascist groups are 鈥渆xtensive鈥 Perry said, adding that the groups 鈥渦se every tool at their disposal; inter-personal engagement, discourse, music, videos [and] games.鈥
鈥淭hey will often draw people in quite gently with little hint of the true nature of their ideology,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t is a process rather than an event.鈥
Perry said that in the past, the differences between American versus Canadian fascist groups and was delineated over Canadian groups being 鈥渓ess violent for the most part,鈥 but researchers are starting to see more 鈥溾橝merican style鈥 guns rights narratives [and] glorification of weaponry.鈥
Perry said this change is 鈥渄isturbing.鈥
鈥淭here was a,鈥 Perry said. 鈥淭here was a drop of 13 per cent in 2018, but this is still higher than any other time since data has been released.鈥
Perry said the Iron March data dump is a 鈥渧eritable treasure trove鈥 for researchers, law enforcement and intelligence communities, and hopefully includes ideas on how to combat the spread of far-right fascist extremism.
鈥淵outh and adults need to be better informed and more able to exercise critical digital literacy,鈥 Perry said.
鈥淧ublic figures [and] political leaders must be more vocal and adamant in their condemnation of Nazis and their ilk. Law enforcement needs to take the threat more seriously,鈥 she said.
An introduction post was necessary for users to join Iron March, as seen here. Identifying information has been blurred. (Jewish Worker)
Hate speech and the law in Canada
The question of whether or not Canadian Iron March users can be prosecuted for their online messages from two years ago is a complex one.
鈥淭he question of a private forum with a limited number of people expressing their views back and forth on a [site] that is password and user protected...is far less clear cut,鈥 said Ottawa-based human rights lawyer Richard Warman in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca.
Warman has litigated 16 human rights complaints against individuals from white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements who were disseminating hate propaganda online.
鈥淚n the case where a data dump occurs as a result of an anonymous publication of that material, I think the accused would argue they didn鈥檛 make it public but that it was a result of someone else leaking the material,鈥 he explained, adding that the police would have to confer with Crown prosecution services to see if charges could be laid.
鈥淵ou [also] require the provincial attorney general to lay charges in relation to hate propaganda,鈥 Warman explained. 鈥淭he speech has to be very explicit and [be] the very far end of hate speech to be prosecuted.鈥
Warman said historically freedom of expression is protected in Canada under section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is a constitutional right.
鈥淗owever, the Supreme Court has traditionally interpreted that in context in other provisions in the charter that Canada was established as a multinational pluralistic society,鈥 he explained, adding that prosecutions for hate speech are therefore constitutional.
鈥淭here is plenty of room for robust political discourse in Canada before you come to the limits where you鈥檙e advocating genocide or willfully promoting hatred against groups,鈥 Warman said. 鈥淵ou have to be very targeted and very explicit in terms of what you鈥檙e saying before you reach those kinds of limits.鈥
Warman confirmed that material from Iron March could be admissible as evidence for charges to be laid, but as the material relating to the offence is over 12 months old 鈥渢hen the Crown must proceed by indictment which means a higher standard to meet in terms of prosecution.鈥
Criminal offences in Canada are generally prosecuted either by indictment, which covers more serious offences, or by summary conviction, for less serious offences.
Warman named section 3.18, which relates to the advocacy of genocide and 3.19 which covers public incitement of hatred, of the Criminal Code of Canada that would be the two charges most likely associated to what a Canadian Iron March user could face.
If convicted, the accused faces two to five years in prison depending on the charge and 鈥渨hether the charges go by summary conviction or indictment,鈥 Warman said.
Warman said that in order for law enforcement agencies to tackle targeted online hate speech like that of Iron March users, there needs to be 鈥渄edicated hate crime units for major urban areas.鈥 These units would work in cooperation with local crown prosecutors so they 鈥渉ave a coordinating team,鈥 that would dedicate the resources to treat these charges 鈥渋n the same way that violence or break and enters are, and having the will to prosecute.鈥
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Edited by Phil Hahn, interactive map feature by Jesse Tahirali
