Mark Vandermaas interviewed by CBC re Tom Keefer march in Caledonia

Not long ago I finished a short, but great radio interview w/CBC radio (French) out of Toronto who wanted my perspective on today’s march through Caledonia as the founder of the Caledonia Victims Project.

 

They were given material by the organizers of today’s takeover of the streets of Caledonia by Tom Keefer and his anti-capitalist allies that left the impression today’s march was about ‘commemmorating’ the occupation, but I talked about the flyer delivered to Haldimand homes in which they make it clear that the purpose was not about commemoration, but because Gary McHale & company (of which I am proud to be one) decided to walk down a county road through DCE, and how they are using the circumstances of a mentally disturbed person who tried to commit suicide by driving his car into the house on DCE.

 

I told him that it doesn’t matter whether they’re commemorating the beginning of a reign of terror against innocent people or reacting to non-native people who dared to walk down a county road, their goal is to legitimize the use of violence against innocent people as a political tool, by denying the humanity of their victims by pretending they don’t exist, by blaming the victims for the violence against them, and by attacking those who speak out for them. I said this was the essence of a supremacist ideology and, as the son of parents who lived under Nazi occupation, I found it disgusting and despicable.

 

I made clear that the victims also include native people; I mentioned the two rapes of native women on DCE, and that as a former soldier/peacekeeper I have a duty to speak for them too.