The
Heritage Front AffairA report to the Solicitor General of Canada
The
Heritage Front Affair
In order to avoid, where possible, taking part in confrontational activities
between the Heritage Front and others, the Source chose to become the "information
gathering" expert within the group.
From time to time, when Droege demanded action, the Source would have to
manoeuvre to maintain his credibility, and yet not divulge information.
He created a series of imaginary events to show that he was active, events
he would recount to Ken Barker, Elisse Hategan, Wolfgang Droege, and other
members of the Heritage Front. The Source's reports allowed the Service
to intervene if there was a likelihood of actual violence occurring.
Information gathering kept the Source away from the front lines, and actual
confrontations. He was not well known to police forces. The police, for
example:
"considered the Source to be an information gatherer. He was
known but not seen as an integral member of the Heritage Front."[1]
According to the Toronto Region Investigator, Holocaust denier Ernst
Zundel sometimes asked for information to be collected and, after approval
by Droege, the Source would appear to carry out the request. The Source
would have to appear enthusiastic, and active. In the end, however, he
would only provide information from public sources, and the handler was
always aware of what was passed. Sometimes the Source would degrade his
information before passing it on by transposing telephone numbers. And
sometimes the Source would stall, or indicate that information was too
expensive to acquire.
In early 1991, the Source found out that Terry Long was proposing to
set up a Canadian Aryan Computer Network. Long stated that American racist
Louis Beam enthusiastically supported the idea. Long also indicated that
he was developing a target list. Target lists were to be a main feature
of the network once it was established.
According
to CSIS files, on April 21, 1991, Droege established a computer link with
Long, and the first successful test message took place between the Aryan
Nations and the Heritage Front. That month, Wolfgang Droege and Ernst Zundel,
Holocaust denier and prolific publisher of hate literature, met publicly
at a Heritage Front meeting.[2]
Ernst
Zundel sometimes provided information, at Droege's request, to be
forwarded to Long. The information concerned various "enemies".
One piece of information, for example, was the licence plate number of
Meir Halevi, Leader of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) in Toronto.[3]
Droege
is not a computer person, Lincoln was the computer expert. Louis Beam was
said to be the brains behind the United States Aryan Computer Network,
which the Canadian supremacists were trying to emulate.
In
July 1991, the Source obtained and provided to CSIS a listing of personal
information which Droege received from Terry Long. The list was passed
promptly to the RCMP. "The list was presented as an intelligence
file in which the recipients are to contribute material when required".
Droege told the Source that the list was created so that the movement has
the required intelligence on targets when the 'Day of the Rope' arrives.
The Source believes that Droege was referring to a target 'hit list' which
would be used when the 'Race War' begins.
The list included 22 names of Canadians, some Jewish, some just plain enemies
(e.g., people who had fired Heritage Front members).
CSIS officers believed that this intelligence list was a partial one and
that a more comprehensive list was held by Long. They commented that it
would be interesting to see what action Droege or his associates took with
respect to providing additional information on the targets.
The Source was asked about the list of 22 persons. He said that few in
the movement could gain access to it. The Source stated that he did no
work to update the information he received, there was nothing new on the
list, but he gave it to his handler anyway.[4]
The Source was asked if he ever provided information to Terry Long. He
said he absolutely did not give information to Terry Long; it was a largely
a one-way street with the information going from Long to the Heritage Front
and not the other way.[5]
As late as February 1992, names were being placed on a computerized list.
For example, Terry Long's spouse asked two names to be added to the Aryan
Nations computer intelligence list. The two individuals were "enemies"
who had initiated a Human Rights complaint and a civil suit against her
husband. The investigator comments, however, that "Due to Terry
Long's absence, the computer connection with the Heritage Front appears
to have terminated." With the imprisonment of Terry Long, the
computer link, which was described by the Source as defective in any case,
appeared to have become inoperative. These names also were passed to the
RCMP.
The
Heritage Front's telephone Hate Line was established in the Summer of 1991.
It was to be the target of a number of legal actions by the Jewish and
Native communities, and was to be stopped, and then restarted seven times
over the next three years.[6] Through the
Summer and Fall of 1991, work continued on the hate line. We learned that
Lincoln dictated the message, as approved by Droege, on the answering machine.
Eventually, the hotline was mainly Gary Schipper's project, and certainly
the voice was his.
The first record we have of activities involving anti-racists concerns
the attendance of Heritage Front members on September 24, 1991 at the Toronto
Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations. At the meeting, Paul
Fromm allegedly interrupted Rodney Bobiwash by shouting "scalp
them", resulting in a confrontation. Subsequently, as a result
of the confrontation, some Front members were ejected, but two of them,
Lincoln and Bristow were able to stay as members of the general public.
In early 1992, according to a magazine article, a new kind of militant
anti-racist group, Anti-Racist Action was born.[7]
In a "three hour festival of vocal havoc and counter-intimidation"
in front of Toronto's Ristorante Roma, Anti-Racist Action demonstrators
tried to confront the estimated 40 skinheads inside.
"Finally, at 11:00 p.m., a cordon of officers shielded the Neo-Nazi's
from a barrage of eggs as they fled the scene".[8]
The Ristorante Roma incident was to "characterize what ARA was
going to be like". According to Kevin Thomas:
"The group ... was mostly made up of people who hadn't done
anything like this before, so we weren't going to abide by the rules laid
out for people on how you're supposed to negotiate political action. It
was like, 'no we'll do whatever works'. There's been sort of that theme
all along".[9]
At the Ristorante Roma, Droege asked Grant Bristow to negotiate between
the two groups. The police wanted people to leave the premises peacefully
and, with Grant Bristow urging a peaceful withdrawal, this took place.[10]
The Anti-Racist Action, or ARA, according to "This Magazine"
had the motto, "Do what works. It's what works that counts. Do
it now, right this instant". ARA newsletters provided information
on how to "hack into" the Heritage Front hate line and
block messages. ARA members demonstrated in front of Heritage Front meetings,
and would confront individual Heritage Front members. ARA members would
not wait for the Heritage Front to act first. Eventually, a small group
of ARA members would "trash" (vandalize) Gary Schipper's
house.[11]
According to the ARA, "hate was getting younger"
and it was becoming attached to street violence. It was time for different
solutions:
"a number of inner city youth who'd had run ins with the skin-heads
decided that court battles against phone lines weren't enough. Federal
laws might be able to stop racist propaganda after a few years of hearings,
they figured, but they didn't help much when skin-heads were threatening
you in your favourite drinking hole or in front of your locker".[12]
Both the Heritage Front and the anti-racist leadership agreed on one
thing: their market for recruits was the disaffected young. The first indication
in CSIS files of actions involving high schools is a reference in June
1990 to Wolfgang Droege telling Grant Bristow about plans to distribute
leaflets at a
school. He also talked about "spray painting and vandalism operations"
to respond to actions by anti-racists.
By late 1992, the Heritage Front began recruiting in earnest. According
to one account:
"Heritage Front members leafleted and visited dozens of high
schools in Southern Ontario, seeking to tap the frustrations of kids who
faced dismal job prospects and were willing to blame it all on immigrants
and non-whites".[13]
Recruiting at high schools led the Heritage Front into direct conflict
with the ARA, and with High School staff. The ARA started holding meetings
at high schools, and putting their positions forward.
Both sides then started targeting students who were members of their opponent's
organization.
We learned that to discredit the anti-racists, Bristow advised Droege that
he had contacted the principal of Riverdale Collegiate and asked why he
had allowed a paedophile to enter the school premises and speak to children.
Bristow claimed the principal had been in tears.
In August 1994, after Bristow was alleged to be a CSIS source by the media,
Droege provided his version of Bristow's contact with Riverdale Collegiate
to another reporter. He alleged that Bristow stated 'we are going to make
sure that they will never have another meeting at any of the schools in
Toronto.' Droege explained that Bristow had identified someone as being
a child molester and he informed the principal and the School Board Trustees
that some convicted paedophiles were affiliated (with ARA). Bristow then
threatened to make this information public if they (principal and school
trustees) persisted in allowing ARA to hold meetings.
The Review Committee spoke to the Principal, at the time, of Riverdale
Collegiate. He said that he had not received any calls from any Heritage
Front member, and that no school staff member had told him of receiving
any such calls.[14]
According to the Source, quite a few people were calling schools. Droege
was reported as having called the Ministry of Education as well as schools.
The Source said that he told Droege that he had talked to such Board officials,
but actually, he had not. The handler said that he believed that the Source
was not involved in this type of activity.[15]
In the Summer or early Fall of 1992, Rodney Bobiwash set up the group
called "Klanbusters". They had discovered a method of
finding the remote code (usually two digits) of answering machines. They
used this knowledge to access Droege's answering machine. They could change
the message he left on his machine, and they could note his callers and
then telephone them.
Droege would later tell the Review Committee that among those who made
threatening telephone calls to the Heritage Front hotline were the ARA
and "various leftist groups, such as the International Socialists,
also Trotskyites; the Jewish Students Network."[16]
In return, Droege learned how to obtain the code which allowed external
access to the Klanbuster hotline message centre. He was thus able to obtain
the names (not identified) of "two left-wing types who were attempting
to infiltrate the Heritage Front". CSIS learned that Droege confided
to the source that he would like to actively conduct a counter-intelligence
program to identify these individuals and prevent further penetration.
He also wanted to run informers into the left wing milieu.
The Source told SIRC that Marc Lemire probably taught Droege how to obtain
information from various answering machines and the Hotline.[17]
CSIS' Toronto Region thought that the Front was "taking internal
security matters very seriously. They are also branching out under Droege's
direction to include offensive counter-measures." This development
would likely increase the potential for violent confrontations between
the racists and the anti-racists.
Droege regularly called Bobiwash's machine. People who had left messages
for Bobiwash would get a call back from the Heritage Front. One of Lemire's
tricks was to put parts of Zundel's speeches on a tape loop which repeated
itself constantly, and feed it to the machines of Heritage Front opponents.[18]
Wolfgang Droege showed Bristow how to break into answering machines. He
alleged that much of Bristow's time was spent breaking into people's machines,
usually when they were not at home.[19] Droege
added that the Heritage Front people could break into two-digit machines
at will, in less than half an hour.
Toronto
Region learned that Church of the Creator leader George Burdi's right hand
man, Eric Fischer, and his brother, Carl (Elkar) Fischer, were helping
Grant Bristow perform security duties. On December 15, 1992, the Fischer
brothers and Bristow went to the Toronto Public Library to learn how use
a Toronto Mights Directory to trace telephone numbers, numbers obtained
from Droege's answering machine or from left-wing and anarchist telephone
hotlines and message centres. The Source reported that the brothers could
not work out how to use the MIGHTS Directory.[20]
The "IT" campaign apparently started at the end of
1992 and continued until about November, 1993. The "IT"
campaign drew on the information that the Heritage Front obtained by breaking
into answering machines. Most of the information came from Rodney Bobiwash's
"Klanbuster" machine.[21]
Elisse Hategan, who defected from the Heritage Front after she was charged
for a hate crime, stated in an affidavit that:
"when someone was made IT that person's life would be made miserable.
More precisely, the person would be reminded of the fact 24-hours a day;
one would not be able to eat or sleep in peace. Calls would be made at
home, at work, constantly, the goal being to make IT's life miserable,
get IT fired from IT's job and made to fear one's own shadow, until IT
felt IT was never alone for even a second, that IT was always watched.
There could only be one IT. The only way one could get out of being IT
was to give the name and phone number of another person in the ARA, so
that that person would take the place of IT."[22]
According to Hategan, she called several "victims"
at Bristow's urging, and she knew that he made some calls.[23]
Police authorities advised the Service that Hategan's information was not
very accurate.
According to the Source, some of the calls involved the statement "you
have been selected to be 'IT'. I am to become your closest personal
friend; if you don't want to be 'IT', give me the names and telephone
numbers of someone else and they can be IT".[24]
The Source invented the "IT" scenario in an attempt to
avoid criminal threatening charges. Originally, Droege wanted all the participating
HF members to phone ARA people and actually threaten them with bodily harm.[25]
After the press allegations in August 1994, Barker told a journalist that
he heard Bristow call up and incite people on the phone, two to three hours
a day, in the morning, usually from 9:15 hours to 11:30 hours. Barker continued
that he (Bristow) would get on the phone and Barker would sit there and
'roar' as he (Bristow) would call these people up and incite them, everything
from A to Z. At the time these comments were made, Droege and his associates
were fabricating information for the media.[26]
The Source acknowledged that he provided coaching and instruction for the
"IT" campaign.[27]
In
the case of Elisse Hategan, for example, the Source said he told her, "don't
break the law, do not threaten people; if they say 'you are harassing me',
don't call them back."
Droege wanted to involve other people and the Source was trying to control
the process. He thought that by having everyone work through him on the
"IT" campaign, he could retain the numbers that the Heritage
Front members collected. He could also restrict, to some extent, the participation
of others. To dissuade others from becoming involved, he would say that
he had the whole thing under control.[28]
According to the Source, as part of his instruction to others, he would
let them hear his technique on three-way calls. In making these calls,
he said that he did not harass nor issue threats. His only purpose was
to collect information on these "enemies of freedom."[29]
We learned that Gerry Lincoln told Droege that Bristow did not make a single
one of those (Harassment) calls. Droege agreed with this. Droege said that
Elisse Hategan was not bad, as she made it appear, it put it all onto Bristow's
shoulders, everything, which, in a way, was not bad at all.[30]
The Source stated that one has to understand the environment at the time.
Bobiwash's people were placing calls to the Heritage Front, making threats
and hanging up. Bobiwash's people eventually went and vandalized Gary Schipper's
home; activities Bobiwash described as "jocularity" in
Federal Court. The Source said that every faction was in on the act: threatening
and breaking into each other's machines. There was considerable anger amid
a climate of charges, counter-charges, posters, and telephone calls.[31]
According to Bristow, other people made most of the calls. He did, however,
call two people: a female anti-racist activist and Kevin Thomas.[32]
We
asked the Source about counter-intelligence activities against anti-racist
groups, and its potential impact on confrontations between anti-racists
and the Heritage Front.[33] He said that there
was no serious counter-intelligence program, and no "human sources".
If the left-wing had a march, Droege and/or Zundel would think it a good
idea for them to be covered.[34] Sometimes
Bristow would be on the street photographing and taking numbers, sometimes
Fischer or Hategan did this.[35]
The Source was asked about the use of "plants" (Heritage
Front people who attended ARA meetings). He said that there were none.
Some of Eric Fischer's people, however, were working against the anti-racists,
and this was reported to Droege. Fischer would place his people in the
anti-racist meetings and Bristow would debrief them along with Fischer
when they reported back. In February 1993, Wolfgang Droege was told that
the Klanbusters and the International Socialists were going to hold meetings
and that someone from the Church of the Creator (COTC) would be covering
the meetings. The COTC persons who were sent by Fischer to cover the meetings
were Talic and Cake. Their job was to find out what was going on.[36]
However, they soon became bored with this activity, and stopped attending
the meetings.[37]
Al Overfield alleges that he received a list of known "lefties"
from Bristow, and that the Source was also attempting to obtain Rodney
Bobiwash's home address.
Bristow said that he had never provided a list of known "lefties"
allegedly obtained from the Heritage Front counter-intelligence program
to Overfield. The Source said that Bristow did provide some names, under
instruction from Droege, which had appeared on Droege's answering machine.
The Source consulted with the Toronto Region Investigator, who said that
he could provide telephone numbers to others if the information received
from the answering machine was specific and well known.
According to the Source, Droege was seeking Bobiwash's address. Droege
wanted to attack Bobiwash. Had the Source wanted to do so, he could have
obtained the address quite easily.[38]
Droege wanted Bristow to obtain the addresses of Kevin Thomas and the other
ARA leaders. The only addresses that Droege ever obtained, said the Source,
were the ones he developed himself.[39]
The information on the harassment of the anti-racists is somewhat sparse
due to the nature of the events themselves and because of the refusal of
Members of the ARA to cooperate with the Review Committee. The events described
below indicate what was alleged to have happened to three present or former
members of the Anti-Racist Action group.
The anti-racist activist is a former ARA member who, in her own words,
was one of the most active ARA members for a two or three month period.
She told SIRC that she was subject to intense harassment from January to
April 1993. During this period, she received 25 to 30 calls every day,
at all hours of the day and night. This diminished to 25-30 calls a week
between May and July 1993.
The Source said that the activist appeared to be both stable and aggressive.
Bristow's calls involved "you're IT" at normal hours.
Many other people probably also called her. The "IT" campaign
was to collect information and was not designed to harass anyone day and
night. The Investigator acknowledged the possibility however, that some
of the younger Front members may have spent some nights making such calls.
Though most of the harassment took the form of telephone calls, the activist
said there was also some "stalking". She would be told
that "we know that you were here and here and here during the day"
and "we're watching your every move". During the January-April
period, she said the calls involved increasing threats of violence. In
early March, she was told that her house would be fire-bombed. The activist
said that she never reported the incident to the police. The telephone
harassment calls at her home involved many "hang-ups"
and disguised voices. She said that she did not report the harassment campaign
to the police.
The Source told the Review Committee that no "stalking"
took place because Heritage Front members never had the patience to engage
in that type of activity. The Source said he has no knowledge of anyone
ever being placed under surveillance. If it had happened, the Source said
he would have known about it in due course.[40]
The activist said that some of the calls did not appear, initially,
to be harassment. For example, she would be told that the caller's child
had been injured at an ARA rally and that the caller wanted to speak to
someone about the issue. When she asked "how did you get my home
number", the caller would hang up. The Toronto Region Investigator
said this type of call may have been part of the harassment campaign. However,
it was an unusual type of call for the Heritage Front, and he had not previously
heard about it.
The activist spoke of a number of additional specific incidents. Her descriptions
and the Source's responses are provided below.
In January 1993, while sick at home from her job, the activist's boss was
called, and told that she was videotaped at an ARA demonstration. Bristow
said that Droege wanted a few people to call her boss to say that she was
out demonstrating and they hoped that she did not call in sick.[41]
The Toronto Region Investigator said that Droege authorized the telephone
harassment campaign, and the Source controlled it. One call to the activist's
employer was made by Bristow, as a conference call with Mitrevski also
on the line. The Investigator told the Source to try to avoid getting into
that sort of situation.[42]
A mock Heritage Front flyer was distributed which listed the activist's
home address, thus giving the impression that she was a Heritage Front
member. The perpetrator was actually an anti-racist who was tricked into
preparing the flyers.
The handler indicated that the Source did not distribute the hate flyer
involving the activist. Nor did the Source threaten to fire-bomb her house.
He was not surprised at the frequency of the harassment calls; he thought
it was something the younger or violent members could do.[43]
The Source created a series of imaginary events which he told Heritage
Front members had happened; e.g., he had called the anti-racists to tell
them that a Heritage Front event was going to be at a certain place and
to knock hard; then he would call others to say they were from the Neo-Nazi
Welcome Wagon and the Nazis could be found at a such an such address. [44]
On one occasion, a Heritage Front member actually did this type of thing.
A racist, posing as an anti-racist, called an ARA member and said that
there was going to be a Heritage Front action at the activist's house;
the ARA sent over a large contingent to ward off a possible Front attack.[45]
In this case, the Heritage Front used the name of an individual taken from
Bobiwash's answering machine. Droege had said that they were to use that
fellow's name to get the left working against the left. The Source said
that Droege himself probably made the call.[46]
The activist said that skinheads would often sit on a bench across the
street from her office; they would just wait there and stare at her while
she was at her desk.
The activist was informed by others in the movement that Grant Bristow
was responsible for making the telephone calls. She was told by ARA members
that their "ears had pricked up" when they had heard Bristow
speak at a meeting - they had allegedly heard the voice in harassment calls.[47]
We asked the Source about the harassment of the activist. He said that
she was singled out after someone made a harassment call to Droege's machine.
Her telephone number was compared to a master list of names and numbers
on Bobiwash's list.
When the Review Committee checked a short Heritage Front list of callers
which was provided to CSIS by the Source, we did not see the number that
the activist told us she had at home during 1993. Other lists may exist
however.
According to the Source, the harassment telephone calls to anti-racists
were not organized; everyone did it once they knew how to access answering
machines, and it developed on its own. Droege harnessed it into a program.[48]
The activist was said to be one of the last persons harassed.
In one of the affidavits filed by Elisse Hategan on September 23, 1993,
she recounted her perception of what had taken place:
"[Grant] said Sister [Activist] had been under a lot of stress
lately, and she was on temporary leave from work. He said the fact that
[the Activist] had been IT caused her a lot of stress, and he seemed to
take credit for it. He said that [the Activist] was not getting a moment
in peace - people were calling her in the middle of the night, at all times
of day and night, they'd also been doing it at work, and the pressure was
too much for her to handle, that she had to take a leave of absence. He
said he thought she'd had a breakdown - in fact, he was sure of it. By
this time, Grant was laughing really hard and was almost in tears - he
said she had tried very hard to hold unto sanity and not given any names
as of yet, but he was confident she'd break soon. He said she even had
people move in with her, because she was so scared."
After the Toronto Region Investigator expressed concern about the campaign
against the activist, the Source tried to diminish the Front's interest
by telling members that she had lost her job and that they should take
the heat off her.[49]
The Toronto handler discussed, in general, the telephone harassment campaign.
He noted that the telephone harassment blitz started with quite a few people
being harassed and then the procedure was narrowed down. At the start,
everyone was phoning people on the lists they had collected. After about
a month, the calls started to become very threatening and the possibility
of violence occurring had become very real. According to the Source, by
the Summer of 1993, as a result of the "IT" campaign,
the calls had became more of an information collection exercise under the
Source's direction.[50]
The handler noted that the Source tampered with the numbers on the lists
of names designated for phoning. When a list of people was given to the
Heritage Front members, some of the names and the telephone numbers were
changed by the Source. Not all of them were changed, particularly those
of prominent individuals such as Kevin Thomas, because suspicions would
have been raised.[51]
The harassment calls started abating in June 1993, and finally stopped
in November 1993. According to the Source, the harassment program was viewed
as a major victory by the Heritage Front. His understanding was that most
of the harassment calls ended in the Summer, and that no physical harm
resulted from the program.[52]
Press accounts stated that "Kevin Thomas was made 'IT' for awhile".
One media report stated:
"At first, it was simply probes for information. He was called
at work by a man he later realized was Bristow. "He said he was Ron
Tafner, and was supposedly from the Ottawa Citizen". Unable to get
information from him, Bristow apparently changed tactics, Thomas says.
The calls - made to his business - would sometimes be profane and abusive.
In June 1993 - after bloody clashes between racists and anti-racists -
Bristow led a group of Front members to Thomas' Richmond Street offices
and told his landlord Thomas was a violent terrorist and had a record of
procuring children for sex."[53]
In a The Fifth Estate interview, Thomas indicated that most of what
was said was "just plain abuse - "he [Bristow] would call
me a repulsive little shithead or call me a loser, or coward, or whatever
he could think of". Thomas went on:
"When you are taking on Neo-Nazi's, you go in expecting that
it's going to be dirty and its gonna be violent because that's the nature
of a Neo-Nazi organization like the Heritage Front, but you don't expect
that to come from the government. You don't expect it to be somebody who
is actually paid to go and do that and to orchestrate it and to organize
other people to do it. You don't expect them to have somebody paid to make
phone calls, to make threats, to make your life miserable."
The commentator added, "Police sources say CSIS knew exactly
what Bristow was up to."[54]
We learned that Droege told a journalist in September 1994 that Bristow
et al would go to Kevin Thomas' office building to let Thomas know they
were there and when they could not do that, they went to a few of the neighbours
on the floor in the building and said 'this blackbird next door, you better
watch them, they are anti-racists, they are terrorists, they procure children
for sexual favours', all kinds of nasty stuff, right up to telling them
that these individuals such as Kevin Thomas, were 'hooping little gerbils.'
We asked the Source to identify who had led the effort to obtain the names
of the ARA leaders and their home addresses. He said that Droege wanted
him to obtain the addresses of Kevin Thomas and the other ARA leaders.
According to the Source, the only addresses which Droege ever possessed
were the ones he developed himself.
According to the handler, Thomas was on a list of names subject to telephone
harassment. Because he was so well known, the Source could not tamper with
his telephone number.[55] The Source said
that he did pass along information concerning the location of the ARA hotline
and where Kevin Thomas worked. In general, the Source only provided information
from newspaper articles which named leftists who appeared in Court.
Bristow did not remember calling Thomas at his place of work, describing
himself as a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen; though he said this could
have been the case.[56] According to Bristow,
he once called Thomas a "repulsive little shithead", adding
that it was said in Rodney Bobiwash's "jocular fashion";
Thomas and Bristow were always exchanging slurs.[57]
The Source provided the context to the Front members' visit to Thomas'
workplace. Droege was before the Courts, and Thomas had sent people down
to the Court, and to a radio station show, to make derogatory statements
about the racists. In the end, Droege was denied bail, and his people were
angry and wanted action. The Source told them to calm down, and Bristow
took them in a car to go on a mission to check out Kevin Thomas' workplace.[58]
He said that they did not enter the workplace.
According to the Source, he was not involved in identifying residences
to be "trashed". Dawson, Paul Graham and another couple
had "spun by" Thomas' place in Bristow's car. The Source
conveyed the message that things were under control, and that they should
take the moral high ground and let the others get arrested (in relation
to houses being trashed). The Source defused the situation.[59]
Regarding the alleged call to Thomas by someone posing as an Ottawa Citizen
reporter, the Toronto Investigator said that the Source does not believe
that Bristow made the call; there was no evidence found to confirm that
such a call was made. The Investigator had no knowledge of the Source going
to Thomas' neighbours and complaining about him.
An affidavit signed by Elisse Hategan on September 23, 1993 attested
that activist Merle Terlesky was harassed day and night. The Review Committee
asked the Source who organized and carried it out. He said that Terlesky
was "talked to" by Droege and Bristow, but he was not
aware of Terlesky ever being harassed.
Apparently, when Barker saw information in the newspapers about a charge
against Terlesky, he ordered gerbils to be sent to Terlesky's house. According
to the Source, Terlesky was probably the activist on the left who commanded
the most respect from Droege.
In
March 1993, according to one media account, Bristow had a part in the production
of the "Animal Series #2" flyer. Specifically, he had
added the names and home addresses of anti-racists used on the poster,
and had photocopied the document at Al Overfield's house.[60]
The "Animal Series #2" flyer, was a poster combining the
body of an ape with the head of a gorilla. The Heritage Front flyer is
actually a doctored reproduction of a much earlier American racist poster.
In October 1993, Elisse Hategan was charged with publishing defamatory
libel, and wilful promotion of hatred. In her sworn affidavit dated September
23, 1993, Hategan affirmed that she was informed that Al Overfield produced
the flyers that she was arrested for distributing.
We have learned that Al Overfield mentioned to Droege that Bristow was
supposed to come over (to Overfield's residence) because they were going
to do 'Animal Series Number 2' and something about the homo child molester.[61]
According to Al Overfield, Bristow actually produced the flyer on a copier
at Overfield's house. Our investigation further revealed that Bristow and
Droege discussed Hategan and her confusion. Bristow told him that Hategan
wanted to figure out if it was alright to say that she thought Bristow
was the one making up the stickers. Bristow said everybody in town was
to be told to keep their mouth shut this time around.
Droege told the Review Committee that it was Bristow's idea to put the
names of anti-racists on the "Animal Series" posters.
One of the names, said Droege was provided by Bristow as he "had
information as to where the main ARA organizers were."[62]
On February 17, 1993, we learned that Droege told Bristow that Hategan
had been arrested for those posters that Overfield had made up. Bristow
said they should find out how many posters had been made up and Droege
replied that only Overfield would know that. Droege then contacted Overfield
and told him to dispose of the Animal Life Series posters. Overfield said
he would do that right away.
We asked Bristow about the production and distribution of the posters.
He indicated that he had passed some names from Droege to Overfield, names
such as "Celeste", that were eventually used on the posters.
These were names of anti-racists to whom the poster was attributed. Other
than that, he had no role in the poster affair. In the case of the flyers,
Overfield developed them, and had a formal unveiling. Overfield produced
the flyers, and gave them to Droege. Droege then gave them to Elisse Hategan,
who gave them to others.
The Toronto Region Investigator said that the Source does not think that
Bristow had any role other than to provide the ARA names to Overfield.
The Investigator said that the Source discussed Bristow's relationship
with Hategan. He noted that Bristow used to pick on Hategan and they disliked
each other intensely. Bristow intended to get under Hategan's skin. He
hoped that he could force Hategan into leaving the Heritage Front.[63]
On September 23, 1993, Elisse Hategan signed a number of affidavits.
Hategan told reporters that she had "given sworn statements that involved
Grant Bristow in harassment campaigns, but nothing had been done".[64]
According to Hategan, "Bristow orchestrated a vicious harassment
campaign targeting individual anti-racists".[65]
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation stated that not only did CSIS not
act on these allegations, but the Toronto Region Investigator made statements
that he would discredit her.[66]
The Toronto Region Investigator denied that he made those statements, and
was dismayed because he knows they originate with someone who was once
a colleague. The Investigator instructed the Source to stay away from her,
saying she was nothing but trouble. He added that he probably told other
agencies that Hategan was not credible; at one point she had a very active
role in the Extreme Right Movement, and she had had a sudden change of
heart after being charged.[67]
We looked at the affidavits, and, whereas they provided background for
our study, in one expert opinion:
"The assessment of the information provided was that it was
hearsay and in the absence of direct evidence, not sufficient to support
a criminal investigation".68 The Source was asked about the accuracy
of the September 23, 1993 affidavits, but he said that he had not seen
them.69 Wolfgang Droege, for his part said that Elisse "didn't lie
out-right" but had a tendency to misread situations, and "things
got twisted".[70]
The Source said that Droege used to delight in telling stories to Hategan.
For example, when he showed her sand in a jar, he said "that once
she kills someone and they're cremated, she gets one too". Max
French actually brought the jar of regular sand back from Libya.[71]
On
June 11, 1993, an estimated two hundred and fifty ARA members headed from
downtown into the East End of Toronto by streetcar. "Rather than
wait for a far right gathering, ARA organizers decided to take a proactive
approach."[72]
The demonstrators poured into a neighbourhood near Gary Schipper's house.
Gary Schipper was believed to be the voice on the Heritage Front hate line.
According to one ARA member, "ARA intended to 'out' Schipper, to
expose his previously secret address to his blue collar, ethnically diverse
neighbours."[73]
According to one article, the police were out in force, but they mistakenly
believed that the ARA target was Ernst Zundel's house. A small number of
ARA members "launched into their most aggressive action yet".
"A dozen masked protesters hurled rocks at Schipper's house, smashing
his windows and battering his door. One protester threw a neighbour's tricycle
through Schipper's front window, and police even found human excrement
among the debris splattering the building".[74]
Droege told the Committee that after the attack on Schipper's house, Bristow
was "over at Alan Gardens agitating our people to go over to Sneaky
Dees", the "hangout for so-called anti-racists."[75]
Droege said that he agreed, but suggested that the ARA be the aggressors
and told Bristow to "keep them (the HF members) in line."[76]
Bristow, Droege said, was across the street from Sneaky Dees with
two girls and he started calling the anti-racists names which started the
two groups fighting. Droege noted that police arrived immediately, almost
as though they had been tipped off.[77] Droege
was among those arrested and charged by the police for several offenses.
According to the Source, the Heritage Front thought Zundel's house was
going to be hit. They were using police radio scanners, and when it was
clear that Zundel's house was not going to be hit, they headed to the East
End. Initially, Bristow told Droege that it might be Mitrevski's place;
then he concluded that it would be Schipper's place and he notified the
police.
After the house was vandalized, the Source said that he went to Schipper's
home to get the telephone lists, the contact logs, etc. He persuaded Schipper
to remove them from the house, and give them to him. The Source said that
he later gave all of this information to the Toronto Region Investigator.
The
Source said that after leaving Schipper's house, Droege and Bristow first
met in an underground garage, and then moved downtown near Gerrard Square
and discussed their options. Droege was upset and wanted the strongest
worded protest to go out because the Metro Police had not intervened.
Later, said the Source, they all went to Zundel's house. Droege
wanted a beer, but Zundel did not approve and said that everyone should
go home. Droege was upset, but Zundel was not; it was not his house that
had been trashed.[78] George Burdi (Church
of the Creator) was present and said that they should take a group and
lose the police.
According to the Source, Droege and the others went to Sneaky Dees to have
a beer. After an hour, Droege told everyone to go home. When they left
a fight erupted with the anti-racists. The Source passed information as
to where the attackers went to the police.[79]
The Source did not provide Droege with the names of the demonstrators,
but people identified some of them using videos of news accounts. Lincoln
took still photos from the videos and they were handed out to Heritage
Front members. Ernst Zundel's expensive equipment was used for this purpose.[80]
Prior
to the confrontation, the Investigator said that he had learned that Bristow
told the HF people to settle down. George Burdi, a charismatic speaker,
was the person who addressed the crowd in the park before going to Sneaky
Dees.[81] 
In September 1994, Droege and Barker alleged to a journalist that Bristow
told HF members to go down to Sneaky Dees to confront the anti-racists
and he "pumped them up" in the park before the confrontation.
According to Bristow, he absolutely did not tell Heritage Front members
to go down to Sneaky Dees to confront the anti-racists. George Burdi got
out a megaphone in the park before the confrontation and rallied the Heritage
Front people. He added that there was no confrontation until after the
anti-racists started throwing bottles at them.[82]
In May 1993, an estimated five hundred ARA supporters demonstrated outside
a Heritage Front recruitment concert in Ottawa. The racist band, RaHoWa
[83], was playing to a crowd of about 60 skinheads.
What followed was a series of scuffles and fights involving the police,
Heritage Front members, and Anti-Racist Action supporters. The Source was
not present in Ottawa at the time. He had, however, been able to pass along
"inside" information about the Anti-Racist Action group
forming in Ottawa, and its support from Toronto. He told CSIS that the
ARA would be sending two carloads of supporters from Toronto to participate
in the Ottawa demonstrations.
After the 1993 Ottawa near-riot, the Heritage Front became more militant.
We learned that Droege confided to the source that he had instructed Grant
Bristow to again continue a counter-intelligence program against the ARA
with the purpose of identifying the leaders and their home addresses. He
also wanted to identify ARA meeting places for the purpose of attending
at meetings in an effort to intimidate and/or provoke the ARA into further
violent actions which he was confident the HF would win.
Bristow made himself out to be a security expert. Certainly, he was
viewed by Heritage Front members as the security expert, and at one point
even conducted a pretence "sweep"
of Zundel's house for hidden microphones. Sometimes he would talk to Front
members on security matters. At one meeting, for example, Droege asked
him to talk about the capability of listening devices.
In 1993, Peter Mitrevski contacted Bristow to talk about tracing people
through marriage certificate records. He agreed to help Mitrevski with
the marriage certificate technique, but knew that it was far more complicated
than the book which Mitrevski had bought, made it appear.[84]
Mitrevski was apparently trying to locate Bill Dunphy as he had recently
purchased an instruction manual on how to track people and obtain information
from various government records.
Droege
asked Bristow to demonstrate the criss-cross directories to the Fisher
brothers, but his instructions resulted in their being unable to understand
how to use them.
At one point Fischer wanted Bristow to give a lecture on basic security
techniques. The information he conveyed came from open sources.
Bristow gave COTC members a lecture on basic security. He told them that
they should not get an answering machine with a two-digit remote code.
He suggested that they get unlisted telephone numbers and voice-mail. He
also suggested that they use post office boxes as the addresses for their
Drivers Licences.[85]
According to the Source, Bristow never gave Front or Church members significant
or sophisticated security information. He told people in the Front to put
up aluminum on their windows to deter parabolic microphones and some of
them actually did so. And at one point, he had Dawson writing messages
using a code book and one time pads. This kept Dawson occupied.[86]
We asked Bristow if he had taught any actual intelligence tradecraft to
the Heritage Front or Church of the Creator members. He said that he had
not. To avoid surveillance, he had instructed the Heritage Front members
to walk for some distance and then to turn around and walk back.[87]
A reporter knew of an incident in which a woman's tires were slashed
but he was not certain who had done it. According to the Source, he learned
that a woman's tires had been slashed from the hotline and from his handler.
He had no personal knowledge of the act but he thought it might have been
committed by Droege. Droege would go out three or four nights a week for
the bailiff company and he needed an assistant after Bristow left, so he
took on Mitrevski. In fact, both Dawson and Mitrevski were used as drivers
for Droege's repossession business.[88]
A reporter asked Droege if Bristow was involved in the firebombing of Mona
Zetner's house and Droege said that he did not believe so. The Source also
stated that he did not know who bombed Mona Zetner's house.[89]
Wolfgang Droege alleged that Bristow planned to break into Hategan's house
in June or July 1993. We have no evidence that this was the case.
When the media stories about CSIS and the Heritage Front first aired
in mid-August 1994, they significantly increased the already high level
of fear in Jewish communities, particularly in Toronto which has Canada's
biggest Jewish population. [90] Jewish communities
around the world were still reeling from the bombing of a Jewish community
centre in Buenos Aires. Of particular concern were the allegations that
Grant Bristow might have passed on the names of Jewish community leaders
to the white supremacist movement.
A representative of B'nai Brith said that he felt a sense of betrayal,
that CSIS "may have turned into an instrument which has helped
to promote hatred and racism in this country".[91]
With these concerns in mind, the Review Committee investigated the allegations
pertaining to the Jewish community.
We asked the Source about the Heritage Front's strategy towards Jewish
groups. He said that the Heritage Front had no general position regarding
Jewish groups. Wolfgang Droege perceived the Jewish Lobby to be too big
an opponent for him to confront. Droege, said the Source, knew that he
did not have enough resources to fight the Jewish groups.[92]
The Source believed that Droege's personal feelings were that the Jewish
groups represented an enemy lobby, and that they were responsible for multi-racial
schools and race mixing. He would monitor them through the Jewish community
newspapers such as the "Covenant", the "Canadian
Jewish News", and "Forward".
Droege's aim was to get back at the Jews through political lobbying. Others
in the movement, however, did not understand his strategy. The Aryan Nations
believed, for example, that they were the last tribe of the real Jews and
they pushed Droege to take physical action. Gerry
Lincoln, closely associated with Ernst Zundel, would constantly defend
the message of Holocaust denial.[93]
We asked the Source about his dealings with Bernie Farber, the National
Director of Community Relations with the Canadian Jewish Congress. The
Source never talked much to Farber, but saw him in Court.
The Church of the Creator, Droege, and the skinheads all believed, said
the Source, that Farber was the major enemy of the Heritage Front, and
he was certainly the most reviled of all their "enemies".
There was a major effort to find Farber's residence, but the Source did
not help, and the HF never succeeded. The Source said that he could have
found it easily if he had wanted to.[94]
On
April 4, 1993, B'nai Brith lawyer Marvin Kurz, a member of the Toronto
Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations attended an orientation
for new members of the group. There, he told the Review Committee, a person
who he thought might have been Grant Bristow tried to intimidate him by
looming over him, implying that he knew where he lived, and staring at
the lawyer.[95]
Prior to the meeting, Kurz had written a letter, with his address in the
heading, to Droege threatening to sue for libel based on Front hateline
statements about the B'nai Brith staff. The Front had offered a retraction.
At the Mayor's meeting, Kurz said, Droege pulled him over and another person,
who Kurz thought might be Bristow, stood over Kurz saying, "we
thought you lived in Brampton". Kurz wondered if they would follow
him home. He said that Janice Dembo, Coordinator of the Mayor's Committee,
saw him standing there with another person and Droege, and she took Kurz
out the back way.[96]
Janice Dembo recalls that Burdi, Lemire, Barker and Droege tried to disrupt
the meeting, assuming it was the same one that Kurz referred to. Kurz came
up to Dembo and said that the HF was "hassling him and he kept
going on about Droege and Barker." He was in an agitated state,
and she had others escort him out of the building. She does not specifically
remember extricating him, although she says it is possible.[97]
Kurz was not positive that Bristow was involved and, indeed, his memory
was only jogged in the wake of the press allegations in 1994, when Wolfgang
Droege called him. Droege offered to help Kurz lay a complaint against
Bristow based on the incident.[98]
Wolfgang Droege would later tell the Review Committee that, for him, it
was important to keep in touch with his opponents, and to be able to discuss
differences. He alleged that he was having a peaceful conversation when
Bristow showed up on the scene, "got into the man's (Kurz's) face",
and was generally menacing. Kurz was a small man, and he sought protection.[99]
According to Bristow, he said to Droege, "don't talk with that
low life, let's get out of here." At that point, Metro Toronto
Police officers were standing at Grant Bristow's shoulder and he was not
about to make a commotion. Droege then said that "Marvin Kurz is
not a bad guy", and went and had his picture taken with Michael
Lublin (see Chapter V, section 5.6.1).
Bristow does not think there was another incident in which he might have
intimidated Kurz. According to Bristow, he had every opportunity to harass
Kurz if he had wanted to; he lived near to Kurz at the time and knew his
address from his letterhead.[100]
On May 6, 1993, Grant Bristow approached the President of the Jewish
Students' network (JSN) who was participating in a demonstration outside
the Ontario Attorney General's office in Toronto. The protest by the Jewish
Student Network concerned the provincial government not moving quickly
enough on hate crimes prosecution/legislation. She said that she recognized
Wolfgang Droege and Peter Mitrevski in the crowd.[101]
The President was handing out her business card to the media and
gave one to a "Trevor Graham", who, she said, represented
himself as a reporter for the "Ottawa Citizen" and a writer
for the "Canadian Press". Trevor Graham was Grant Bristow.[102]
The next day, on May 7, 1993, "Graham" called her, identified
himself and, in the course of the discussion, said that he had had a conversation
with Wolfgang Droege. He described the conversation in such a friendly
way "with the Nazi" that she became suspicious. She pretended,
nevertheless, to be friendly despite her suspicions.[103]
During her conversation with him, Graham (Bristow) did not ask about information
the Network possessed on white supremacists. He did ask about how the group
was organized and the names of the students who worked there. She felt
these were not appropriate questions.[104]
She was not sure how her conversation with "Graham" ended;
she telephoned the "Ottawa Citizen" and the "Canadian
Press" that day and they both indicated that they had never heard
of "Graham". She then spoke to the B'nai Brith and the
Canadian Jewish Congress. Several days later, she went to Bernie Farber's
office at the Canadian Jewish Congress, where she looked through an album
of photos of racists. She recognized Bristow from his photo in a Toronto
Sun story.[105]
Bernie Farber called author Warren Kinsella to find out if Trevor Graham
was associated with him.[106] Warren Kinsella
said he had no connection with Graham and complained to the Ottawa Police
that Grant Bristow had been using his name to seek information from Jewish
groups. The Ottawa Police informed Kinsella that the incident was in the
Metro Toronto Police Force's jurisdiction. Approximately two weeks later,
the Ottawa Police checked with their Toronto counterparts and learned that
Kinsella had filed a complaint. The basis for the complaint was that:
"Bristow had claimed to be working for Kinsella in researching
Kinsella's latest book; enquiring about the organization's knowledge of
skinheads and the White Supremacist movements. Bristow also requested access
to their files."
The Metro Toronto Police Force received a FAX from Warren Kinsella about
the incident and, on review, concluded that no criminal offense had been
committed; the Crown could not establish a prima facie case. No report
was filed as there was no offence in the Criminal Code to cover it: Trevor
Graham did not exist.
When "the Heritage Front Affair" became public knowledge,
the Metro Toronto Police Intelligence Unit resubmitted the information
to the Crown. The feedback they received was that there was no "personation"
because there was no such person as Graham. No formal complaint had been
submitted by a Jewish group[107].
According to Bristow's account, he volunteered to collect information on
the periphery of the demonstration. Members of the Church of the Creator
and the Heritage Front had been starting to merge and Bristow did not want
to be on the front lines as there was a good chance the media would be
there. He asked Droege, "why don't I wander around the crowd to
find out who is here."[108]
Droege's version is that Bristow "felt it was important for us
to find out as to what information they possessed. So he was going to try
to infiltrate them or at least try to gather information from them."[109]
Bristow said that he approached a woman who identified herself as the President
of the Jewish Student's Network. Bristow does not remember the name he
gave. During the brief discussion, Bristow received a business card with
the Network's address and a telephone number. He said that he had no reason
to ask for it, but she did not object to providing it.[110]
Bristow said to the Review Committee that he had no desire to pursue the
matter further, but Droege said that he should find out more about the
group, for example how many members they had. He told Bristow to call her
to learn more of this kind of information. Droege also wanted to know what
others knew about him and the right wing, as he was facing numerous tribunals.[111]
From the business card, they realized that the Student Network office was
located in close proximity to other Jewish organizations, and Droege thought
that maybe Bernie Farber was secretly controlling the group. Droege thought
that Farber was capable of using "cutouts". Droege believed
that the President of the Jewish Students' Network was, in fact, an agent
of Bernie Farber, because he had seen them together on other occasions.[112]
Bristow said that he called the President of the Jewish Students' Network
but not for the purpose of obtaining information to target people. He purposely
gave her good reason to be suspicious by saying that "Droege was
not such a bad guy". She gave him no information. He then went
back to Droege and said, "I think they are suspicious, Wolfgang."[113]
The Source said that he was sure that he had told the Investigator of Bristow's
meeting and telephone call to the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
According to the Toronto Region Investigator, he was informed about the
Jewish Student Network event immediately after it occurred. CSIS had issued
a threat assessment concerning the Heritage Front visit to Marianne Boyd's
office. The Source called the Investigator and said that Bristow had talked
to the President of the Jewish Students' Network using the name Trevor
Graham. Bristow did not directly say he was working for Kinsella.
Two incidents were described to the Committee which involved community
events in Toronto, and about which we received contradictory information
regarding the presence of Grant Bristow and the Jewish Students' Network.
On June 8, 1993, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre organized a presentation at
the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.[114]
The event featured a lecture by Yarom Svoray on his infiltration of neo-Nazi
groups in Germany. The President of the Jewish Students' Network said that
she was certain that she saw George Burdi and Joe Talic of the Church of
the Creator there and that the security personnel were informed.[115]
She thought that Bristow was also present, but she could not be absolutely
certain that it was him as she had seen him only once before. Talic was
asked to present his identification, and the group was asked to leave.[116]
Bristow told the Review Committee that he does not believe that he was
there.[117]
The second incident took place in May 1993, and involved the harassment
of B'nai Brith officials. During that month, a public "anti-hate"
symposium took place at Harbourfront in Toronto.
B'nai Brith officials stated that the ARA and the Heritage Front were both
present, and confronted one another. Droege and Burdi asked some abusive
questions implying that Jews were racist.
Wolfgang Droege asked most of the questions.[118]
An anti-fascist demonstration started, and the B'nai Brith participants
found themselves in between the two sides. Police had to separate the potential
combatants. According to the B'nai Brith, Bristow was present at the encounter
and was using the name Trevor Graham, but they did not remember if he stayed
for the remainder of the meeting after the HF people left.[119]
According to Bristow, he had met the Heritage Front group at Union Station
prior to entering the Harbourfront Symposium. When he entered, he said,
he saw that the President of the Jewish Students' Network was there. He
left after about three or four minutes, as he did not want her to see him
with the Heritage Front group.[120] Bristow
thinks that he left by himself. The President of the Jewish Students' Network
has informed the Review Committee that she did not attend the Harbourfront
symposium.
B'nai Brith. The Source said that he had no knowledge of the telephone
harassment campaign against Karen Mock which took place after the May 1993
Harbourfront Symposium.[121] He said that
Schipper was the one who initiated, wrote, and dictated most of the messages
on the hotline. The actual message concerning Mock and the B'nai Brith
used on the hate line was written by Schipper, but the Source did not know
who instructed him to do so. Droege, and to a lesser extent, Lincoln[122],
were the main influences on Gary Schipper. The Source stayed away from
dealing with the hotline.[123]
Vancouver Leader. The allegation was made in 1992 that Front members circulated
the unlisted telephone number and address of a prominent Vancouver Canadian
Jewish Congress leader, Dr. Michael Elterman.
Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress referred to the media stories
about Elterman's name being circulated among the extreme right. Whereas
the name was not listed in the public telephone directory, it was published
in the Vancouver Jewish community telephone book, which was not difficult
to obtain. Farber said that Elterman was concerned about a large bloodstain
that appeared on his porch around the time that Bristow was supposed to
have met McAleer in Vancouver.[124]
Bristow said that he knew absolutely nothing about Elterman. His statement
is supported by Droege's testimony before the Review Committee.
We learned that on August 25, 1994, Tony McAleer told Droege that he had
the address of Elterman, and could say that Bristow gave it to him, but
McAleer speculated that they could get into trouble if Bristow ever surfaced
and spoke up. Droege told McAleer that no-one would believe Bristow.[125]
Voice Hate Mail. Bernie Farber said that he was called at the Canadian
Jewish Congress on June 22, 1993. A caller with a heavily muffled, deep
voice said, "you fucking Jew", "I'm gonna fucking
kill you", "fucking goof". We asked the Source
about the call. He said that it probably came from a younger member.[126]
We were unable to determine, definitively, who in the Front was most likely
to have used the expression "fucking goof". One member
certainly used the expression often, but others sometimes did as well.
Parking Lot Camping. We were informed that the media were going to allege
that Bristow had camped out in the Canadian Jewish Congress parking lot,
and that he copied licence plate numbers which he then processed.
We have learned that Droege provided false information about Bristow to
the reporter involved.
Grant Bristow stated that he never recorded licence numbers, and there
was only one incident in which he stopped near the Canadian Jewish Congress
parking lot. Furthermore, if anyone else had collected that information,
they would have given the plate numbers to Bristow to process, but Bristow
said that he never received any.[127]
The Source said that on one occasion, James Scott Dawson parked his car,
went into the CJC building, and bluffed his way into Farber's office. [128]
The Threat. In one instance, the CSIS Source learned of a possible threat
of serious physical violence to leaders of the Jewish community in October
26, 1993. Droege confided to the Source that Barker had told him that a
Heritage Front member had been planning to walk into the CJC offices at
4600 Bathurst Street, Toronto and 'take out some people'.
It was the Source's opinion that the primary target was to be Bernie Farber.
He also stated that Droege was concerned about this type of plan but he
was laughing about it. The Source said that he was shocked by this revelation,
but he did not pursue the subject with Droege. Droege also mentioned to
the Source that he would like to see a couple of high profile Jews assassinated
as that would act as a deterrent to others who are constantly harassing
the Heritage Front (HF).[129]
The member was associating with the "French Cruller" gang;
Ken Barker, Phil Grech, and, peripherally, Marc Lemire (The Donut Shop
Gang). An associate of the Heritage Front, the member had secretly aligned
himself with the Church of Aryan Nations Jesus Christ. He had also set
up a telephone line with hate messages. The Source created hurdles in the
planning for violence by saying that more people were needed to carry it
out, that it wasn't a good idea, that it would take a long time, and other
reasons designed to dissuade the Heritage Front member.[130]
CSIS passed the information about the Heritage Front member's plan to the
Metro Toronto Police on October 29, 1993.
According to the Source, the member appeared to be unstable. Instead of
attacking the CJC, he and his associates subsequently held up a donut shop
and stole a small amount of money.[131]
Droege, in his testimony to the Review Committee, said:
"My problem with the Jewish community is sometimes its leadership.
They constantly go on about persecution. I don't feel that anyone owes
anyone anything."[132]
Wolfgang Droege told the Committee that Bristow was the person who collected
information on Jewish groups:
"more or less names, addresses, who is who within an organization,
where some of the funding may come from, that type of information."[133]
Droege said that most of the information that he received about the
B'nai Brith, for example, was from public records, and he was not sure
if Bristow ever obtained any big secrets. The information was mainly someone's
home address, position, travel plans and source of funds (e.g. government
funds). Droege said that Bristow knew how to dig up information.[134]
We found very little information about specific individuals. In one case,
we learned that Grant Bristow told Droege that an anti-racist was possibly
harassing Ken Barker's line. Barker had given Bristow a telephone number
that had appeared on his Maestro, and Bristow traced it back to the activist.
The Review Committee learned that the Source, using the pseudonym Jeff
Taylor, a journalist, talked with Michael Lublin. The Source learned that
the Kahane Chai organization, which is headed by Benny Kahane, is growing
around the world. Lublin said the group seems to be responsible for a lot
of activity which was formally carried out by the JDL. According to Lublin,
Benny Kahane's organization was thinking of opening a chapter in Toronto
and Kahane would be in Toronto the following week.
We asked the Source about the kinds of information collected on Jewish
groups and their leaders. The Source stated that Zundel tasked Bristow
to obtain specific information about the names, work places, home addresses,
telephone numbers, and profiles of prominent Jewish individuals and groups.[135]
Zundel said that he needed the addresses of members of the Jewish community
so that he could serve subpoenas, but the Source said that Bristow did
not believe this. Bristow told Zundel that he might be able to get the
information but that it would cost a lot of money. As a result, Zundel
said he would accept simply the work addresses.
Zundel also asked for information on specific individuals. He told Bristow
that he wanted information from 1989 through 1990 about what Meir Halevi's
(Jewish Defense League) addresses were, his kids, family, cars driven,
his real name, and business.[136]
The Source was asked to help Zundel to obtain the names and addresses of
every Jewish leader from Quebec to Winnipeg. When told about this request
from Zundel, the Toronto Region Investigator had said, "don't do
it, stall." The handler then told the Source to find out what
he could from open sources. He was to give Zundel only work addresses and
telephone numbers that came from the telephone book or from dialling 411.
According to the Source, the day-to-day information on the Jewish lobby
and other groups came from television shows, and subscriptions to Jewish
publications which were collected daily. This type of information processing
began long before the Source was on the scene. It was done by everybody
and it was a standard operating procedure for Zundel, Lincoln, Droege,
and Max French.
The Source said that Zundel gave Bristow a thick file on the Jewish Defence
League in compensation for electronically sweeping Zundel's house.[137]
The Source, in turn, gave the file to CSIS. It was all public information
(mostly news clippings) but he did not pass it along to others in the organization.[138]
We asked the Source what actions he personally participated in regarding
Jewish groups, and what knowledge he had of what others did. The Source
said that he only provided open material, and that Zundel sometimes gave
Bristow information.[139]
Zundel told the Review Committee that the information that he received
was "publicly available" and it was only a matter of convenience
that he obtained it from Bristow. He went on to say "it was nothing
he couldn't have found himself".[140]
The Source was asked if he ever provided information on members of the
Jewish community to White Supremacists in the United States. He said that
he absolutely did not pass information on members of the Jewish community
to white supremacists in the United States; and, specifically, that he
absolutely did not provide information on any Heritage Front target groups
or individuals to Tom Metzger. He added that Gerry
Lincoln sometimes gave information to Tom Metzger about Canadian Jews but
as far as he knew, they usually received such information from Zundel.[141]
He added that Grant Bristow never provided information to White Supremacists
in the United States. Lincoln denied ever giving information about Canadian
Jews to the Metzgers.
In regard to the Metzgers (see chapter IX, section 9.2.2), the Review Committee
learned that Droege plotted with colleagues and associates to tell the
media that Bristow also gave Metzger documents on Jewish groups in Canada
and on Jews and on other leftist organizations. The statements reveal that
this was part of a plot to manipulate the media. Droege would later tell
the Committee, "At least Tom Metzger told me that Grant Bristow
provided him information, but I don't have any first hand knowledge of
it."[142]
The Source was asked if he had ever given anyone information on the Jewish
community which they then passed to other White Supremacists. He said that
he definitely did not do so. He noted that Droege tried on many occasions
to find out where Bernie Farber lived but he never succeeded and the Source
did not help.[143]
We asked the Investigator about the overall information strategy. He said
that the idea was for the Source to control (and obstruct) the collection
of information and, if things went beyond his control, to be the funnel
for that information, and, therefore, be in a position to advise the Service
and ask for instructions.[144]
When the Review Committee met with B'nai Brith officials, they said
that they were concerned that Bristow had set up a training facility in
a predominantly Jewish section of Toronto.
The concern was threefold:
In November 1992, Grant Bristow was identified in the media as a Heritage
Front leader. As a result of this publicity, he lost his regular employment.
Shortly afterwards, he set up a course in security training.
Bristow said that he conducted only one security course. There were six
students in the class: a Black, an East Indian, a Jew and three others.
Among the six were a retired IBM programmer and troubleshooter, an individual
who used to be in the securities area, two individuals in the transport
business, and an employee of a large optical (binoculars) business. In
the end, two of the six students completed the course and landed jobs.
At his school, which was advertised in a newspaper, Bristow taught his
students a wide array of skills. For surveillance techniques, they practised
near Dixie Road and the 401; a commercial district including truck yards.
When people in the Heritage Front learned that he was running a course,
they wanted to join, but he stalled them. In one instance, however, he
used a few Front members as a decoy in a vehicle surveillance exercise.[146]
This
was the sole case, Bristow said, of Heritage Front participation in the
course.
On May 18, 1992, the Morgentaler abortion clinic in Toronto was firebombed.
Graffiti identifying the Heritage Front was found on a nearby wall. Heritage
Front members were interviewed by the police.
The Committee learned that Droege stated that Bristow had told him that
no one in the HF was under suspicion but Andrews had told the police to
look into the HF. Mitrevski said he did not believe that and he thought
that Bristow was causing the same kind of dissention in the right wing
as he caused within the left wing.
The Source thinks that the bombing was by a left wing activist to make
the government take action against the anti- abortionists. Both Bristow
and Droege were interviewed by the Morgentaler Task Force.[147]
There is nothing in CSIS files to suggest who the culprit was.
Media reports suggest that Bristow, as a Heritage Front member, made
use of police information. Bristow, within the Heritage Front, was very
secretive about how he obtained his information, and often said to his
racist colleagues that he had personal police sources.
We
questioned Bristow on this matter. He denied ever having approached members
of the Metro Toronto Police Force to obtain Canadian Police Information
Centre (CPIC) information. He says he did not need information from CPIC,
and, in any case, he rarely operated within the jurisdiction of that police
force. Much of the time, he would pass information to the police through
his full-time employment duties.
Bristow stressed that he never used CPIC for the Heritage Front. Droege
was told, falsely, that Bristow used CPIC information to find cars. As
regards CPIC printouts, he said that no policeman would be so mentally
deficient as to give a print-out of a CPIC report, because it identifies
the individual who accesses the report. He said that police sometimes showed
him information, in the course of his investigations for his employer,
but this was never CPIC information.[148]
Alan Overfield, Droege's employer told SIRC that he knew that Bristow received
CPIC information. He said that every investigator has contacts: police,
the telephone company, and others. These contacts help them to obtain information
for their tracing activities. CPIC material, he said would be used for
tough cases and could provide, for example, court dates when their quarry
would show up.[149] Overfield said that he
was amazed that Bristow had complete CPIC print-outs: some 300 over the
years 1990 - 1993 he estimated. When we asked Overfield for examples, he
responded that Bristow never let him keep them. He said that he could not
remember a single name of any of the subjects of the investigations.[150]
Wolfgang Droege told the Committee that he did not know if any CPIC information
was acquired by Bristow.[151]
A Detective of the Ottawa Police Service told SIRC that using CPIC to collect
information is not particularly useful: addresses are rarely listed; Court
dates are no longer given; convictions and sentences are provided; but
the information is almost always out of date.[152]
CPIC members are subject to random audits; the RCMP even audits its own
detachments. All CPIC queries or printouts can be traced to a particular
machine, and logs are kept.
We found no information from the Source in CSIS files that Bristow had
ever obtained CPIC information.
The
Source was asked about the monitoring of police communications. He noted
that Bristow would constantly tell the Heritage Front that he would monitor
police communications, but Paul Graham did most of this. Eric Fischer provided
scanning devices and metal detectors, using money from his military severance
pay and his savings.[153]
When the American white supremacists were in town, the Source would pick
them up and put the Mitre 5 scanner on to see if the police were following
them. In fact, the information he was picking up was quite irrelevant.
The Americans thought it was important though, and they had a sense of
security.[154]
Bristow, and Front "security" were often seen with hand-held
walkie-talkies. According to Bristow, Eric Fischer, an ex-member of the
Canadian Airborne Regiment, ran physical security for Heritage Front meetings.
Fischer used two-way communications systems; Bristow had contributed three
hand held radios which did not work well.[155]
One of the stories Bristow told Front members was that he had special sources
of information, and that he was always running licence plate numbers. Bristow
said that he had not run any licence plates through the Motor Vehicle Bureau
for the Heritage Front. Droege, on the other hand, had access to Overfield's
account while Bristow did not, and it was a regular practice for Droege
to run the plate numbers when Zundel wanted information.[156]
1 Letter from P.
2 The Heritage Front Report: 1994, pp. 5-6, prepared by the League
of Human Rights of B'nai Brith, Canada.
3 Zundel stated "that is absolutely nonsense".
4 SIRC interview of Source.
5 SIRC interview of Source.
6 The Heritage Front Report: 1994, pp. 5-6, prepared by the League
of Human Rights of B'nai Brith, Canada.
7 This Magazine, February 23, 1992.
8 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
November 1994.
9 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
November 1994.
10 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
11 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
pp. 16-21, November 1994.
12 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
p. 18, November 1994.
13 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
pp. 16-21, November 1994.
14 SIRC interview of former Principal of Riverdale Collegiate.
15 SIRC interview of Handler.
16 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
17 SIRC interview of Source.
18 SIRC interview of Source.
19 SIRC interview of Droege.
20 Eric Fischer indicates that, in fact, the MIGHTS Directory was "pretty
simple" to use.
21 SIRC interview of Source.
22 Affidavit of Charlene Elisse Hategan, September 23, 1993.
23 Toronto Sun, "Spy Unmasked", August 14, 1994.
24 SIRC interview of Source.
25 Droege denies this allegation.
26 Droege denies this allegation.
27 SIRC interview of Source.
28 SIRC interview of Source.
29 SIRC interview of Source.
30 Droege indicated to SIRC that Bristow had told him he had made harassment
phone calls.
31 SIRC interview of Source.
32 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
33 During this period, there was an anti-racist rally which started at
the corner of Church and Wellesley, and moved to Yonge street. There was
also a January 1993 demonstration planned by "East Toronto Organizing
Against Racism and Hate".
34 Zundel indicated that he did ask people to monitor marches in order
to protect his house against attacks.
35 SIRC interview of Source.
36 SIRC interview of Source.
37 SIRC interview of Source.
38 SIRC interview of Source.
39 SIRC interview of Source.
40 SIRC interview of Source.
41 SIRC interview of Bristow.
42 SIRC interview of Handler.
43 SIRC interview of Handler.
44 SIRC interview of Source.
45 SIRC interview of Anti-Racist Activist.
46 SIRC interview of Source.
47 SIRC interview of Anti-Racist Activist.
48 SIRC interview with Source.
49 SIRC interview of Source.
50 SIRC interview of Handler.
51 SIRC interview of Handler.
52 SIRC interview of Source.
53 Toronto Sun, August 14, 1994.
54 The Fifth Estate, October 4, 1994.
55 SIRC interview of Handler.
56 SIRC interview of Source.
57 SIRC interview of Bristow.
58 SIRC interview of Source.
59 SIRC interview of Source.
60 Toronto Sun, October 4, 1994.
61 Overfield does not recall the posters having anything to do with the
homo child molester. He recalls Bristow photostatting something at his
place.
62 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
63 SIRC interview of Handler.
64 Toronto Star, September 30, 1994.
65 Toronto Sun, August 14, 1994.
66 The Fifth Estate stated that "When Elisse came out and said
she was going to tell the truth, CSIS was saying they were going to get
out and discredit her because at least Hategan was pointing the finger
at Grant Bristow... we'll tear her to shreds".
67 SIRC interview of Handler.
68 October 28, 1994.
69 SIRC interview of Source.
70 SIRC interview of Wolfgang Droege.
71 SIRC interview of Source.
72 "I Hate You Back" by Clive Thompson, This Magazine,
p. 21, November 1994.
73 "I Hate You Back", This Magazine, p. 21, November
edition.
74 "I Hate You Back", This Magazine, p. 21, November
edition.
75 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
76 SIRC interview of Wolfgang Droege.
77 SIRC interview of Wolfgang Droege.
78 Zundel said that such a statement about Shipper's house would be callous,
and he did not make it.
79 SIRC interview of Source.
80 SIRC interview of Source. Zundel noted that they used videos and still
photography for possible legal action against individuals harassing them.
81 SIRC interview of Handler.
82 SIRC interview of Bristow.
83 Racial Holy War.
84 SIRC interview of Bristow.
85 SIRC interview of Bristow.
86 SIRC interview of Source.
87 SIRC interview of Bristow.
88 SIRC interview of Source.
89 SIRC interview of Source.
90 SIRC interview of Bernie Farber, National Director of Community Relations,
Canadian Jewish Congress.
91 Frank Dimant quoted in the Globe and Mail, Elizabeth Payne "Spy
Agency placed Jewish lives in Danger", September 10, 1994.
92 SIRC interview of Source.
93 Lincoln denies this statement.
94 SIRC interview of Source.
95 SIRC interview of Marvin Kurz.
96 SIRC interview of Marvin Kurz.
97 SIRC interview with Janice Dembo, Co-ordinator, Toronto Mayor's Committee
on Community and Race Relations.
98 SIRC interview of Marvin Kurz.
99 SIRC interview of Wolfgang Droege.
100 SIRC interview of Bristow.
101 SIRC interview of the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
102 SIRC interview with the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
103 SIRC interview of the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
104 SIRC interview of the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
105 SIRC interview with the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
106 SIRC interview of Bernie Farber.
107 SIRC interview of Metropolitan Toronto Police Force.
108 SIRC interview of Bristow.
109 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
110 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
111 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
112 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
113 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
114 SIRC interview of Sol Littman, Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
115 SIRC interview of the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
116 SIRC interview of the President of the Jewish Students' Network.
117 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
118 SIRC interview of Frank Dimant and Dr. Karen Mock, B'nai Brith.
119 SIRC interview of Frank Dimant and Dr. Karen Mock, B'nai Brith.
120 SIRC interview of Bristow.
121 SIRC interview of Frank Dimant and Dr. Karen Mock, B'nai Brith.
122 Lincoln said he never told Schipper anything about Mock.
123 SIRC interview of Source.
124 SIRC interview of Bernie Farber. McAleer said he had absolutely no
knowledge of the incident.
125 Droege denies having said that. McAleer said he did not commit any
illegalities and he said he did not counsel others to do so.
126 SIRC interview of Source.
127 SIRC interview of Grant Bristow.
128 SIRC interview of Source.
129 Droege denies having said that.
130 SIRC interview of Source.
131 SIRC interview of Source.
132 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege. Droege also went on to say that he questioned
"certain aspects of the Holocaust...But I certainly believe there
should be a debate."
133 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
134 SIRC interview of Droege.
135 Zundel denies this allegation.
136 SIRC interview of Source.
137 Zundel noted that the file was about 20 pages of open source information.
It had previously been provided by him to the Metropolitan Toronto Police
Force.
138 SIRC interview of Source.
139 SIRC interview of Source.
140 SIRC interview of Ernst Zundel.
141 SIRC interview of Source. Zundel noted that such individuals were on
his mailing list, and received his newsletter, videos, etc. He specifically
denied passing information to them concerning the Jewish Community in Canada.
142 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
143 SIRC interview of Source.
144 SIRC interview of Handler.
145 SIRC interviews of officials in the B'nai Brith and Canadian Jewish
Congress.
146 James Dawson, Paul Graham, and Tyrone Alexander Mason.
147 SIRC interview of Bristow.
148 SIRC interview of Bristow.
149 SIRC interview of Alan Overfield.
150 SIRC interview of Alan Overfield.
151 SIRC Hearing, Wolfgang Droege.
152 SIRC interview of Ottawa Police Service.
153 Eric Fischer said the money was from his employment, and donations
from other members of the security group.
154 SIRC interview of Bristow.
155 SIRC interview of Bristow.
156 Droege stated that he never provided such information to Zundel. Zundel
denied that he had ever asked for any licence numbers to be run.