ARA Toronto—Still Kickin' It in '95

Click here for a related story on an anti-fascist in Toronto getting stabbed by fascists.

This past summer saw the number-two man in the fascist Heritage Front, Grant Bristow, exposed as an agent of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). This revelation further weakened the Front, already facing heat from the cops, and almost two years of determined resistance from Anti-Racist Action (ARA) and others.

But the splintering of the Heritage Front doesn't mean the end of anti-fascist work in Toronto. The Front had been trying for a more-or-less respectable "equal rights for whites" image by leafleting high-schools, advertising meetings and gigs, and publishing a slick (gag me!) magazine. As they have been discredited and pushed back, the most violence-prone boneheads are adopting an underground strategy. The results: physical attacks on folks with the International Socialists, a bashing in the heart of Toronto's gay neighborhood, and an assault on a South Asian high-school teacher a week after he and other teachers of color received racist threats.

ARA is always changing, obviously, always looking for ways to take action against the more underground nazis. One target we've chosen is a pair of trendy fashion stores called IXL, owned by long-term nazis Roderik and Alaric Jackson. Alaric in particular has played a visible role in the fascist bonehead movement in Montréal and Toronto. He has links to Resistance Records [see last issue of Love and Rage], a new, racist, rock label based in Detroit, and used one of the stores as the rendezvous point for 30+ boneheads on their way to a Northern Hammerskin gig last April. On the surface, though, the Jacksons play it cool and even sell mod gear over the counter. A lot of queers, people of color, Jewish people, and others who have no interest in supporting fascists end up buying boots there.

So ARA figured that by exposing these stores to the wider community, we can fuck up a small but important piece of bonehead territory. As L&R reported two issues ago, we put together a couple of surprise pickets in front of the stores in the late summer. They had the intended effect of drawing out some bonehead security and a lot of attention, but got no media coverage. Then we hit them on Dec. 10, an important X-mas shopping day, with a bigger, publicly advertised picket. It was a real spectacle, with media everywhere and riot cops guarding the place most of the day. Roderik whined to the press that the day was a "total disaster," that nobody bought anything, so we achieved all our goals. While nobody thinks that we can shut down the stores simply by leafleting and picketing, we know that it drives them crazy and sure cuts into their profits!

Because of the public exposure and community boycott, the nazi owners of the "Reckless" store have closed down the Queen Street location since the third week of January. It was the result of a successful campaign, as well as exerting pressure and opposition to their business premises on various levels. ARA consider this a partial victory, and the campaign to shut down the other IXL on Yonge Street is entering a new phase.

Anti-fascist work may not be as hip as it was when ARA Toronto got together two years ago, but the group continues to expose, oppose, and confront white-supremacist organizing here. Most important now are creative ideas for dealing with the underground bones and the increasingly racist mainstream. Also, if anyone has info to share about the Northern Hammerskins or Aryan Nations (especially their Pennsylvania compound), please send it to:

or call: