Archive/File: pub/people/s/scott.charles/press/military-thanks.0395
Last-Modified: 1995/03/23

Source: Jewish Western Bulletin, March 23, 1995, p. 5

A prominent member of a Chilliwack-based racist group received
a thank-you letter from the Canadian military for his
participation in a two-hour demonstration of unarmed training,
while an unidentified man accompanying him received a
thank-you plaque.

Charles Scott, a member of what he calls the "newly-appointed
Canadian Aryan Nations headquarters" has been involved in
training demonstrations with at least one Canadian army
company - Vancouver's 12th Medical Co.

Cpt. Dan Thomas, public affairs officer for B.C. district of
Canadian Forces, told _The Bulletin_ that the commanding
officer at the time of the Jan. 16, 1992 demonstration
remembers sending a letter to thank Scott for his
participation.

Thomas stressed, however, that the letter was sent at Scott's
request and that the military "emphatically denies any charges
that it knew of Scott's racist views."

However, when asked by _JWB_ to produce the letter, the
military could not.

As well, the military has no records of the demonstration or
the identity of the "mystery" man accompanying Scott, although
there has been some suggestion that the man was a former Royal
Marine.

Also strange, according to Cpt. Thomas, is that nobody he's
spoken to who attended the Vancouver demonstration can
remember a video being shot.

Scott recently released a video to the media showing his
participation in leading a martial arts demonstration. While
the military called it a "demonstration of unarmed training,"
according to media reports, the video clearly shows that
weapons, whether real or not, were used during the
demonstration.

David Lethbridge, founder and director of Salmon Arm Coalition
Against Racism (SACAR), told JWB he feels this is not an
isolated event. "Scott himself maintains that it isn't ... In
the U.S. and Canada we know that white supremacists are
joining the armed forces to get weapons training and they've
been encouraged to do so by [groups like] the Heritage Front."

There are no records with Canadian forces in Alberta that
support Scott's claim, reported in local media, that he has
been involved in training demonstrations in other provinces.
Scott was born in Alberta and continues to maintain links with
the province.

Canadian Jewish Congress community relations committee chair
Michael Elterman said, "Authorities should be concerned mainly
because his [Scott's] recruitment is amongst the youth and
there's certainly enough disaffected youth in the Fraser
Valley where he's trying to recruit. He's trying to create a
white supremacist youth gang [which] could be very dangerous.

"The Aryan Nations is not just a Jewish problem, it's a
community problem ... and the citizens of Chilliwack and that
area need to be concerned about the type of people this
organization attracts," Elterman stressed.

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