The Church of the Creator: Creed of Hate
As is the case with the COTC on the U.S. West Coast,
the Church of the Creator in Canada
for the most part is comprised of neo-Nazi Skinheads. The
group became active in Canada in 1990
when it set up post office boxes in Scarborough, Agincourt,
and Woodbridge, Ontario. The head of
these Ontario chapters is
George Burdi (aka Rev. Eric
Hawthorne). Burdi, 23, is a college-educated
Skinhead; his menacing looks and relative sophistication
have earned him appearances on the
Geraldo Rivera and Sally Jessy Raphael talk shows, as well
as MTV News. In addition to his COTC
affiliation, Burdi is active with
Heritage Front -- Canada's
most notorious hate group, led by
Wolfgang Droege. (Droege is an ex-convict and former member
of David Duke's Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan who in 1992 sponsored rallies at which
WAR leader
Tom Metzger and his lieutenant
Dennis Mahon spoke.) Burdi has been credited by Canadian law
enforcement and other observers of
the radical right with bringing a younger, more militant
contingent into the more established hate
group. Burdi also serves as lead singer of the Skinhead rock
group RaHoWa (the term, taken from
"racial holy war," which is the COTC slogan).
Burdi spoke of his music career in the August 18, 1993,
Toronto Star: "Music is the ultimate
form of bringing a message to the masses.... Youth seek role
models through musicians. They say,
"Wow, I love this band and if this is the opinion of the
band, then it is my opinion too."' The self-
styled performing artist has shown no reticence in
expressing his opinions through the vehicle of
song. One of his biggest crowd pleasers is a racist re-write
of the Nancy Sinatra tune, "These Boots
Arc Made for Walkin." In RaHoWa's rendition, Burdi squawks,
"These boots are made for stompin'/
And that's just what they'll do/One of these days these
boots/Are gonna stomp all over Jews."
To distribute RaHoWa's medleys of hate, which blatantly
violate Canada's strict anti-racist laws,
Burdi established Resistance Records, a music label
comparable to France's marketers of Skinhead
music, Rebelles Europeens -- RaHoWa's former label -- and
Germany's Rock-o-Rama.[2] Resistance
Records is operated by a COTC member in Detroit, Michigan.
(Canada's statutes prohibiting
publication of hate propaganda also account for Burdi's
loyalty to COTC, because without Racial
Loyalty, he would have no means of publishing or
disseminating his propaganda north of the border.)
Resistance Records has also signed the racist bands Nordic
Thunder, Aggravated Assault, Aryan, and
the Voice. "The market's phenomenal," Burdi told the Toronto
Star. "We have a monopoly on it and
it's virtually untapped." He astutely added that Canada's
restrictions on hate speech could
inadvertently spread the music's appeal. "Music is fed on
controversy. Ignore us and we get huge
because we can develop unhindered. Attack us and we get huge
because you create controversy and
the youth want to hear us. Either way, we win."
Burdi, moreover, is one of the most regular
contributors to Racial Loyalty; over the past two years,
regardless of who was serving as "Pontifex Maximus," Burdi's
letters and essays -- printed under the
"Hawthorne" alias -- have appeared in virtually every issue of
the tabloid.
Not content with "mere" hate speech, however, Burdi has
organized his followers, who number
approximately three to four dozen, into the most active and
dangerous COTC faction in North
America. To this end, the group conducts weekly paramilitary
sessions under the direction of COTC
"Security" chief
Eric Fischer, 29, a former member of the
elite Canadian Forces Airborne Regiment.
Fischer's training program is reportedly so grueling that in
1992 one COTC recruit collapsed and
died; no charges were filed in connection with the incident.
The law appears to have caught up with Fischer,
however, as a result of his bizarre effort to
avenge the alleged theft of a computer, complete with
extremist mailing lists and correspondence
from a fellow extremist. In the early morning hours of June
9, 1993, police arrested the COTC
officer, along with his brother,
Elkar (aka Carl) Fischer,
22, and
Drew Maynard, 21, charging the three
with kidnapping, forcible confinement, and assault causing
bodily harm for their alleged role in
abducting a
Heritage Front member whom they suspected of
stealing the computer. Carl Fischer and
Maynard were additionally charged with threatening death and
bodily harm.
This criminal episode, which graphically illustrates
the violence-prone nature of the group,
began when the victim of these acts was reportedly taken on
a three-hour ride through metropolitan
Toronto, during which, he told police, he was handcuffed and
tied, thrown on top of a sleeping bag in
the back of a white van, and beaten. His assailants also
placed a plastic bag over his head, and
allegedly threatened to inject him with a poisonous cleaning
solution: Beaten, bleeding, and
disoriented, the victim was dropped off by his abductors at
St. Michael's Hospital.
At approximately one o'clock the following morning,
police surrounded the four-bedroom
bungalow that was home to the three suspects, as well as
George Burdi and two other COTC
members, and took the accused men into custody. Law
enforcement agents also seized a 12-gauge
shotgun, a .22-caliber pistol, and a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun during the arrest. The three
accused are currently out on bail -- $500 of which was provided
by FBI agent "Joe Allen," the COTC
member who later provided evidence leading to the arrest of
nine white supremacists in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, as a result of these charges, the two
Fischer brothers have been suspended from the
Queen's Own Rifles reserve militia until the resolution of
the criminal investigation against them.
Additionally, the Canadian military's special investigation
unit is looking into claims by Wolfgang
Droege that more than two dozen
Heritage Front members
currently serve in the armed forces.
George Burdi himself has been the subject of criminal
charges in connection with a street brawl
between the COTC and anti-racist activists which occurred on
June 18, 1993. According to police,
Alicia Reckzin, 23, a member of the group Anti-Racist
Action, received a concussion, a broken nose,
and bruises when Burdi allegedly assaulted her outside the
Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa. Burdi
currently awaits trial, accused of assault causing bodily
harm. A voice reportedly "described as
Burdi's" recorded a description of the fight for the
Heritage Front telephone line; in the recording he
referred to a "tremendous victory last night."
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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