Mom fighting for children defends her 'white pride'
JOE FRIESEN

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

July 5, 2008 at 1:07 AM EDT


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home

WINNIPEG — The young mother carefully folds the red Nazi flag emblazoned with a black swastika that once hung on her living room wall and lays it on her kitchen table.

In its place she has hung a banner that reads “White pride worldwide,” explaining that guests from the media might find it less shocking.

It was a swastika drawn on her daughter's arm, she says, that led Manitoba's child protection agency to seize her children more than three months ago. Ever since, she has lived with the torment of seeing her children only two hours a week, and is turning to beer and cigarettes for comfort.

She says she is the victim of a state run amok, persecuted for holding political views that are outside the mainstream.

Manitoba's child and family services agency, although it can't discuss the specifics of the case, says it is bound to intervene when a child's physical or emotional well-being is at risk.

Court documents say the parent's conduct might endanger the emotional well-being of the children, and the children might be at risk because of the parent's behaviour and associations.

The case was heard briefly in a Winnipeg court yesterday, but has not been resolved.

It was a Monday in March when the woman's seven-year-old daughter drew a swastika on her own arm and went to school. A teacher who found the symbol offensive washed it off. When her daughter returned home upset, the mother said she retraced the swastika in black ink and sent the girl back to school. But when she tried to pick her daughter up the next day, she found police and child protection authorities waiting.

“There were police officers there and I looked at them and said, ‘Is this because of the drawing on her arm?' And they said yes, the mother recalled.

She said she went home hysterical, terrified they would be coming for her two-year-old son as well. Sure enough, the knock at the door came quickly, and authorities plucked her son from her arms.

“Apparently a swastika is an evil Nazi symbol and they felt the need to interfere in our lives and to interfere in how we raise our children,” she said.

“I really think this is about politics and freedom of speech.” They want to silence us. This is government oppression. They're saying it's okay to be proud to be native, it's okay to preach black power, it's okay to say hail Allah, al-Qaeda or whatever, but when you're white and you're proud, it's wrong. You're a racist, you're a bigot, you're nothing. You have no rights whatsoever.”

The woman, who can't be identified because her children are in care, slams one hand into the other as she makes her points, but in general is polite and articulate. She has worked as a server or manager in bars since she was a teenager and recently split from the father of her youngest child.

The children have been placed in her mother's care by the state, although relations between the two are strained because of the woman's political views.

She describes herself as a white nationalist, wears a necklace decorated with a swastika, but is reluctant to call herself a Nazi. She says she was raised with “pride,” inheriting some beliefs from a Christian father who left the family when she was still quite young.

It was while she was an army cadet, enrolled at 11 years old, that she met a group of skinheads and her political views were consolidated.

“I learned to not to be ashamed of it, to not hide my politics from anyone. We have something called freedom of speech in Canada and we need to stand by it,” she said.

She grows emotional as she describes how her son has stopped speaking since he was taken away. She also beams with pride as she recounts how her daughter, at just seven years old, is able to write and recite “the 14 words,” a well-known phrase in white supremacist circles about the preservation of the white race.

“She believes in her people,” she said. “She's an incredibly smart girl.”

But the problems began this year, she said, when her daughter's teacher was clearly uncomfortable with the family's politics.

The woman said she tried to bring the subject into the open, even arriving at parent-teacher interviews in a white-pride T-shirt, but the teacher always changed the topic.

Although she recognizes her politics may be offensive to many people, the woman argues that is no basis for the authorities to take her children away. She says she is a loving parent who has never harmed the kids. On the back of her daughter's door is a list of chores that wouldn't be out of place in any home: clean bedroom (bed made too), brush teeth, brush hair and no chocolate milk if dinner was not eaten the night before.

There are differences too: next to the set of Family Guy DVDs is a copy of Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.

She says she expects it's just a matter of time before the children are returned to her, and she expects an apology as well.

Manitoba's Child and Family Services Ministry says its aim is to ensure the safety of children, and a parent's political views should have no bearing on whether a child is placed in care.

Sad when the state butts in and squashes freedom of speech and beliefs. What about moslums teaching their kids to hate infidels?

they should give the kids back

Good. Keep those kids far, far away from that crazy bitch.

poor woman. has done nothing wrong

That bitch has no right to force nazi propaganda upon her 7 year old daughter.

Sounds like nothing was forced the daughter drew it on herself. There should be nothing wrong with being proud to be white. The only thing wrong would be teaching the girl to hate other races.

History has proved over and over that Fascists need to be monotored with vigilence or in some cases cut out of a society like a cancer.

And YOU have no right to force your political views on anyone else! So STFU!

A 7 year old doesn't typically draw swastikas... she only knows what it is because her mom teaches it to her. Being comfortable with your race is not the same as supporting "preservation of the white race" nor is it acceptable to teach you child to recite “the 14 words” . I personally think anyone citing racial pride is racist, not just white people. i hate seeing "brown pride" "black pride" "asian pride" etc. scrawled across a table... it's bloody racist.

Classic; another example of the tolerant liberalism that is rampant in the peoples Republic of Canada. I see, it’s live and let live as long as it doesn’t conflict with my oh so enlightened beliefs.


So what make you different than the White Supremacy Movement? Seems to me that people like you and them are two sides of the same coin.

If this were true, then the police should be shut down as well. You see, they capture people and hold them against hteir will, so they are no better than the criminals....

oh right, logic

damn that logic always gets in the way of my bias

Haha, good argument.

We must all be tolerant (unless you are asked to tolerate an opinion you don't like).
/Diversity?

why dont they just round up white , heterosexual males and kill them. why draw it out.

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