Alleged white supremacist with 'Nazi memorabilia' and Norse animal skin banners denied entry to Canada
An American man, named as a member of a whites-only group and twice turned away from Canada, complained border agents were aggressive and mean to him after finding “Nazi memorabilia” in his truck as well as animal skins painted with symbols authorities believed were rooted in European paganism.
Cormag Jaime Alainn took Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree to Federal Court asking for a judicial review of the way the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) handled his complaint about officers who refused him entry at the New Brunswick border when he attempted to enter Canada from the United States last year with his pregnant Canadian wife.
“The complaint alleges that (CBSA officers) verbally abused and physically assaulted him, mistreated his wife and his pets and damaged his property,” Justice Whyte Nowak wrote in a recent decision.
The court heard that when Alainn tried to drive into New Brunswick, the U.S. citizen “declared that he was staying in Canada for two months and his pregnant wife (a Canadian citizen) advised that she had been outside Canada for the past five months. The couple were referred to secondary inspection.”
There Alainn “advised that he was newly married and intended to return to Maine to stay with friends after the birth of their first child,” said the Federal Court decision, dated Oct. 27.
Alainn told border guards “that he was unemployed and had no United States residence or significant family ties in the United States,” it said.
When border guards found a slide lock cable for firearms inside the box of the couple’s truck they “became concerned about the possibility” that Alainn might have a gun, which led border guards to conduct pat-down searches on the pair.
Border guards questioned Alainn about the contents of his truck, which included what they “considered to be ‘Nazi memorabilia’ as well as animal skins with spray painted symbols which the (CBSA agents) believed were rooted in European paganism,” said the court.
After Googling Alainn’s name, border guards confronted him “regarding his association with the Asatru Folk Assembly, which (they) believed to be a recognized hate group who advocate for white supremacy. According to a (border agent, Alainn) claimed that the items had no special meaning and he was simply interested in Nordic culture.”
The Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) says its members must be “traditionally-minded” and of “Ethnic European” stock. “Let us be clear: by Ethnic European Folk, we mean white people,” their website says.
The AFA is registered as a religion in the United States but has also been branded “the largest neo-Völkisch hate organization in the United States” by extremism monitoring group Southern Poverty Law Center. The centre says the AFA has almost two dozen groups in the United States as well as affiliates in Canada.
The AFA espouse Ásatrú, described as a pre-Christian religion of Europe, and evoke the Norse imagery of Vikings. Their “religious imperative” is to ensure “the survival and welfare” of white people, their website says. Many of their public messages use a speaking style popularized in movies and TV as the way Vikings might talk: “Victory never sleeps”; “Hail Ragnvald”; “the gathered Folk spoke to personal victories before Honour was given to the Allfather with resounding energy.”
In a 2021 AFA newsletter, Cormag Àlainn was introduced to the organization’s membership: “Please welcome Christopher Taylor (Now named Cormag Àlainn) of North Dakota as our newest Apprentice Folkbuilder in the Baldrshof District. Chris has been very active in his District thus far.” The post ends: “Hail Chris Taylor! Hail the AFA! Hail Baldr!”
A Facebook page for a man with the same name and similar photographs shows a smiling man in a jacket and tie with two lapel pins; one is the three interlocking horns logo of the AFA and the other appears to be the symbol of Baldrshof, the AFA division that includes North Dakota. A LinkedIn profile gives his most recent employment status as a career break for full-time parenting — based in Nova Scotia — after leaving a job in North Dakota as an industrial machinery operator.
A CBSA officer issued a report denying Alainn entry to Canada “based on a finding that he was unlikely to depart Canada, and his circumstances were not indicative of a temporary stay.” He was allowed to voluntarily turn around and leave Canada.
Two months later, he again tried to come to Canada, to visit his wife. He was again refused entry. He then filed a formal complaint saying that “the reason given by the CBSA for his previous refusal was that he is the leader of a white nationalist group, which (Alainn) states is both untrue and not the reason that he was denied entry,” the court decision says.
In his complaint, Alainn alleged that during his March border stop the officers: “verbally abused him; physically assaulted him in conducting the pat-down search; denied him and his wife food and water for six hours; refused to allow the couple to care for their special needs dog and cat; and damaged his belongings in carrying out their search of his truck.”
During the agency’s investigation of his complaint, CBSA officials viewed video of the border interaction and spoke with Alainn’s lawyer, said the judge, and “when this informal attempt to resolve the complaint did not succeed” the CBSA issued a “final disposition letter” dismissing the complaint.
In a final disposition letter dated June 14, 2024, Dominic Mallette, the CBSA’s acting regional director general for the Atlantic Region, “concluded that (Alainn’s) complaint was unfounded.”
Nowak sided with Mallette.
Alainn “has not shown that the final disposition letter is unreasonable,” said the judge. “There is no merit to the applicant’s argument.” The letter “is intelligible and justified based on the facts and the law,” Nowak said.
She dismissed Alainn’s case, saying he “has not met his onus of demonstrating that the final disposition letter is unreasonable or that it was arrived at in a manner that was procedurally unfair to him.”
Requests for comment from Alainn, through his email address with the AFA, as well as from his lawyer in Canada, and from the AFA leadership in the United States were not answered prior to publication deadline.
National Post
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