Warren — Musings —

I wrote about them nearly two decades ago, in Web of Hate . Here are some of the things you should know about them:

One of their directors was Rita Ann Hartmann, who led the Ottawa-based Northern Foundation. Hartmann’s husband Paul was a Ku Klux Klan and Western Guard leader; two of their sons were active in the neo-Nazi Heritage Front in the Ottawa area.

Hartmann maintained connections with neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups across North America, such as the Confederate Hammerskins, while simultaneously acting as a legal advisor to REAL Women of Canada. At one early REAL Women conference in Ottawa, Hartmann gave an anti-abortion speech.

Later on, Wolgang Droege, the founder and leader of the Heritage Front, told me: “The Northern Foundation was the start of it all for the Heritage Front. From that point on, things really took off.”

At no point am I aware of REAL Women of Canada having denounced Hartmann or her involvement with neo-Nazi causes. Following the 1994 publication of Web of Hate, instead, REAL Women of Canada continued to promote bigotry and division, albeit less aggressively than their director Hartmann.

In the intervening years, then, REAL Women has consistently shown themselves to be anti-gay, anti-choice and anti-equality. There is plenty of evidence, for those who have the stomach for it. (Those who wish to provide cited examples in comments are encouraged to do so.)

I want to get a letter-writing campaign going, today – fittingly, on International Women’s Day – to Her Majesty and Rideau Hall about this outrage.

You can write to Her Majesty here, with the style and structure you should adopt.

You can write to Rideau Hall here.

This is important, on this day of all days. Please do this.