The Montreal Gazette searched through 12,000 chat messages to uncover the methods, ideology and structure of these latest alt-right groups.

Warning: readers may find the language and ideas quoted in this story disturbing.

He recruited them from the dark corners of the web, on message boards littered with phrases like “race war now” and “gas the k***s.”

Distroscale

They were unremarkable young men: lonely, bored and nursing a grudge about their place in the world. Some couldn’t hold down a job and others just drifted from one paycheque to the next.

Nothing was ever their fault.

If they couldn’t get meaningful work, it was because the “Jewish economic agenda” had kept it from them. When women refused to date them, it was part of some feminist conspiracy against white men.

Zeiger, a major neo-Nazi figure in North America, fed off this sense of self-pity when he began organizing a white supremacist group in Montreal. An investigation by the Montreal Gazette has linked Zeiger to Gabriel Sohier Chaput , a local IT contractor who lives in Rosemont—La-Petite Patrie.

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The investigation found that Zeiger has been organizing a white supremacist network in the city for nearly two years.

Most of the early recruits either knew him through the alt-right forums or from his work with the Daily Stormer, North America’s foremost white nationalist website.

In 2016, Zeiger hatched a plan to move from the digital space into real life. That summer, he set up an encrypted chat room for fellow Montrealers he’d found on forums like Iron March, the Right Stuff and the Daily Stormer.

It was in this chat room that Zeiger began organizing in-person meetings with his recruits, where he would vet them and initiate the young men into Montreal’s underground white nationalist movement. (It was also in this chat room that Zeiger provided his home address, the same one where Sohier Chaput lives.)

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The information in this article comes from a cache of more than 12,000 chat messages obtained by the Montreal Gazette. It offers a glimpse into the recruiting methods, ideology and organizational structure of this new generation of white supremacists.

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It began in August 2016.

Banking on his notoriety within white supremacist circles, Zeiger created a closed chat room on Discord, an encrypted chat service meant for gamers. He called the group “Montreal Storm.”

The handful of initial recruits began chatting about where they lived on the island: Dorval, Verdun, Ville Émard, the East End. There were a few college students, an unemployed sales rep and a man said to be studying a “medical trade.” One claimed to be the father of a girl he called his “Aryan princess.”

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Montreal Storm attracted members with links to far-right groups like Soldiers of Odin, La Meute and Generation Identity. But its rank-and-file members seemed like isolated young men with little to no social life outside the group.

They mostly prized their anonymity. A few, however, claimed to share their views publicly.

“I’ve been an open Nazi my whole life,” Jim B wrote shortly after joining the group.

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They were all men. Women weren’t allowed on the chat. Some of them wrote about their girlfriends, but most users either openly spoke about their hatred for women, or about how afraid they were to speak to them.

“I’ve already had to deal with leaps and bounds of Jewish bullshit making it difficult to land quality women,” Greg wrote.

“There’s some (Muslim women) at my daycare and there’s nothing I can do. I want to chase them out with a stick,” wrote &*. “I’m so tired of this feminist province, these hot québécois women need to be serving their husbands in the kitchens not telling us what to do.”

The Montreal Storm chats revolved around the assumption that they, or the young white men of the West, would “take back” what was rightfully theirs. They dreamed of enforcing a totalitarian regime where they could use women only as a means for reproduction.

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“Then once she dies of overuse,” FriendlyFash said, “you can grind her up for doggo food.”

They paired their fantasies with real-life interaction.

One week after it was created, Montreal Storm held its first meeting at an Ye Olde Orchard Pub on Prince Arthur St.

“These are nicer and are a little more upbeat …” one user wrote on the chat, referring to two Irish pubs that had been suggested “… but may not be able to yell GAS THE K**** or ALL N****** HANG as easily as a classic ‘va chier tabarnak’ bar, which you guys may prefer.”

Forty-eight users frequented the Montreal Storm chat from August 2016 to January 2018, the time period from which the encrypted messages were culled.

They used Discord to organize a “Book Club,” a code word for real-life meetups of the Daily Stormer’s readers. Zeiger told the group he wanted to merge the Montreal Book Club with the Montreal “Standard Pool Party,” another code referring to meetings for followers of the Right Stuff, a white nationalist podcast network and forum.

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They tried to hold at least one monthly activity. Zeiger took them axe throwing at Rage Montreal one Saturday and hiking in Rigaud a few months later.

The field trips cemented a bond between the lost young men.

“I don’t mean to be all sentimental,” Greg wrote. “But it’s nice to have the support of you brothers. As you can imagine, I don’t spend too much free time associating with normies (people outside the white nationalist movement), it’s tedious to me.”

Greg regularly confided in the group. He told them about losing his sales job and having to get rid of his condo to find a cheaper place to live.

They offered Greg a shoulder to lean on.

The meetings served another, much more practical purpose. Once Zeiger met and vetted a user, he would indicate to Montreal Storm members that the person had been verified — effectively elevating his standing within the group.

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Verified members were invited to a secret Facebook group where they could chat individually.

Early on in the chats, Zeiger outlined his strategy.

“We have to be organized and strong before thinking about recruitment and outreach,” he wrote in September 2016. “Me and the more high-agency (guys) are going to form a core soon, establish structure, and start adding people to that.”

Sometimes, Zeiger acted as a moderating influence within the group. When members would write about their violent fantasies, Zeiger would reel them back in.

“We have to convert our rage into a cold, focused hatred, and use that to motivate action,” Zeiger said.

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They wore Make America Great Again hats and Donald Trump T-shirts.

Some users thought U.S. President Trump was the new messiah, here to bring the societal change they had hoped for. Others thought “he was just a step in the right direction,” as Albo-HAMMERBRO wrote, denouncing Ivanka Trump’s relationship with Jared Kushner — “his daughter is married to a Jew.”

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The group met at Bar L’Barouf on St-Denis St. to watch coverage of the U.S. election on Nov. 9, 2016. Zeiger said they would be surrounded by “normies” but it would be worth seeing their tears if Trump won the election.

When he did win, Montreal Storm users were elated.

“ALL HAIL GLORIOUS LEADER,” user Greg wrote.

“WE WON. WE F******. YOU BEAUTIFUL BASTARDS WE WON!,” user Albo-HAMMERBRO wrote. “I can’t f****** believe it. I’m in tears.”

“Bro this is just the beginning. The West is taking back EVERYTHING!”

Eventually the group would monitor the number of Jewish people Trump appointed to his cabinet. They often referenced ZOG, a decades-old, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that America was secretly run by the “Zionist Occupation Government.”

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They idolized Hitler and his fascist dictatorship, wishing him a happy birthday on April 20.

The chat was riddled with Hitler memes, pictures of SS soldiers or ironic images Photoshopped with swastikas. One meme shows a Photoshopped image of former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre wearing an SS-inspired uniform, giving a Nazi salute with a pack of pit bulls standing in front of him.

Another meme affixed the tag line “RIGHT WING DEATH SQUAD” over a photo of Alexandre Bissonnette, the Quebec City mosque shooter.

The line between humour and fantasy wasn’t always clear.

In January 2017, the user Johnson asked Zeiger for help.

Johnson said he had an obsessive compulsive disorder, which made him afraid of germs and leaving his apartment. He said he was 18 years old and he’d developed OCD four or five years earlier. Zeiger said that if Johnson wanted to be a fascist he had to face his fears and “transcend his limits.”

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The conversation was personal. Johnson admitted that his parents had divorced when he was three, and he wanted a better life for himself. Zeiger suggested he should train at the gym and have a healthy diet, and if he wanted to get involved with their operations, Johnson would have to leave his home.

“The only thing ill be involved in (in real life) is a mass shooting spree before killing myself,” Johnson said. “Just kidding.”

Johnson was eventually bullied out of the group.

Most of what was unearthed in the 12,000 encrypted messages is just chatter — ranging from benign discussions about bodybuilding and girl trouble to debates on political strategy and organizing methods.

Even so, it’s difficult to gauge when users are being serious about violent thoughts versus when they’re merely blowing off steam.

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But when taken at face value, the violent aspects of these chats are difficult to ignore.

They went to demonstrations together as a group. They showed up at La Meute’s March 2017 protest against the federal motion M-103, a non-binding piece of legislation that condemned Islamophobia.

They gradually moved from chatting, to meeting up and drinking, to action.

Montreal Storm was created in August 2016, and by August 2017 members of the group were taking the 12-hour drive south to Charlottesville, Va., to participate in the Unite the Right rally . Photos and videos show members of the chat, including Zeiger, carrying torches and shields and chanting white supremacist slogans.

By January 2018, much of the activity on Montreal Storm had dissipated. There were increasing references to the secret Facebook group and real-life meetings.

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There was also a growing paranoia within the group about being doxxed, the term used when a person’s true identity and private information are leaked online.

“I can’t tell you my age, i don’t want to doxx myself,” Gaius Kekkus wrote.

“If we get doxxed we get doxxed,” Farenheit wrote. “If we die we die.”

For its part, Discord has released public statements about its efforts to crack down on white supremacist servers on its platform. “Though we do not read people’s private messages,” the statement reads, “we do investigate and take immediate action against any reported (terms of service) violation by a server or user.”

After the Montreal Gazette published an investigation into neo-Nazi groups Thursday, users on white supremacist forums elsewhere on the internet warned each other to “[get the f*** off] of Discord.”