The Soldiers of Odin have publicly stated that they are not a racist organization and that racists are not tolerated within their organization. Last month, however, a number of members and supporters of the SOO attended an anti-muslim rally organized by PEGIDA in London, Ontario. So far, the SOO Ontario President has failed to condemn PEGIDA and the members and supporters who were at the rally continue to be members of the SOO Eastern Canada Support facebook group.

In comments made to me in a private message from David Mackinnon, the Ontario President of the Soldiers of Odin, he insisted that they do not tolerate racism or hate from their members, that they do not go to rallies, and that any members who do racist stuff would be booted out. He has said similar things to the media.

Justin Smith, the President of Soldiers of Odin in Sudbury, told the Sudbury Star, “None of us wishes anything bad on anyone and if we come across someone within our ranks who is a bad apple, they are removed. That’s if they make it through our vetting process.”

A month ago in London the organization “Patriots of Canada Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA)” held a rally in London, Ontario to protest against Sharia law and the practice of Islam.

(they were massively outnumbered by anti-racism counter protesters by the way)

PEGIDA is an explicitly anti-muslim organization, and their rally was attended by uniformed members of the III%ers and the Canadian Combat Coalition, which are white nationalist groups. Also in attendance were a number of members of the Soldiers of Odin, as outlined in this thread on twitter: https://twitter.com/tsercele/status/910258317976637441

The four individuals identified were not wearing SOO uniforms, but they were interacting with members of the III%ers.

All four of them have been members of the closed facebook group, “Soldiers of Odin Eastern Canada Support” since May and June, 2017.

A look at the names of people listed as having attended the rally in London reveals four other individuals who are members of the “Soldiers of Odin Eastern Canada Support” group. This doesn’t mean they were at the rally, and it doesn’t mean that they are full-patch members of the SOO, but it shows that they support the efforts of PEGIDA and they support the SOO.

The rally in London took place on August 26, 2017 and a month later, these 8 individuals are still members of the Soldiers of Odin Eastern Canada Support group.

If David Mackinnon is serious about keeping racists and islamophobes out of the Soldiers of Odin Ontario, then he needs to take action against these 8 individuals and publicly denounce PEGIDA as a hate group.

If this happens I will update this post, but considering some of the individuals are also admins of the facebook group, I don’t expect to see any action.

UPDATE: September 30, 2017

One of the SOO members outed for attending the PEGIDA rally in London posted a link to this article on his facebook page. As you’ll see from the screen capture below, one of the other members who was identified as attending expresses a little bit of concern about getting in trouble, since they attended without their cuts “as ordered”.

Screen capture from SOO Member James Godden’s facebook profile in which members suggest making the SOO facebook group “secret”, and where an attendee of the PEGIDA rally in London expresses concern about getting in trouble even though he went without his cuts “as ordered”.

This appears to show that not only were SOO leaders aware that their members would be attending the PEGIDA rally in London, Ontario on August 26, but they ordered them not to wear their “cuts” (their vests) to avoid being identified as members of Soldiers of Odin.