Mother: Reports of the hateful behaviour that vaulted Patrik Mathews into the headlines are at odds with the 'very sensitive' son she knows

As an undercover FBI agent listened last October, Patrik Mathews made clear what he thought of black people and other non-caucasians. At one point, it’s alleged, he declared that he existed only for “the white revolution.”

That was among the many chillingly racist and violent remarks the former Canadian reserve soldier allegedly uttered while under secret police scrutiny in the United States, months after he was first accused of being part of a burgeoning neo-Nazi group.

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But to at least one of Mathews’ parents, the reports of hateful behaviour that vaulted him into the headlines are at odds with the “very sensitive” and compassionate son his family knows.

Mathews, 27, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome as a child, faced bullying and was a “loner,” but “could never harm anyone,” said mother Kim Monk.

In fact, he actually dated an African-Canadian woman until a little over a year ago, she told the National Post.

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“They were to get married, and they broke up, and I was very disappointed to hear that. He was going to have her move in,” the mother said. “The girlfriend didn’t want to break up with him. She tried desperately to get back together with him.”

Monk said she was flabbergasted when she first heard reports that her son was deeply entwined with The Base , a multi-national white-supremacist organization whose stated goal is to help trigger a race war, then establish a white “ethno-state.” He never spoke to her of such views before being publicly accused last August, she said.

Patrick was bullied in school. Kids pick on people because they’re different

Paternal grandmother Carol Mathews also told the Post this week she was “just baffled” that Mathews had become a high-profile face of North America’s growing white-supremacy movement.

Exactly how that alleged radicalization happened remains murky.

But from his sometimes difficult childhood in rural Manitoba to a comfortable, small-town adult life and part-time soldiering – then hiding out with American members of The Base, Mathews’ biography offers both hints and contradictions.

He grew up on a rural property near Lundar, Man., a 90-minute drive northwest of Winnipeg. His parents had a hobby farm, while father Glen worked for Manitoba Hydro. Monk, who remarried a few years ago, said she stayed at home raising Patrik and younger brother Kris.

At about eight years old, Monk said, Mathews was diagnosed with Asperger’s, a high-functioning disorder on the autism spectrum, whose symptoms can include above-average intelligence, difficulty with social skills and obsession with specific, sometimes-unusual topics.

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He was very bright and other children seemed fascinated by that cleverness, but “Patrik was bullied in school,” recalled his mother. “Kids pick on people because they’re different.”

Photo by U.S. Attorney via AP

Yet he never lashed out in response, Monk said. When one of his chief bullies was killed in an accident, Mathews suggested without hesitation they attend the funeral. Another time, when he was about 12, he became emotional after his mother hit and wounded a deer on the way to Kris’s hockey practice. The brother, by contrast, was mostly worried about being late for practice, she said.

Monk cautions against assuming that Asperger’s completely explains his troubles today, noting that many people with the condition become successful, even brilliant adults. But she suggested it might have made her son more susceptible to what she calls brainwashing.

“People with Asperger’s they can really focus on detail, and maybe he missed the whole big picture,” said Monk. “He was a little bit of a loner, because he has his Asperger’s. Sometimes people take advantage of that.”

Heading into adolescence, Mathews’ unyielding views would sometimes land him in the principal’s office at Lundar School, says a community leader whose wife taught him.

“He was always a very smart kid in school, but maybe a little short-tempered,” said Coun. Kent Kostyshyn of the rural municipality of Coldwell. His wife asked not to be named. “He had very strong beliefs and you couldn’t talk him out of them.”

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He was one of those kids who didn’t get help when he needed it. The system failed him

But Mathews never caused any real trouble in the community, and seemed to need more support than he received, said Kostyshyn, who called Glen Mathews a highly respected community member.

“He was one of those kids who didn’t get help when he needed it,” said the councillor. “The system failed him.”

Mathews’ former teacher, he said, is not surprised at his current predicament.

A few years later in 2010, when he was about 18, he joined the 38 Canadian Brigade Group, an army reserve unit headquartered in Winnipeg. A combat engineer, he reached the rank of master corporal.

Similar to his carpenter brother Kris, he also worked in construction and was now square-jawed and muscular. About two years before his arrest, he bought a house on a pleasant, tree-lined street in Beausejour, Man. His grandmother supplied the down payment as a gift, said Monk.

“He seemed like he was a good worker. When he bought the house, he re-shingled the whole roof himself in 90-degree weather,” recalled Ron Loeb, who lived kitty-corner from him on the cul-de-sac.

But, said Loeb, he generally kept to himself and “didn’t seem to want to interact with anybody too much.”

His mother says he broke up with his African-Canadian girlfriend, whom she described as a “wonderful girl,” in December 2018. The Post was unable to reach her for comment.

It’s unclear exactly when Mathews joined The Base, but a court document filed by U.S. prosecutors says the group was formed that July, a few months before the couple’s split. It was best known for its online presence, including propaganda videos, the kind of material experts say is often key to self-radicalization.

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Regardless, Mathews’ life changed dramatically last August, when the Winnipeg Free Press published an expose by reporter Ryan Thorpe, who had managed to infiltrate The Base after seeing recruitment posters allegedly put up by Mathews.

Photo by U.S. Attorney via AP

In a meeting with Thorpe, he peppered the conversation with racial epithets, talked of the need for violent action and referred to Dylann Roof — convicted of shooting nine African-American parishioners at a church in South Carolina — as one of “the saints,” the newspaper reported.

Shortly afterward, the RCMP raided Mathews’ home in Beausejor, briefly detaining him but not laying any charges. He returned the next day and seemed for a while to be back at work, said Loeb.

His mother said she wanted desperately for him to undergo some kind of psychological counseling and obtain good legal advice, but he refused. She wonders if the parents’ split about five years ago and the death of three of his grandparents during the same period may be a factor in his seeming transformation.

“I told him that he would end up dead or in jail if he continued in this direction,” she said.

Mathews in turn advised his mother that within a few years she’d need guns to protect herself from the coming war between races.

Then, after handing over his four cats to Monk, he disappeared, prompting the family to file a missing-person report with the RCMP.

“This has been a horrible time for myself and my family, the absolute worst,” father Glen said in a Facebook post last August. He could not be reached for comment. “Everyone has their views but in the end this is my son and I am deeply concerned about him.”

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According to documents filed by a U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland, Mathews crossed the border into Minnesota and was then picked up in Michigan by two members of The Base. His truck was found abandoned in Manitoba.

He spent time with some members of the group in Georgia, where an undercover FBI agent heard them discuss in detail a plan to murder two anti-fascist activists. But after Mathews left to stay with Base followers in Delaware, one of the others complained that he was “incompetent” and would have to be killed himself because he knew about the assassination plot and could be a security risk, court documents relate.

At an apartment where he stayed in Delaware, police implanted a camera and microphone, capturing Mathews and other members of The Base discussing plans for violent action at a pro-gun rally in Richmond, Va. The state governor declared a state of emergency around the event, which unfolded peacefully Monday.

Mathews also said he wished he had booby-trapped his house so the RCMP officers who searched it last summer had been killed, according to American prosecutors.

Finally last week, five months after he vanished, U.S. law enforcement announced his arrest , just days before the Richmond event.

Monk said she has wished since last summer that her son would get the psychological help she is convinced he needs, but worries that now, with the threat of a prison term hanging over him, it’s too late.

“People are just distraught about it, because this is not the Patrik we know. He was brainwashed, just like any cult,” she said. “It’s ruined everyone’s lives.”

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