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April 13, 2005

Wolfgang Droege

Canadian fascist, Wolfgang Droege has been shot dead. Droege's neo-Nazi Heritage Front threatened me, my friends and everybody else who did not fit their idea of what a Canadian should be. Punks. Homeless people. Native people. Gay people. People of colour. In other words all the people who might not merit the overt, honest antipathy of the suburbs of Ottawa but nobody to get worked up about if the skinheads decided to put the boot in. I met Droege briefly on opposite sides of the line. This was a human being who had decided so many other people were not quite human. Perhaps the years changed him. But right now I search in myself for some charitable feeling at the news of his death and find none. I am not proud to find it wanting.

Born in Germany, Droege came to Canada as a boy, although he did return to his homeland for a brief period. His first involvement in the white supremacy movement was with the Western Guard. In 1976, he joined the Ku Klux Klan after meeting Klan leader David Duke at a conference and attempted to start a chapter in Toronto.

His involvement in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Dominica in the Caribbean -- the plan being to set up a white supremacist base there -- led to a three-year prison sentence. Droege was arrested in Alabama in 1985 on cocaine possession and weapons charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 13 years, returning to Canada in April 1989.

He started organizing the now-defunct Heritage Front in October 1989. The group was a continental network of neo-Nazis.

One wonders why CTV feels it necessary to say Droege was born in Germany. He did his level best to make life hell for everyone he did not like in this country, a sentiment that is not restricted to neo-Nazis let alone Germans. Droege may have been born in Germany but he became a Nazi in Canada, his home. We should all wonder how such a thing could still come to pass. Blaming it on the Germans is precisely the hands-over-the-eyes approach to dealing with fascism and prejudice that lets Droege's beliefs come into being unchallenged. Sadly, it is an attitude that is still all too common in this country.

Update: The next morning there is still no news as to what inspired the murder. CBC hosts an interview with Elizabeth Moore, a woman who knew Droege before she left his neo-Nazi movement. A Metro news article claims Droege was from a "family of enthusiastic Nazi supporters" in Forchheim, Germany so there may have been more reason to emphasize his German upbringing than I gave CTV credit. I still think it is all too easy to point fingers at the Germans, think it should be avoided and am not convinced CTV's rhetoric was appropriate. I imagine we shall be hearing more of the same if Wolfgang Droege's death is reported more widely.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 13, 2005 08:41 PM

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? Neo-Nazi Wolfgang Droege from Being American in T.O.
Apr. 14 - Neo-Nazi Wolfgang Droege was shot and killed last night in east Toronto. My only comment is that this guy only got 3 years for trying to overthrow the government of Dominica, but got 13 years for cocaine... [Read More]

Tracked on April 14, 2005 11:52 AM

Comments

I too have no feelings of sadness. But I must confess, I am surprised. I didn't expect to hear about one of the suits getting shot. The foot soldiers, sure. The top guys, not so much.

Isn't there an old phrase -- probably a Biblical reference, as are the most poetic turns of phrases in our language -- about sowing the storm and reaping the whirlwind? Such was the life -- and death -- of Wolfgang Droege.

Posted by: Ben [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 14, 2005 08:41 AM

You were involved in ARA? Small world. I wasn't but I know several people who were.

Posted by: Kevin Brennan [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 14, 2005 05:46 PM

I am a non-joiner by disposition and was never a member of the ARA. I was dating one of the people who set up ARA in Ottawa at the time of the Boys and Girls Club dust-up and the one at Sneaky Dee's that summer.

Posted by: Ghost of a flea [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 15, 2005 10:10 AM

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