A group that shares its name with a vigilante fascist organization from Europe has been quietly recruiting in Vancouver for months, raising concerns about members’ intentions.
Soldiers of Odin Canada describes itself as a neighbourhood watch group, whose members conduct foot patrols that they believe can make the streets safer.
The president of the B.C. chapter, Bill Daniels, describes them as a humanitarian organization.
“We go around and feed the homeless and that kind of stuff. We do patrol walks not to get into any fights or anything but just to have a presence out there. Maybe it’ll help, maybe it won’t,” Daniels told CTV News.
But the original Soldiers of Odin group started in Finland, where it is openly anti-refugee and anti-immigrant. The founder was also reportedly convicted in a racially motivated assault 11 years ago.
Even the name Odin, evoking the Norse god of war, raises troubling questions. Norse mythology is closely associated with the neo-fascist, white supremacist movement currently sweeping through Europe.
“There’s reason to be concerned and we are concerned,” said Alan Dutton of the Canadian Anti-Racism Education & Research Society, who noted there’s a history in B.C. of overtly racist organizations such as the KKK springing up.
“They come in waves and they organize and there’s serious violence that results often from these groups.”
Daniels said his group is independent of others in Europe, and insists local members are neither racist nor anti-immigration.
Soldiers of Odin Canada has non-white members and Muslim members, according to Daniels, and the president of the Kamloops chapter is South Asian.
“We have no problem with that,” he said. “What they do in Europe is kind of not our concern here. We have made this our own here in Canada as just a group that helps people.”
The Vancouver Police Department said it is monitoring the group, but that there is nothing to suggest the group has done anything illegal.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Penny Daflos
