She doesn't apologize for the silver necklace with a small etching of a swastika that she wears around her neck.
Describing herself as a proud "white nationalist," this Winnipeg woman with a fringed hair and a freckled nose says she's worked doggedly in the restaurant industry for years to support her two children while her oft-unemployed husband stayed home with her kids.
The day her seven-year-old daughter went to school in March with a swastika drawn on her arm, her mother said she tried to wash it off with nail polish remover but the marking stayed put. Her daughter forgot her sweater a mother gave her to cover her arm.
When her mother arrived to collect her child from school, police were waiting for her.
"The only thing that matters to me is my children. It's not about politics, it's not about anything else... it's about what's best for them," says the mother, who spoke to the Free Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday afternoon, from the home of a friend where she's staying.
"I've never forced my beliefs on my children."
The woman's seven-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were seized by Manitoba Child and Family Services this spring due to concerns their father -- an admitted white supremacist -- was filling their minds with hate and marking one child's body with racist graffiti. The children are now staying with relatives.
The mother, who refused to comment on where the swastika marking came from, suggested her daughter may be responsible for other pro-Hitler markings CFS said they found on her body.
"It's entirely possible she could have drawn it on herself," she said.
"She didn't want to (wash the swastika off) either."
The Free Press is not publishing the parents' names to protect the identity of the children.
The couple married in 2005 and bore a son only months later, after the woman brought a daughter to the relationship she'd had already with another man. The relationship was wrought with financial difficulties and brushes with the criminal justice system -- with the couple parting ways in 2007.
After reuniting, the relationship ended again this spring, after the mother said she read reports filed by the CFS about her children following their seizure. While the Winnipeg woman acknowledges her beliefs are controversial, she said it doesn't mean authorities have a right to remove her kids. She also says she doesn't believe in violence against racial or religious minority groups, though she states her European heritage sets her apart from other racial groups.
As the Free Press reported Tuesday, she describes herself as an admirer of Paul Fromm, the disgraced former school teacher fired from an Ontario public school board in 1997 for links to neo-Nazi groups who now runs the Canadian Association for Free Expression, a group dedicated to defending hate speech against minority and ethnic groups.
"I'm just proud of who I am. My heritage comes from Northern Europe. I believe in evolution and science... I should never be ashamed of who I am and what I am," she said. "I think if this was a Star of David drawn on her arm, this wouldn't be an issue. Or a cross... a lot of my friends have pride in who they are and where their families came from."
The mother said she has made mistakes but she's working to get her children back from relatives they're currently living with. She's adamant her spiritual belief in what she terms as "Odinism" is not hurting her kids.
Odinism is described by followers as a pagan religion with European roots that celebrates Norse and Germanic mythology.
Critics say Odinism is followed by some members of white supremacy groups that use it to justify claims to power.
"I am tolerant of all people," said the young woman, who is in her 20s.
She refutes the notion that she is a neo-Nazi, but admits her husband is a "flamboyant bigot."
The woman also said police never executed a search warrant on her property, as previously reported in the Free Press.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
