‘White pride’ supporter seeks custody of kids

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This article was published 30/06/2009 (6250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He knew the swastika drawing on his daughter was a bad idea.

But he wanted to avoid a fight with his wife.

The father involved in a high-profile custody battle told court Monday he knew sending his adopted daughter to elementary school with neo-Nazi markings would likely attract attention.

"I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to end good," said the man Monday. And it didn’t.

After school officials alerted police last March to the drawings, authorities seized the couple’s two children.

He and his wife are now estranged. Manitoba Child and Family Services is seeking a permanent order of guardianship for the two Winnipeg children. The government agency claims the children’s parents are unfit to raise them, in part due to emotional abuse caused by their white supremacist beliefs.

The children’s mother had not shown up for the custody trial after leaving the province but appeared Friday after she was taken into custody on five credit card related charges.

She was not present Monday for cross-examination by lawyers after reportedly leaving Winnipeg again.

However, the man is still fighting for custody of his eight-year-old stepdaughter and her three-year-old brother.

The boy is the man’s biological son from his 2005 marriage to their mother.

The man admitted to court he is a member of the "white pride" movement and he taught his daughter the swastika represented "love and peace."

He also admitted to using slurs like the N-word.

"I don’t believe in interracial breeding," said the soft-spoken man, who had to be prompted to speak louder so court could hear his testimony.

People from different races should be "separated," he said.

However, he said the girl’s interview with a social worker about killing or blowing up people of other races did not reflect his own beliefs.

The man said he knows his beliefs are controversial and his daughter should not express them to her classmates.

"It just caused a lot of trouble," he said. "It can get you hurt."

The man said members of his family would adorn themselves with marker drawings, including those of stick-figure horses and trees.

"(My daughter) would call them tattoos," he said. "I think she was scared of having real ones."

The man told courts that testimony portraying him as an excessive drinker are not accurate.

The scent of cherry-flavoured tobacco he smokes in a pipe may have been mistaken for marijuana, he said.

He said he grappled with heroin addition as a teenager, also experimenting with cocaine, but later kicked the habit.

He’s held down steady work as a security guard for the last nine months, he said, and worked with CFS to get his children back.

"I’ve done everything they’ve asked me to do," he said.

The children could live with him at his parent’s three-bedroom apartment and he is willing to continue counselling.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca