Running for mayor, from a bigoted past

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This article was published 24/09/2018 (2712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Past social media posts advocating white supremacy are coming back to haunt a mayoral candidate in Thompson.

An Anti-Racist Canada blog post identified Ryan Brady as the founder of Winnipeg White Pride Warriors a decade ago. The post said Brady had referred to immigrants as “vermin,” Jews as “filthy creatures,” Asians as “sly and cunning” and said Indigenous people should stick to their reserves “and not bother us.”

In his posts, he signed off with 14/88 — white supremacist numeric symbols the Anti-Defamation League says are shorthand for the “14 Words” slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and 88, which stands for “Heil Hitler” (H being the eighth letter of the alphabet). Together, the numbers form a general endorsement of white supremacy and its beliefs.

A photo of Brady posted on the notorious white nationalist site Stormfront in 2009 referred to him as a “sustaining member” or donor.

The posts are nearly 10 years old and Brady, now 29, told the Thompson Citizen that at the time, he was just trying to “piss people off” and those aren’t his beliefs today. If they were, he wouldn’t have friends who are Indigenous, he said.

“The things I posted 10 years ago were wrong and disgusting. They’re not my views and haven’t been since I left that group 10 years ago,” he told the Free Press on Monday.

“I am working on making amends with my community, friends, family and our Indigenous people here and the communities surrounding Thompson. If I can change for the better, so can anyone else.

“That’s how we progress as humans: learning from our mistakes and moving on towards getting ourselves and our community.”

Recent Facebook posts show him with his partner and two children, and pledging to donate his mayor’s salary for community projects, “including a community garden program involving youth and criminals. So they can learn some new skills, knowledge and have pride in growing food and pride in growing themselves into productive members of our community.”

That doesn’t calm the fears of Brielle Beardy-Linklater, who worries Brady could be in charge of the city she comes from.

A mayoral candidate “who has a past that’s very blatantly racist needs to be challenged to prove that he’s a better person,” said the former Thompson resident, who is Cree. “To say, ‘I have Indigenous friends,’ is not a satisfactory response.”

She said she’s alarmed someone posting such views in the last decade is running for mayor of the northern Manitoba city, which has a population of 13,678 residents, many of whom are Indigenous.

“How is he going to be accountable to the Indigenous population?” Beardy-Linklater said, adding in more recent social media posts that Brady hasn’t referred to reconciliation or meeting with Indigenous community elders.

City councillors Penny Byer, Ron Matechuk and Colleen Smook are also running for Thompson’s top elected job.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca