Despite attempts to conceal their identities while recruiting new members, a new chapter of the neo-Nazi fight club left behind digital and video footprints.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Screen capture from a video by the Manitoba Active Club. Source: Telegram
Squaring up, wearing red and black boxing gear, the men touch gloves. Immediately swinging for the fences, they trade big, clunky punches, all while attempting to duck and weave around each other.
“There is obviously a lot to improve,” a caption reads added on the social media app Telegram. “Nothing to be ashamed of in starting (obviously), but what's most important is the energy exchanged in this confrontation.
“We both learned something about ourselves while bonding in an Aryan-only environment.”
It is one of a handful of short videos released by the Manitoba Active Club (MAC), the latest addition to the dozens of other chapters that operate in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Initially founded by American white nationalist Robert Rundo, the Active Clubs are a decentralized neo-Nazi movement that promotes the formation of white-only training clubs in North America and Europe.
Despite presenting themselves as bastions of positive health and community for white men, the Active Clubs are built on a foundation of white supremacy, preparing its members for a future they believe will be mired in racial conflict.
Chapters choose to self-identify as members of the broader network. Those who do then promote propaganda from other chapters across their social media channels. According to research by the Counter Extremism Project, over 100 Active Clubs were created between 2020 and 2023, with approximately 46 in the United States, at least 46 Active Clubs in 14 European countries, and 12 in Canada.
Embracing Rundo’s concept of the “cultured thug” along with purchases of his brand-name workout gear, Active Club members train in martial arts and combat sports. Encouraged to read fascist philosophers and prepare to violently confront their enemies, the Active Clubs serve as a “stand-by militia” of individuals ready to take action.
“It's our mentality which protects us, the information we gather, and the Worldview we build. In the end, it's RACE FIRST,” a post by the MAC reads.
In Manitoba, the Active Club has started promoting itself despite its small size—somewhere between three and four members, based on group photos.
Source: Telegram
Videos and images depict meet-ups in public parks, sparring, and workout sessions at a house. Sometimes their propaganda output is as simple as a lone member working a punching bag in a low ceiling, windowless room.
Others show handmade squat racks built from lumbar dropped into empty buckets. In what appears to be the basement of one of the channel’s admins, a custom-made flag hangs on the wall—the Manitoba provincial flag with a Celtic cross, a common white power symbol.
The videos themselves are not much to look at. Their boxing is often little more than flailing arms and poor defence. Despite being amateurish, an effort is made with the editing and production value, sometimes utilizing drones, music, text, and always some effort to conceal the identity of the subjects—typically with little more than blurred faces.
MAC’s security considerations do not extend to the metadata — stored data relating to the file itself, including the device and programs used to create the files — contained within the videos.
Using Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, a Windows desktop user named Logan Murphy is listed as creating all of the videos displayed on the group’s Telegram page.
The Telegram account used to recruit for the MAC, an individual using the screen name “White Power Vortex,” seems to have previously used the same name online. (Telegram offers users the ability to change their usernames while still maintaining the same account history.)
In a chat run by conspiracy theorist Chris “Sky” Saccoccia, the account now named White Power Vortex, quibbled over a post about the Holocaust. One of Saccoccia’s supporters responded, calling the account by the name “Logan Murphy.”
Murphy is a Lorette, Manitoba-based photographer and far-right activist originally from Port Hope, Ontario. A former Canadian military reservist with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, various social media posts show his work attempting to start a business as a pet photographer.
When reached for comment by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Murphy declined to answer if he was part of the MAC, created the videos, or used the name White Power Vortex on Telegram.
Picture of Logan Murphy while being interviewed by The Flame USA. Source: Rumble
As a photographer and true believer in a litany of wild theories, Murphy has been involved with the fringes of conspiracy theory for at least the past five years, even publishing a book of images he captured while attending the January 6, 2021, Stop the Steal protest. The day ended with people storming the US Capitol building in an attempt to halt the recognition of the election of US President Joe Biden. Based on his statements and publicly available pictures, Logan did not enter the Capitol building.
He also spent time working for right-wing troll and content creator Kevin Johnston. Johnston has since left Canada after a series of failures that included a run for mayor in Calgary, attempting to flee across the US-Canada border in the dead of winter to escape a prison sentence, and amassing a colossal amount of unpaid debt from a defamation suit which he lost.
A conspiratorial wanderer, Murphy’s social media postings include links to videos about chemtrails, flat earth, and QAnon. Murphy was at one point such a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory that he recorded a rap song, complete with accompanying video, outlining it for listeners.
Former James Topp photographer and January 6er Logan is trying out a new career making QAnon hip-hop, and it’s as bad as you can imagine it would be #QHop pic.twitter.com/Zf7jUZLrrA
— Johnny Fondue (@Eatsfood2) November 28, 2022
Video files posted to the group’s Telegram channel also held clues to other identities. The metadata in one contained the title “MAC_meetup_sparnworkout_sept24.”
The name of the folder that it was originally stored in on Logan Murphy’s computer, however, contained the biggest hint: “Joel_Adam_Logan.”
Based on his visible tattoos in other videos, which include a series of symbols used by Germany’s National Socialist government in the 1930s and 40s, we identified “Adam” as Adam Barber.
Images of Adam Barber. Source: Facebook
Little is known about Barber, other than he previously was very public about his beliefs on Facebook, owns items from white power clothing brands, and is covered in neo-Nazi tattoos. This includes the Celtic cross, a sonnenrad or black sun, and the National Socialist version of the Norse Odal rune. Despite having used several aliases online, his surname, Barber, is tattooed across his chest.
Barber does not appear to currently have public social media and could not be reached for comment.
Photo comparison between an add posted on Facebook Marketplace by Logan Murphy and an image of Adam Barber published on the Manitoba Active Club Telegram channel. Source: Facebook/Telegram
Barber appears in some of the videos released to the MAC Telegram page. Choosing to wear a mask, but still displaying several of his tattoos, the videos and images that include Barber were shot on Logan Murphy’s property. Images posted by Murphy while attempting to sell his truck include a metal frame swing seat seen through the windshield. The same seat is visible in MAC’s social media posting.
Active Clubs in Canada were a powerful tool for networking in white nationalism after the original “Active Club Canada” was formed in 2021. Attracting individuals from across the country to a recruitment chatroom on the encrypted communication application Telegram. An investigation by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) that same year found that a secretive skinhead gang, the Vinland Hammerskins, was initially behind the organizing of the Canadian branches.
Further reporting by CAHN and Vice World News, found multiple former members of the terrorist-designated Atomwaffen Division serving as prominent members of Ontario’s Active Club chapters.
At least two other men appear in the group’s propaganda footage.
If you have information about Active Clubs, please reach out at [email protected] or to Peter Smith at [email protected].
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