Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Screen capture taken from an edited video of at least three men handing out white nationalist flyers outside of McMaster University. Source: X
Outside the streets of McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, a small group of men walk towards a crowd. Dressed casually, some with hats and sunglasses, they hand out flyers to the passersby.
In an edited video posted online of the action, a crude and discordant pop-rock song plays, telling the viewer that noticing crime rates and patterns of the race of perpetrators makes them a “bigot.”
Two of the men in the video wear clothing from the Goyim Defense League—a neo-Nazi organization that engages in aggressive public protests to draw attention to their cause—while another wears a shirt from the Canadian white nationalist network Diagolon.
The video, posted to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, shows an edited scene of at least three men handing out flyers to any white people who pass. The content of the flyers is shown at the start of the footage and was verified by pictures of the flyers provided to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
The flyers encourage recipients to watch a documentary about The Great Replacement conspiracy, which alleges that there is a sinister plot behind demographic changes to take over and “replace” the preexisting culture and has been connected to multiple mass shootings.
The flyers link to a Substack obsessed with the decline of white populations, promoting the book “Canada in Decay” by former Canadian professor and white nationalist Ricardo Duchesne, and messages about charities focused on bringing in immigrants.
“Diversity means fewer white people,” one of the flyers reads. “Inclusion means exclusion of white people. Equity means stealing from white people.”
An edited and unedited version of the image shared online. The men in the picture are Antoni Stipan Knezovic (centre), Steve Hanson (right), and an unidentified individual (left). Source: X/Telegram
Based on a picture shared at the end of the video, two of the men’s faces can be seen, with a third covered by a superimposed totenkopf—a skull worn by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS). An unedited image was provided to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network by antifascist activists who monitor the GDL’s in-person and online activity.
The man whose face was covered has not been identified. If you have information about him, please contact [email protected].
Choosing to go unmasked in the footage was Alberta’s Steve Hanson. The writer and performer of the song in the video, Hanson has engaged in similar protests in Calgary, where he and others distribute racist and white supremacist flyers. Streams posted by Hanson show that these are the same flyers handed out at McMaster.
Hanson has an extremely small social media following. He uses his accounts mostly to promote other accounts affiliated with the GDL and posts videos of him performing a variety of cover songs.
Images taken during a Diagolon fundraising event in Edmonton also show Hanson with an unidentified individual, giving a Nazi salute.
An occasional live streamer, Hanson mostly interacts with other GDL content creators, though his viewership remains extremely low. During an appearance on a GDL live stream with Bryan Parker Bishop, a Texas content creator better known as Bastian, the pair discuss the legal case of Canadian neo-Nazi Ryan McCann, who was charged with felony assault for allegedly striking a Nashville bartender with a flagpole.
Taking place during a GDL demonstration on July 14, video shared by the GDL shows an individual who appears to be McCann hitting a man in the stomach with a pole.
Image released by Nashville police of Ryan McCann (left) and a screen capture from a Goyim Defense League stream of the alleged assault. Source: MNPD and Telegram
Travelling with McCann in the summer, and also shown in the recent McMaster video is a man identified previously as Antoni Stipan Knezovic. After travelling to the United States, he was pictured participating in protests and marches with the GDL, which included waving black flags emblazoned with a red swastika.
Most often, the GDL encourage supporters to print off and poster their local communities with GDL flyers that include antisemitic accusations against Jewish people. Their rallies often involve fascist symbols, like the swastika flags pictured during the Nashville event, as well as hurling verbal abuse and slogans at passersby.
While banned from most social media spaces, the GDL has developed its own streaming platform to host the group’s video content, as well as material produced by other like-minded content creators. While primarily a US-focused network, members of the Canadian white nationalist network Diagolon use the GDL’s platform to host their live streams.
GDL founder Jon Minadeo II has frequently appeared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) conference calls, called Spaces, with people from within the Diagolon community, including to give advice to Cullen Carver, a young man covered by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network for his connections to Diagolon and his attempts to join the board of his local riding association.
Making a wide number of offensive flyers and posters available to its followers online, there have been multiple instances of GDL activists posting flyers across Canada over the past several years, including in Peterborough, Ontario. At the time of writing, there have been no official GDL protests within the country.
The GDL raises funds through the sale of racist and pro-Nazi merchandise, which currently includes everything from busts of Adolf Hitler to clothing branded with the group's antisemitic slogans and imagery.
The person who posted the footage publically, Gus Stefanis, does not appear in the video, and when reached for comment, said he was unaware of where the video was recorded. Stefanis is the former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party. He took over the registered political party in August 2021 after founder Travis Patron was jailed for a litany of bizarre crimes, ranging from assault to attempting to claim a local legion belonged to him.
The CNP lost its party status for failing to have enough signatures to maintain party status. It has since become a protest organization, appearing most typically to protest against children’s storybook readings at libraries that feature drag queens.