Wednesday 15 November 2023

The Coutts 2 + 1 + 1: Far-right infighting over fundraising causes rift

This week saw a flurry of in-fighting among the far-right regarding the Coutts 4 fundraising efforts. As far as I can tell it began with a tweet from Jeremy Mackenzie in which he asked why Chris Lysak is relying on legal aid for his representation.

Margaret "Granny" Mackay has been mostly responsible for raising funds for the Coutts 4, and prior to this week considered herself a fan of Jeremy Mackenzie.
Jason Lavigne and Donald Best have both questioned Granny's fundraising efforts.
Margaret is clearly upset about the allegations against her. She made multiple posts on social media defending herself, and threatening to sue the people "defaming" her.
Granny also defended her fundraising by saying that Chris Lysak is responsible for his own legal defense, and that he initially had a lawyer and chose to have a legal aid lawyer.
And shame on those who pick on granny. :D
Margaret confirmed to Luke Lebrun of Press Progress that she has raised around $310,000 for the 4 accused. This is at odds with claims by Jason Lavigne that $1 million has been raised.
This kicked off some factional infighting, with some people siding with Granny, and others with Lavigne/Diagolon. Many tried to keep their feet planted within both camps.
The bickering between Jeremy Mackenzie and Chantelle Grayson was reignited over this as well. Some of the Coutts 4 family were also pulled in.

Lots of anger was directed towards Ezra Levant and Rebel Media. Supporters of the Coutts 4 claim that Rebel did not donate any funds to their defenses. The Diagolon crew accuse Ezra of pocketing the money.


Jason Lavigne was jealous that Ezra Levant was granted access to the court room during one of Chris Carbert's bail review hearings.


The infighting caused Chris Carbert to distance himself from the Coutts 4 fundraising and start his own fundraising. His mother Betty spoke on his behalf.

Betty also stated that Jeremy Mackenzie is a "good guy". We'll address that claim shortly.
Another fundraiser was then created for Chris Lysack which was pushed heavily by the Diagolon community. Granny has refused to share the new fundraiser.
And to be fair I don't blame her. I'm not sure how aware of this she would be, but Diagolon's online fundraising campaign was full of their usual racism and antisemitism.

Content warning going forward.
If you don't wish to watch the clips I don't blame you. Short version:
They showed support for Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell.
Alex jokes that marrying a Jew would help a comedy career.
Derek uses an anti-Asian slur.
Jeremy blames the Jews for WWI.
Etc. Etc. This is how Diagolon fundraises.
Some of the statements made during the fundraising streams could be classified as hate speech. They repeatedly make references to "parasites".

Derek Harrsion while referring to Zionists uses the phrase "the parasitic class".
Derek also makes reference to "the parasitic tribe", which is a direct reference to a phrase uttered by former Canadian Nationalist Party Leader Travis Patron that netted him a hate speech conviction.

Alex Vriend calls Israel a parasitic nation. He also states that Jews and Israelis lie about everything.
Alex states that knowing zero Jews is knowing too many.

Derek conflates Israelis and Jews so it doesn't take a great leap in logic to figure out who they're referring to when they use the term parasites.

Criticize Granny all you want, but to my knowledge her fundraising never included any hate speech.
Jeremy is now concerned that Coutts 4 Tony and Jerry may turn on Chris and Chris.
Not sure whether Jeremy realizes that if they do flip on Chris and Chris that he's partially to blame for causing that rift.



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