Nova Scotia man guilty of hate crime in cross-burning (Canada)

A Nova Scotia man has been found guilty of inciting hatred in a cross-burning incident last year near Windsor, N.S., in a precedent-setting case for Canada.

Justin Chad Rehberg, 20, pleaded guilty to criminal harassment as his trial was set to begin in Windsor provincial court last month, but he pleaded not guilty to inciting hatred.

On Friday, Judge Claudine MacDonald convicted him on that charge, saying that the burning of a cross is closely associated with the Ku Klux Klan in the United States.

Rehberg was charged after Michelle Lyon, who is white, and Shayne Howe, who is black, awoke Feb. 21 to find a cross with a noose on it burning outside their Poplar Grove, N.S., home. Their five children, between the ages of two and 17, were home at the time.

Crown attorney Darrell Carmichael said this is the first time a cross-burning has been recognized as a hate crime in Canada.

"I think it is a really significant decision for our country," Carmichael told reporters outside the courtroom. "There has never been an official court decision which states that cross-burning in this context is a hate crime."

Carmichael said he would be seeking a prison term for Rehberg, who will return to court Dec. 14 for sentencing on both charges.

Rehberg, who was released from custody pending his sentencing, said nothing as he walked out of the courthouse.
'We all bleed the same'

Last month, Carmichael and defence lawyer Chris Manning presented an agreed statement of facts, in which Rehberg admitted to assembling the cross, treating it with a flammable substance and setting it on fire.

Both the defence and Crown agree that someone yelled, "Die, n----r, die."

Manning argued there was no proof that it incited others to action. In fact, Manning said, the community rallied in support of Lyon and Howe.

Darrell Boutilier, Rehberg's uncle, said Friday that his nephew was willing to apologize to the couple and that should have been the end of the matter.

"I'm not saying that it should have been done because it shouldn't have been," Boutilier told reporters outside the courthouse. "But everybody makes mistakes when you're young. I mean, I've done foolish things in my crazy youth, but that's life."

Lyon and Howe told reporters that they were happy with the judge's decision.

"I got emotional in the courtroom because I kind of relived the whole incident all over again," said Lyon. "In the end it was good, it was a good outcome in the end."

"We all bleed the same," Howe added. "No matter our colour or how we look, we still bleed the same, we walk the same, we work the same.

"For that conviction to come through, it makes me happy to see that they're not tolerating this kind of stuff around here anymore."

Nathan Rehberg, Justin's brother, is charged with criminal harassment, public incitement of hatred, mischief and uttering threats.

His trial is set to start on Monday in front of a different judge.

CBC News

Far right in Moscow appropriate holiday to rally against immigrants

Two nationalist groups made their presence known during demonstrations in Moscow. To mark National Unity Day, the far right railed against immigrants, while pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi called for an end to crime.

Teenaged skinheads, many wearing masks, made Nazi salutes and shouted "Glory to Russia," "Long Live Russia," and "Forwards, Russians."

Among the speakers was Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, who has been accused of masterminding a murder attempt against former Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais.

The meeting dispersed after an open air concert. Police said there were no reports of violence.

 Extremists appropriate national holiday

Protestors behind a red banner raise their right arms in saluteBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  The demonstration was focused against immigrants, but anti-Semitic chants were also heard

Around 50 percent of Russians voiced sympathy for the slogan "Russia for the Russians" in a poll by state-run Levada Center last year. Although the far-right remains on the fringes and is unlikely to gain seats in parliament next year, civil rights activists warn that the group could soon become a major force in national politics.

The number of participants at the annual "Russian March" was up by one-third over last year, mainly because of a performance by a popular far-right rock group, according to activist Galina Kozhevnikova, whose anti-racist SOVA Center monitored the march.

The march has been held every year to mark the November 4 holiday National Unity Day, declared a holiday by Russia's then-president Vladimir Putin in 2005 to replace the November 7 commemoration of the 1917 October Revolution.

The holiday is intended to cement Russia's post-Soviet national identity by commemorating the 1612 repulsion of a Polish invasion from the Kremlin. However, polls show that only 10 percent of the public knows what the holiday is about.

The demonstrators in Moscow got support from Preston Wiginton, an American advocate of white supremacy, who has earlier been refused entrance into the United Kingdom. He fulminated against what he called "the cult of multiculturalism."

Pro-Kremlin youth protest boasts 15,000

Naschi youth mark in Moscow with signsBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Pro-Kremlin youth used the day to rally for a crackdown on crime

Meanwhile on Thursday, Pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi ("Ours") meanwhile claimed it had attracted over 15,000 people to its rival demonstration on the banks of the Moscow River -also dubbed the "Russian March." There, Nashi youth yelled primarily pro-Kremlin slogans and protested against crime.

Participants in the rally were encouraged to take videos of law violations that they witnessed, and Nashi members said they would then present thousands of such images to the authorities.

"We are going to fight against the violations of the law that we see every day," said Nashi official Maria Kislitsyna. "This is our country. We live here."

DW World

Far-right NPD votes for merger with like-minded party (Germany)

Party delegates of the right-wing National Democratic Party agreed by a clear majority to combine forces with the like-minded German People's Union. In previous state elections, the two parties split the far-right vote.

Out of 207 delegates, 194 voted in favor of a merger with the German People's Union (DVU), a National Democratic Party (NDP) spokesman said from the conference in Hohenmoelsen, Saxony-Anhalt, on Saturday.

The chances of the merger going ahead now depend partly upon the DVU, the smaller of the two parties, voting in favor of the move in a conference at the end of the month. A ballot of all members of both parties would then have to take place.

Under current plans, the new party would be called "NPD - the People's Union."

The parties together gained 1.5 percent of the vote nationally in the 2009 general election, keeping them well below the 5 percent threshold for national parliamentary representation.

While the NDP holds seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments, the DVU has no seats.

In recent years, both parties have faced financial problems and dwindling membership numbers. Federal agencies that monitor right-wing groups estimated that the NPD had some 6,800 members at the end of 2009, with the DVU having about 4,000.

 Protest outside meeting
As the conference took place, around 400 people protested outside against right-wing extremism.

A tribunal on Friday in the city of Magdeburg gave approval for the conference to be held in Hohenmoelsen, despite objections from the town itself.

 Both parties are known to attract votes from neo-Nazis and opponents have called for them to be banned, arguing that they are hostile to democracy.

 Leading the protest was Saxony-Anhalt Premier Wolfgang Boehmer, who addressed the crowd.

"We have already gambled democracy away once before in Germany," Boehmer said.

"That must never be allowed to happen again."

DW-World

Neo-Nazi takes seat in local Swedish council

A newly elected municipal council representative from a neo-Nazi nationalist party started his first day as an elected official in western Sweden with a lesson on the ABCs of democracy.

Before the lesson, Daniel Höglund, who is also the leader of the Party of Swedes (Svenskarnas parti, SVP), appeared pleased to take part in the class.

"Good," he said before the lesson on Thursday.

"This is totally new for me."

In the 2010 general elections, the SVP won 102 votes, or 2.8 percent, in the Grästorp municipal elections in western Sweden's Västra Götaland county, giving the party its sole seat in any elected office in Sweden.The Party of Swedes is typically described as a neo-Nazi party and its sees "the current chaos" as a result of democracy. It wants to replace democracy with another governmental system.

In the meantime, Höglund intends to follow all political rules that apply to an elected city council member.

"We have ambitions in the long run," said Höglund.

The party is formerly known as the People's Front (Folkfronten) and was founded by members of the former National Socialist Front (Nationalsocialistisk front, NSF), of which Höglund was also one of the two leaders, in November 2008.

At the time it dissolved, NSF was the largest neo-Nazi political party in Sweden. It became a political party on April 20th 1999, the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler.

The Party of Swedes' win is its first-ever in party history. The last time an extreme-right white nationalist party held elected office in Sweden was nearly 70 years ago during the Second World War.

In addition to the Party of Swedes, the Sweden Democrats also won a seat in the last election, but its seat remained empty at Thursday's meeting after the party's representative resigned.

An extremely discreet level of security was discernable outside the concert hall where the meeting was held, but no protesters were present. The meeting covered only the election. The budget and other decisions will be tabled on November 25th.

The Local Sweden