Two men savagely beaten during a home invasion say it was the work of vengeful neo-Nazis.
Jason Devine, a member of the vocal Anti-Racist Action Calgary group which has clashed with white supremacist factions at rallies in the past, suffered serious bruising and cuts around the head during the attack at his home early Monday morning.
His wife Bonnie, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the city's recent election, and their four children were asleep upstairs when five masked men burst into their home and laid a vicious beating on Devine and his friend at about 1:15 a.m.
Both men were taken to hospital where Jason's friend remains, awaiting surgery for a broken arm.
"This is obviously a message," said Devine.
"They weren't able to bash my head in and do some serious damage, but it was still meant as a message: '(expletive) off, quit, leave it.'"
While the investigation is still in its early stages, police are considering a number of motives including that it may have been the work of retaliatory white supremacists.
"This was definitely a targeted attack, this was not a random attack," said Sgt. Brad Moore.
Devine recently launched a leaflet campaign alerting neighbours that known neo-Nazis were living in their midst.
Police have ruled out robbery as a motive.
No arrests have been made, although cops have a number of suspects in mind, including at least one high-profile white supremacist linked to the Aryan Guard, a white supremacist group once active but reportedly disbanded following high-profile bombings in Calgary last year.
The Anti-Racist Action Network maintains an Internet presence to report on local neo-Nazi activity.
"Based on who we know the victims are, based on their identities in the community, that's definitely an angle we're looking at," Moore said.
"At this point in time we can't confirm whether or not it was anybody related to any of those groups."
The assault is the latest in a string of attacks against the Devines, who recently moved.
Their former home had been on the receiving end of a Molotov cocktail, a Swastika was spray painted on their window and someone threw a cinder block through another window.
"After everything else that's happened over the last couple years, I don't know who the hell else would do it," Devine said.
Toronto Sun
