Aryan Nations offers legal and financial help to alleged neo-Nazi parents

Leader says organization ready to mobilize against Winnipeg ruling

They have been dubbed a "terrorist threat" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and linked to numerous acts of violence across the United States, including murder. Now, they have their sights set on Winnipeg -- and a controversial case that has seen two young children taken away from their alleged neo-Nazi parents.

August Kreis III, the leader of the Aryan Nations, told the Winnipeg Free Press his organization is prepared to mobilize whatever resources are necessary -- including financial and legal -- to ensure the decision isn't allowed to stand. He said the case is unlike anything he's ever heard of and fears it will set a dangerous precedent across North America.

"We're all family people. If they can do this in Canada, how long until they are doing it down here?" Mr. Kreis said in an interview from his home in South Carolina.

Mr. Kreis claims the Aryan Nations have numerous Canadian "affiliates" who are also outraged. They contacted him this week after the Free Press broke the story of how a seven-year-old girl showed up at her school in the Winnipeg suburb of St. Vital with several white supremacist markings on her body -- including a swastika and the words "Aryan Pride."

Child and Family Services then seized the girl and her two-year-old brother. They have filed for a permanent order of guardianship, but are close to an out-of-court settlement with the mother that would see the children slowly re-integrated back to the home under close supervision. The woman says she has ended her relationship with her husband.

Mr. Kreis wouldn't specify the number of members in Canada, but claims they are plentiful and represent all walks of life -- "we're doctors, lawyers, professors ... people up and down the economic scale. The Canadians need to know we support this fight, that they are not alone. We're all over, and there are a lot of Canadians who feel the same way we do and are fed up with all this multiculturalism."

Mr. Kreis said he wouldn't advise his followers to turn their children into so-called "billboards" -- such as what is alleged to have happened in Winnipeg -- but added that's hardly grounds to have children removed from a home.

Mr. Kreis questions why similar seizures haven't been made of children being raised by homosexual or lesbian parents.

Ottawa Citizen