[Updated] Kevin Annett, The Pope, The Media Co-Op, Anonymous, The CAW, Lies And Appropriation of Indigenous Voices…

International Socialist, and prominent con-artist, Kevin Annett (notice what it says on the banner)

Kevin Annett (on right) with NDP Socialist Caucus Founder Barry Weisleder

Kevin Annett was one of the worst disasters to hit Canada’s indigenous communities in the past 20 years. He’s a former United Church minister who was defrocked after losing his cool and refusing to meet with a church psychiatrist. Once he left the church he began his long-con- appropriating the voices of Indian Residential School survivors and using their stories to get naïve (or bad intentioned) people to support his crusade against the Pope, the Queen, and the governments of the world.

In 2011 Annett went to the Six Nations reserve in Brantford, Ontario and faked the discovery of a mass grave of residential school survivors. His fraud was exposed and he was publicly humiliated- even the Aboriginal People’s Television Network got involved, producing an in-depth report debunking him. Annett later lied about filing a court case against the Queen, the Pope, Harper & ‘Big Pharma’- he was quickly disproved.

How does one top faking a mass grave and a lawsuit against the Queen? Well, it seems that Annett has gone off the deep-end now, he announced yesterday that he was single-handedly responsible for the resignation of the Pope!

No, it’s not April Fool’s day. That said, it appears that there are still fools out there who are listening to Annett. There are people so disillusioned with how they see the world that they’re willing to grasp at Annett’s straws and believe his stories. Some people lost their dignity, some lost their money- many residential school survivors got to feel what it was like to be violated once more. He violated survivors after their death- forging the signature of Harriett Nahanee, one of the most respected indigenous activists in Canada.

When people called Annett out on his bad behaviour, he’d retaliate by coordinating vicious attacks on people who asked too many questions. He smeared Jan Longboat, an elder and professor who spent her life studying and teaching her knowledge of indigenous culture. He made webpages slandering people, calling residential school survivors ‘dimestore indians’, and spreading rumours that people were ‘agents of the state’. The slander and attacks got so bad that Dennis Banks and Royce White Calf from the American Indian Movement made a public declaration (on this site) that Annett was a danger to native communities.

Before he entered the church, Kevin Annett was an activist. When he left, he was an organizer for the Canadian Auto Workers- trying to recruit United Church clergy into the union.

Annett’s involvement with activism began while he was a Master’s student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. In Toronto, he was one of the founding members of the International Socialists- a spin off group that was created after the Waffle was ejected from the NDP. His network included many people who were (and are) influential on the left– Barry Weisleder, Winnie Ng, Judy Rebick and George Galloway to name a few.

It was those connections that allowed Annett’s long-con to thrive and grow. He was invited to speak at their meetings, Ryerson University (and CAW Sam Gindin Chair) Winnie Ng wrote glowing letters about his ‘work’, he shared the stage with Judy Rebick, Galloway interviewed him on his radio show.

As time passed, the left’s support for Annett shifted from the ridiculous to the absurd. Rabble.ca published a story declaring Annett conducted an exorcism, causing a tornado to hit the Vatican. The Media Co-Op published a video interview with Annett while he’s waving around the bones of what he claimed were the bones of dead children from residential schools- they only launched softball questions and didn’t question gaps in Annett’s logic.

Intentional or not, Annett was a valuable tool for the people in the militant left- particularly for their efforts to create agitation in indigenous communities. One community where the radicals (with a strong representation from the CAW) have a foothold is the Six Nations. Annett’s claims of finding a mass grave was exactly what they needed to spur division. The hate Annett created for peacemakers like Jan Longboat only helped the radicals further their cause.

In many ways the Kevin Annett affair is a microcosm of Canada’s radical activist community- the same players, the same style of agitation, the same pattern of vicious lies, smears and attacks. That’s not a coincidence, Annett learned everything he knew from this community.

Today I was viciously attacked, once again, by some of the very same people. A story was published on the Media Co-Op’s webpage slandering me with a laundry list of lies and vicious smears. They label me as a far-right ‘reactionary’ because I view violence and dishonesty as a danger to the success of genuine activism. The article also appears to many as a veiled call to violence against me.

Curiously, someone from the House of Commons read that story- arriving on my site from the story in the Media Co-Op. It’s good to see people in government are paying attention.

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Someone claiming to be with Anonymous then tweeted out that I’ve been framing activists for false crimes. Afterwards, 100’s of people came to my site. Luckily, many have come to me and expressed their regret that this happened to me.

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It’s my understanding that the Media Co-Op has received funding from the CAW. In return, they’ve promoted the CAW’s causes, attacked the right people, and helped perpetuate many of the militant left’s great deceptions.  They do all this while claiming to be protectors of the working class and advocates for indigenous rights. In reality, what they do is the exact opposite.

Kevin Annett, Judy Rebick, Rabble, the Media Co-Op and so many others are a real a danger to those who they claim to support. They appropriate the voices of the poor, the disillusioned, and even those who’ve experienced the horrors of the residential schools. It’s a form of colonization- also a form of theft. Is it a coincidence that Pamela Palmater is the spokesperson for Idle No More? She’s also Judy Rebick’s sidekick, and funded by the CAW.

Most of the people who supported Annett have publicly conceded that he’s a fraud- including reporters for Rabble and the Media Co-Op. Regardless, they haven’t taken any action to stop the pain he’s been causing and to protect more people from giving their money, stories and souls to a man generally acknowledged as a con-artist. This despite the fact that some of their indigenous allies still believe in Kevin Annett’s lies. This is a form of abuse.

The problem is that these people aren’t in the game to bring us peace. They want the opposite, it’s their intention to continuing tearing-apart indigenous, and other, communities until they are (theoretically) ripe for a violent revolution. There most likely won’t be a revolution, most people are smarter than to believe their radical dogma. Unfortunately, many people are still getting hurt.

This cowardly pattern of vicious lies and attacks needs to stop. The appropriation of people’s struggles needs to stop. The people perpetuating this anguish need to stop. The community needs to take responsibility and call-out this sort of behaviour when it happens. It’s no longer acceptable to ignore what’s happening. Lives are at stake…

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2013/02/13/kevin-annett-the-media-co-op-anonymous-the-caw-lies-and-appropriation-of-indigenous-voices-feat-rabble/