Heritage Front Recruiting
Approach and Appeal
Realizing that an openly racist message would repel the general public, the Heritage Front has adopted a ‘White Pride’ approach in its recruitment campaign. Flyers distributed by the group declare:
“We are the descendants of Pythagoras, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton and Darwin. Just to list the great accomplishments of our race would require the work of a lifetime. No one, no race on the face of the earth, has more to be proud of than we do. Virtually every great civilization throughout the history of the human race has been created by our people. ”
In an era where the victimization of minorities is being confronted and remedied, the Heritage Front claims that the White race is being discriminated against by a society which gives in to the demands and rights of minority groups. In the Front’s magazine, Up Front, an article from March 1992 bemoaned the perceived attack on Whites, stating “We must do something before it is too late. Every other race within Canada works vehemently to promote its own interests.” By posing as a defender of the White race, the Heritage Front seeks to hide the hatred in its White supremacist message by appealing to those who are disturbed by new legislation and ideas. However, it is clear in all of the group’s action that what the Heritage Front markets as pro-White activism is the same anti-Native, anti-Black, anti-Semitic message that has always been spread by Canadian White-supremacist hate groups.
The Heritage Front’s anti-immigration message tries to appeal to over-taxed and unemployed Canadians who it thinks are incensed at the thought of ‘foreigners’ taking their jobs. Radical groups such as the Heritage Front provide a cause to latch on to, scapegoats, and a ‘safe haven’ for the wavering identities of disenfranchised people unable to deal with the pressures of school and society. The existence of the Heritage Front represents a backlash against Canada’s move towards multiculturalism and equality for all Canadians.
