Quebec neo-Nazi led Seconds Sons march in Kamloops

A group of white nationalists headed to Kamloops in a convoy of minivans before putting on a demonstration near the former Indian Residential School.

More than a dozen men, wearing all black uniforms and white masks, were led by a neo-Nazi and Second Sons member who hails from Quebec as their Sept. 27 demonstration sparked widespread condemnation.

Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald, a self-described Nazi, took the lead and spoke for the group as they held their banner in Kamloops and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc across the river. The diatribe was recorded for the Second Sons promotional video later posted to its social media channels.

Beauvais-MacDonald said it was “an honor (sic) to represent our Western divisions” in Kamloops on social media. None of the masked men have been publicly identified.

It’s not known whether any of the other men are local to Kamloops or B.C. Second Sons Canada has not responded to a request for comment.

Second Sons is aimed at pursuing a white ethno-state in Canada and Beauvais-MacDonald is not shy on social media about identifying himself as a “Nazi,” frequently celebrating Adolf Hitler. He’s one of the few Second Sons members who identifies with the group with others wearing masks or blurred in public images of the group and its connected active clubs.

A promo video of the group shows the Chrysler Pacifica convoy driving on a mountain highway before members are seen showing off their “Got Bones?” banner around Kamloops. It also shows a brief encounter with a Kamloops RCMP officer.

Beauvais-MacDonald’s speech was largely focused on claiming the Indian residential school system was supposed to help First Nations children and dismissed the documented abuse, with the group calling for evidence of graves from Tk’emlups.

He also said Tk’emlups has claimed the roughly 200 suspected graves were of children who were abused or murdered, but the First Nation has not made conclusions about how children would have died, while many Indian residential schools documented malnourishment and disease running rampant among students.

In another video, group founder Jeremy MacKenzie said police did not accuse them of committing any crimes and they were largely unimpeded, aside from being told to leave Tk’emlups land.

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley later described the group as “cowardly” and said police were watching them closely throughout Kamloops. He said they were not welcome in the city, but it’s not clear what steps the detachment is taking to continue to monitor the group.

Second Sons hasn’t been accused of directing criminal behaviour in Kamloops or elsewhere since their formation last year, but their white supremacist ideals has sparked condemnation from leaders across the country.