Who became Proud Boys leader after ex-Vice co-founder distanced self from group now listed as terrorist entity?
Proud Boys, the extreme right-wing group with all-male members, that is allegedly neo-fascist was listed as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government on February 3. The announcement was made by Bill Blair, the Public Safety Minister. It was one of the 13 entities that were listed under the Criminal Code in 2021 and became one of the 73 total entities that have been included so far.
Who is the leader of Proud Boys?
At present, Proud Boys is led by Enrique Tarrio, who holds the position of chairman in the group. Tarrio aligns himself with the Republican party and had also taken part in the Republican primary election for Florida's 27th congressional district, but withdrew. He is also the director of the organization Latinos for Trump. He was encouraged to join the group in 2017 after he volunteered at an event by far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
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He attended many rallies as a member of the group and became a fourth-degree member, a position that is held by members who get involved in physical altercations. He was given this position in June 2018 and in November 2018 Tarrio succeeded Jason Lee Van Dyke as the chairman. Van Dyke had held the position for two days after Gavin McInnes.
What is the connection between Proud Boys and Vice Media?
Proud Boys was originally founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes who had also founded Vice Media in 1994. Of course, McInnes had left Vice when he had founded Proud Boys, but since then there has been some confusion about if he was involved with both Vice Media, which he had co-founded with Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi, and Proud Boys at the same time. However, the political commentator was not and Vice's official stance is as follows, "Gavin McInnes was a co-founder of Vice. He left the company in 2008 and has had no involvement since then. He later founded the Proud Boys in 2016."
This disclaimer is added to every article written by the news organization about Proud Boys. They have also repeatedly distanced themselves from McInnes. This includes the time when Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc distanced the organization from McInnes in an email in October 2020 right after the Presidential debate. According to a report in CNN, she had said in the email, "I'm sure we're all still trying to make some sense of what was said in last night's U.S. Presidential debate, but I wanted to write to you to make one thing clear: Gavin McInnes has no affiliation with VICE."
She also stressed, "While the legacy of his role in founding the company swirls up from time to time - I want you all to be assured that any association he had with the company ended more than a decade ago in 2008. What he did after that - including founding the Proud Boys in 2016 - had nothing to do with VICE, our values or our people."
Why did Gavin McInnes step down as chairman of Proud Boys?
McInnes stepped down from his position of Chairman of the group in November 2018 after the group was listed by the FBI as an extremist group with ties to white nationalists. According to a report in the Guardian, McInnes claimed that he had taken this step to help the members who were being prosecuted in the case of violence that had occurred in October. He revealed, "As of today … I am officially disassociating myself from the Proud Boys. I am told by my legal team and law enforcement that this gesture could help alleviate their sentencing.”
He added, "Fine, at the very least this will show jurors they are not dealing with a gang and there is no head of operations."