Darryl Dyck / The Canadian PressBrian
Alexander, of Kamloops, B.C. on Monday August 26, 2013. Alexander is a
self-proclaimed Freeman-on-the-Land and one of a growing number of
Canadian followers of the so-called "sovereign citizen" or "Natural
Persons" movement.
He
introduces himself as “Brian Arthur of the Alexander family,” and
before he’ll answer any questions, he asks a reporter to declare that
she is not a government employee.
He drives without a licence and does not pay income tax.
Brian Alexander is a self-proclaimed Freeman-on-the-Land and one of a
growing number of Canadian followers of the so-called “sovereign
citizen” or “Natural Persons” movement.
Adherents have “freed” themselves from what they see as an overbearing government that has overstepped its bounds.
“People can’t afford to live and they’re basically destroying
society, in our view,” Alexander says during a lengthy interview at his
home in Kamloops, B.C.
"People can’t afford to live and they’re destroying society"
“They’ve created it themselves. Most of us are peaceful. We paid our
taxes, we love our country and all that but when they start pushing at
you, you tend to start asking questions and that’s where this whole
movement comes from.”
Alexander says violence is not advocated and has no place in the
movement, but one official who has followed the rise of the sovereign
citizen movement in Canada says there have been a number of
confrontations in B.C. and elsewhere during routine traffic stops or
legal proceedings.
“We’ve seen that escalation already,” says Ron Usher, of the Society of B.C. Notaries.
Notaries have found themselves embroiled as many Freeman attach
inexplicable importance to having notaries authorize documents the
Freeman have invented to declare their status.
“What we’ve seen over the last year is an increasing level of
frustration, an increasing level of desperation. People just don’t like
the idea that someone isn’t going to help them with their fantasy,”
Usher says, noting the society discourages its members from signing the
“nonsensical” legal documents.
“They’re very confrontational. We’ve had a number of instances now where they’ve needed to call police or security,” Usher says.
There have been a number of “hard take-downs” by police in B.C.
involving Freemen who refuse to have a driver’s licence and, sometimes,
automobile insurance.
The Law Society of B.C. and B.C. Notaries have both issued warnings
about Freemen, which the law society said in a bulletin last year may
number as many as 30,000 in Canada.
“Since one of the tenets of the Freeman-on-the-Land movement is an
unrestricted right to possess and use firearms, they raise significant
safety and security concerns,” says the bulletin, which advises lawyers
who come across Freemen to take appropriate security measures.
RCMP and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police officers are
currently developing awareness materials for frontline officers, and the
movement is the subject of upcoming policing seminars in Vancouver and
Toronto.
“The RCMP is aware of the Freeman-on-the-Land ideology and the
interaction that some police jurisdictions have had with individuals who
follow this movement. Additionally, in the recent years, the RCMP has
received correspondence directly from followers of this movement,” RCMP
spokeswoman Julie Gagnon says in an email.
“Individuals associated to this movement are a concern because some
followers advocate violence to promote their views and this may involve
violence toward police officers. There are officer safety concerns when
dealing with followers of this movement during routine police
interaction.”
"To paint all Freemen as terrorists, it would be the same as painting all Frenchmen FLQ or all Germans Nazis"
There’s no indication that they pose a threat to the general public, Gagnon says.
In the United States, the FBI considers the movement a domestic
terror threat, and a 2011 FBI report cites several cases where followers
have clashed with law enforcement, including the 2010 shootings of two
Arkansas officers during a routine traffic stop.
“Although the sovereign-citizen movement does not always rise to
violence, its members’ illegal activities and past violent _ including
fatal — incidents against law enforcement make it a group that should be
approached with knowledge and caution,” it says.
And it warns the movement will likely grow, fuelled by the recent
economic downturn and the popularity of seminars being held across the
country.
If there is a guru of the Freeman movement in Canada these days it’s a
man named Dean Clifford from Manitoba. In June, about 80 people paid to
hear Clifford spread the sovereign gospel at a seminar in Victoria and
tickets are now available on his website to another scheduled for
Toronto this November.
Alexander, 43, has become a pseudo-spokesman in B.C. after running —
ironically — for provincial and municipal office under the Freeman
banner.
A self-employed father of a teenaged boy, he speaks emotionally about
the plight soldiers have faced upon their return from Afghanistan and
with frustration about the degradation of the environment. And he
appears to genuinely disagree with the use of violence or threats in the
name of the cause.
“Yes, there has been the odd person here and there that has actually
fought back and done some stupid things, but those are individuals. And
to paint all Freemen as terrorists, it would be the same as painting all
Frenchmen FLQ or all Germans Nazis. It’s kind of ridiculous,” he says.
It appeals to the angry male whose life isn’t working out
While in the United States the movement has a large following on the
far right and among white supremacists, in Canada it has found
sympathizers among First Nations, in B.C. in particular, where some have
come together under the banner of the “Sovereign Squamish Government.”
The Squamish group claims to distribute its own licence plates and
one Ontario Freeman is recruiting his own police force with an online
video appeal for the Canadian Common Corps of Peace Officers.
The sovereign citizen’s campaign in Canada, however, focuses on the
courts, and a quick search of court documents involving Freemen reveals a
litany of cases from the East Coast to the West, ranging from the
bizarre to the criminal.
Police officers, Crown lawyers and judges have been sued or been
named in multimillion-dollar “liens” or “ecclesiastical notices” or
other legal manoeuvres.
 |
| Darryl Dyck / The Canadian PressBrian
Alexander, of Kamloops, B.C. Alexander is a self-proclaimed
Freeman-on-the-Land and one of a growing number of Canadian followers of
the so-called "sovereign citizen" or "Natural Persons" movement. |
Dozens of sovereign citizens have found themselves in front of a judge facing tax evasion, contempt or criminal charges.
Last month, Warren Fischer, a practitioner of traditional Chinese
medicine in Nelson, B.C., broke down in tears in court after being
convicted of tax evasion.
An adherent to Freeman philosophies and a member of the Sovereign
Squamish Nation, Fischer refused for several years to pay income tax,
saying he did not want his taxes to support the war overseas. He will be
sentenced in October.
Last year Daren Wayne McCormick was convicted in a Nova Scotia court
of uttering threats toward officers and sentenced to just over three
years in a federal prison when a judge disagreed with his argument that
he’d freed himself of the Criminal Code and federal gun laws.
“It appeals to the angry male whose life isn’t working out very
well,” says Usher. “You get this spiral of legal mess that the only
person that’s benefited is the person who’s taken their money for the
seminar teaching them how to do all this.
“It looks like desperate people spending their last nickel on bad advice.”
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/02/sovereign-citizen-movement-worrying-officials-as-30000-claim-they-freed-themselves-from-canadas-laws/
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