VANCOUVER — A member of a right-wing men’s group, the Proud Boys, was admitted to hospital last weekend after an assault in a bathroom at a Vancouver bar.
Josh, a 27-year-old from Langley, said he and two other members of the Vancouver chapter of the B.C. Proud Boys were having pints at the Astoria on Hastings Street on Saturday night — their third visit to the pub since the spring — when he was attacked by up to four people.
Josh asked that he only be identified by his first name, saying he was concerned for his safety after seeing online chatter indicating that people sought to cause him further harm.
Josh said that after using a urinal, he turned around and was struck repeatedly in the head, neck and body with a blunt object. A Proud Boys T-shirt he was wearing was ripped from his body.
He said he stumbled out of the bathroom, dazed and bloodied, and his friends came to help him. When the trio asked bar staff to call police, the staff were dismissive, Josh claimed. His assailants haven’t been identified.
Vanessa, 30, who was working at the bar that night, said bar staff urged the Proud Boys to phone police themselves. She said staff had previously asked the group not to come to the bar, as their presence had annoyed patrons.
She said the Proud Boys’ beliefs are at odds with the ethos at the Astoria, which has long been home to alternative events such as punk music shows, feminist-organized amateur strip nights and dance parties for people of all sexual orientations.
Vanessa said that after the assault, the Proud Boys threatened female bar staff. A portion of the proceeds from a concert that night was being donated to Women Against Violence Against Women, she said.
She also asked that her last name not be published after she, her friends and their employers were bombarded with threats from self-proclaimed Proud Boys and their supporters on social media. Screenshots and public posts support this claim.
Josh said that after the assault, he and the other Proud Boys went outside the bar and were offered help by patrons. Josh left on a bus with another Proud Boy and checked himself into hospital in Langley, out of concern he had suffered a concussion or internal bleeding. He made a report to police on Sunday.
The incident now has both sides concerned about their safety and that of their peers, and criticizing the online threats and real violence arising from clashes over conflicting ideologies.
The Proud Boys have been added to the Astoria’s list of banned customers, Vanessa said.
The Proud Boys won’t return anyway because they don’t wish to be involved in another clash, Josh said.
Const. Jason Doucette said Vancouver police received a report Nov. 12 about a “disturbance” at the Astoria on Nov. 11 between 9 and 10 p.m.
“As for who was involved, or the exact nature of the incident, we do not have additional information to share at this time,” Doucette said.
The Proud Boys self-identify as “western chauvinists,” a group of men who like to drink, fight and read aloud from Pat Buchanan’s book The Death of the West, and “who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world,” according to a 2016 article in Taki’s Magazine, an online publication by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes.
McInnes — co-founder of Vice Media and previously a pundit for Rebel Media — is known for making discriminatory “triggering” statements and then dismissing them as comedy. He frequently argues that his words have been twisted by his left-wing opponents and the media, which he refers to as the “mentally ill news.”
The Proud Boys have distanced themselves from the so-called “alt-right” movement led by white supremacist Richard Spencer. They vehemently deny that they are racist or white nationalists themselves, citing their multicultural membership.
The Proud Boys membership’s public behaviour, however, has hampered their efforts to be perceived as just a men’s club out to have a good time.
Last Canada Day, five Proud Boys disrupted an Indigenous ceremony in downtown Halifax.
The men — all servicemen with the Canadian Armed Forces — were quickly condemned by their superiors, relieved of their duties and reassigned to other jobs during an investigation. All but one eventually returned to duty. McInnes defended their actions.
Vanessa said such behaviour would never be tolerated by patrons at the Astoria, many of whom are Indigenous. She said staff have received an increasing number of complaints of harassment or intimidation from patrons, in part due to groups such as the Proud Boys coming to the bar.
Josh said there’s “a lot of misunderstanding out there” about the Proud Boys and their beliefs.
“I think the media is repeatedly pushing this narrative that the Proud Boys are part of some kind of alt-right movement … so a lot of people attach that to racism or anti-Semitism, maybe. So when they see us, they feel like they’re justified to do these types of things. I think that kind of thing needs to stop because that’s not what we’re about.”
He said the Proud Boys do not condone violence or threats for any reason.
