Former white supremacist Tony McAleer visits Winnipeg for Peace Days
Having children helped change speaker's racist, homophobic views
Tony McAleer was a different person 20 years ago.
In the 1990s, he hung out with skinheads and managed a racist Vancouver rock band, Odin's Law. He denied the existence of the Holocaust and took part in gay bashing. He ran a racist telephone message system called Canadian Liberty Net, which in 1993, was found to violate the Canadian Human Rights Act for communicating hate speech.
McAleer's life today is barely recognizable. He is the executive director of Life After Hate, a non-profit group that helps people leave racist and far-right organizations. McAleer is visiting Winnipeg this week to speak at Peace Days about discrimination and how he parted with his racist and homophobic views.
"I cut myself off from myself, from my heart, and operated solely out of ego," he told CBC of his life in the 1980s and 1990s, "I made choices that led me to seek attention, approval and safety."
McAleer's stop in Winnipeg coincides with the mayor's summit on racism, a two-day event at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on racial inclusion in Winnipeg and across Canada.
McAleer said from his own experience, he believes racism must be tackled on the individual level. Winnipeggers need to examine their own views and actions, he said.
"If you want to have a more tolerant society, then you have to look at where in your life you are being (intolerant), whether it's in relationships … or with strangers," he said.
Being a dad changed racist views
McAleer's own examination of his racist views began when he had his daughter in 1991. Since then he has gone through a long process of coming to terms with his hurtful, mistaken beliefs about other groups and ethnicities, he said.
A couple of years ago, McAleer visited a Holocaust museum for the first time.
"It hit me that my denial of their pain was really a reflection of my own pain and being disconnected from that," he said.
Bullying as a child and receiving corporal punishment while attending Catholic school left McAleer angry as a young man, he said. The unconditional love McAleer received from his children helped him to overcome those memories.
"When I took on the challenge to become a (single) parent, for the first time in my life I was making decisions for someone other than myself."
Now McAleer devotes energy and time to help others follow in his footsteps because, he said, it takes a long time for society to accept you again.
Tony McAleer will speak at the Winnipeg Art Gallery as part of Peace Days on Sunday, Sept. 20, at 6:30 p.m., and at McNally Robinson in Grant Park Mall on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m.