More than 50,000 of us are uniting to send a message to Canberra: Australia is not the place to welcome violent extremists like Gavin McInnes. I know many of you have been calling and emailing David Coleman’s office to respectfully letting him know how important this issue is to you. Thank you.

Please, continue to contact the minister and keep sharing this petition. We’re again running out of time - Gavin McInnes tour is now less than a month away and we have still had no word from David Coleman or his office.

Yesterday, I wrote this open letter to The Hon. David Coleman MP:

Wednesday 7 November 2018

The Honourable David Coleman MP

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs

Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Minister,

My name is Nyadol Nyuon. I am a lawyer, advocate, and writer. More importantly, I am a mother to a two-year-old and expecting another soon. Like any parent, I would rather spend time with my child, but I am writing to you today because I think it is important.

I came to this country as a refugee, in fact I was considered stateless at the time of my arrival. I am now a citizen, with a home: Australia.

In some ways, it has been a difficult year. We seem to live in a very politically divisive time in this country, and around the world. That said, this country is the only place I have ever felt safe and secure, but that is changing.

As a result of some of my advocacy work, I have had to be more careful about my surroundings. It is a new feeling and it is not made easier by knowing that a violent extremist, Gavin McInnes, a man who formed a “gang” that serially engages in violence, as recently as a few weeks ago in New York, was granted a visa to come to Australia.

McInnes is an alt-right leader and founder of the far-right “gang” (his description), the Proud Boys. McInnes’ "gang" has been labelled by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) as a hate group.

In a video describing Proud Boys, McInnes says: “We will kill you, that is the Proud boys in a nutshell. We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have “boys” in our name but...we will assassinate you.”

The violence instigated by the Proud Boys is not a one-off: it has been reported that their “violence and disorder is predictable, consistent, and habitual. It is not an aberration, it is the group’s central purpose.” We have been in contact with the Southern Poverty Law Centre and they informed us that McInnes’s Proud boys engaged in what can be described as a “summer of violence” since Autumn this year. In the appendix to this letter, you will find an incomplete list of McInnes’s Proud Boys engaging in violence or intimidating behaviour.

In Portland Oregon, their violent activities have helped create an environment where “Portland’s mayor is currently trying to pass an ordinance to deal with the violence and disorder that Proud Boys have helped bring to the city.”

It seems clear to me that Gavin McInnes upcoming speaking tour of Australia is not about free speech, but rather this is about a dangerous man with a very specific history of encouraging violence and his coming to Australia to recruit people for his cause.

In one of McInnes many online videos he said: “Beating the sh*t out of people? I think it’s our job to do it and the cops turn a blind eye.”

I am writing to you and petitioning you to not allow that to be true by allowing him to come to Australia. To let him in would be to “turn a blind eye” from the clear record of McInnes’ gang’s violence and his own words, on video record, calling for such violence.

We can’t look away from this history and this is not a standard we should pass by. McInnes has also said “Fighting solves everything. We need more violence from the Trump people. “We should say no: violence is and can never be a form of political speech.

I believe free speech is important but this is not about speech, it is about violence. And in a year where the government have been very clear about its stance on gangs and on violence, it would send an inconsistent message and make a shame of our immigration law to grant the founder of a violent gang a visa to Australia.

As to the very clear legal grounds under which McInnes should not be allowed in Australia, I refer to the letter from Labor's immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, to you dated Thursday October 25, 2018.

I also refer to the letter from the leader of the Greens, Richard Di Natale dated November 1 2018 in which he supports calls to cancel McInnes’s visa.

At the time of writing, a petition I started calling on you to cancel McInnes’ visa has been signed by more than 51,000 people, an indication that people from all across Australia share my concerns about allowing a proponent of violent extremism into Australia

It is my hope that McInnes’ violent rhetoric will find no place in Australia.

Sincerely,
Nyadol Nyuon

APPENDIX

• In May, a Proud Boy appeared at the home of a video editor in an effort to intimidate him. The video editor had published videos lampooning the group and its founder, Gavin McInnes.
• On June 3, Donovan Flippo, a Proud Boy, and Allen Puckett of the rabidly anti-LGBT Hells Shaking Street Preachers, were filmed attacking a man outside of a parking garage in the midst of a Patriot Prayer rally in Portland.
• On June 8, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a Proud Boy and muscle for U.S. Senate candidate Joey Gibson of Patriot Prayer, emerged from a group of men in a truck who were shouting “support Trump build the wall!” and punched a man in the face, according to the victim.
• On June, 30 Patriot Prayer held a rally in Portland that descended into a riot. One Proud Boy, Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean, knocked out a counter-protester with a single punch. The Proud Boys celebrated that moment of violence, endlessly promoting the video and using it to gain new recruits. Nordean even appeared on an episode of McInnes’ CRTV show Get Off My Lawn that was devoted entirely to the riot. McInnes praised the Proud Boys for “mowing the human antifa lawn” and called Nordean’s punch a “beautiful moment.” At that same event, one counter-protester reportedly suffered from cranial haemorrhaging after being beaten by a group of Proud Boy and Patriot Prayer members.
• After the Portland riot on June 30, a freelance journalist was threatened on Twitter by a Proud Boys who wrote “We aren’t going to let you lie about us anymore and we are going to beat the ever living shit out of every single one of your douche-bag comrades who assaults us from now on.”
• At a massive August 4 Patriot Prayer/Proud Boys rally in Portland, police found a group of men associated with the two groups with a cache of weapons on a rooftop overlooking the event. We published a story prior to the rally warning that attendees were planning to bring firearms.
• At a September 22 rally in Austin held to support the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Proud Boy Tusitala “Tiny” Toese attempted to attack two black men who were wearing Obama hats. They retreated into a store, but Toese continued to yell at them through the glass. “You won’t survive in my world, boy! You won’t survive in my world!” he yelled and threatened to “blow through your fuckin’ window,” before police intervened.
• On October 6, Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, and American Guard (an SPLC-designated hate group headed by Brien James, the founder of the racist skinhead group Vinlanders Social Club) teamed up in Providence for a “Resist Marxism” rally. Clashes broke out and the Vice President of the New Hampshire chapter of American Guard was filmed repeatedly yelling “I will fucking kill you!” at counter-protesters (that incident begins just before the 8:00 mark).
• On October 12, Gavin McInnes spoke at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City, where he acted out the assassination of a Japanese socialist. Afterward, a group of Proud Boys—along with several far-right skinheads—beat several counter-protesters just blocks from McInnes’ event.
• On October 13, Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys held a “flash march” in downtown Portland, which resulted in a clash where a counter-protester was kicked and stomped.