REFORM UK's deputy Scottish leader Thomas Kerr is set to go on a "vigilante" street patrol organised by a far-right anti-immigration group. The Glasgow MSP said he would "really welcome" the opportunity to go on a walk of the city with the Scots Active group, which advocates for "mass deportations" and arming Scots against "invaders". Scots Active, founded by Darren Docherty last year, is said to be inspired by the white supremacist "active clubs" seen in the US and Eastern Europe.

The far-right group undertakes masked street patrols under the guise of protecting the local community, and frequently attends anti-immigration protests in Glasgow. It comes as Kerr was accused of "sickening fearmongering" after filming himself going on a "walkabout" in Glasgow and claiming that the city is full of "disorder, intimidation, and neglect". A video he shared online featured numerous clips of non-white people in an attempt to link what he called the city's "lawlessness" to migration. Asked if Kerr had any proof that the people he claimed were "migrants" were not from Scotland, Reform UK did not respond. Earlier this week, a Scottish man became the target of far-right abuse after false claims circulated online that he was an "invader".

In response to Kerr's video, the Scots Active account commented: "Thomas you should come on a walk with Scots Active and we will show you the horrible side of Glasgow, worse than you've seen allready it vile [sic]". Kerr said in response: "I would really welcome that opportunity, please contact my office and we'll arrange: [email protected]."

The Daily Record reports members of Scots Active have a WhatsApp group titled "Get These C**** Out!", and The National has also seen evidence of the account referring to migrants as "c****". According to the Record, Scots Active members attended an anti-immigration protest in Glasgow on June 13, in which individuals reportedly targeted ethnic minorities and made Nazi salutes. The group's official Facebook page has shared posts about wanting to arm Scots with guns, with a number of members commenting in response about needing them against "invaders", with one user adding "who knows what they've got in the mosques", and another saying: "You can use my house as a weapons stash if you want." Scots Active once posted "fuck multiculturalism", before liking a comment from another user underneath which read: "Get them all to fuck out off our citys .our country WHITE LIVES MATTER". The account also endorsed a comment which called on members to find out where migrants are being housed "and get homeless in there squating [sic] before migrants are moved in", and to "change the locks", which they said would "cause so much problems for the councils".

And following the Holyrood election in May, the group shared a post referring to Scottish Greens MSP Iris Duane as a "thing". "If you voted for these things you need locked up with them in foamy cells till you work out wit the fuck is wrong with you ... how this is able to run for any position of power and not in a mental health institution is beyond me," the account wrote. The group denies it is racist and urged critics not to "confuse opposition to illegal immigration with racism". "Scots Active categorically rejects any attempt to portray us as Nazis, racists or extremists," the group said in a statement on July 1 in response to criticism in the media. "We have never stood for hatred based on race or ethnicity. Our concerns have always been about illegal immigration, community safety and the issues affecting local communities." SNP MSP Colm Merrick called on Kerr to "cancel his plans to meet up with this group and apologise for engaging with this hate-fuelled gang". “Groups such as these are deliberately stirring up hatred in our communities by spreading misinformation to stoke fear," he told The National. “Our elected politicians should be condemning them in the strongest possible terms rather than cosying up to them to fuel their own toxic agendas." The Scottish Greens accused Kerr of "legitimising extremist groups".

MSP Maggie Chapman told The National: "Dressing up and calling yourselves a 'community patrol' doesn't wash when you're doing it masked, at night, filming members of the public, and putting the fear into people just trying to get home. "The clear intent of Thomas Kerr walking down a dark street with a group of masked men carrying cameras behind him is to threaten and intimidate people."

(source, trigger warning for descriptions and video screenshots of the acts of violence that were enacted. more detaills are provided in this linked Instagram post as well.)

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food

While I was in Honduras I visited a peasant community called Unidad al Campo (Unity in the Countryside) in Guaimaca. It was settled by landless peasants about 13 years ago and the people living the are members of the National Agricultural Workers Union. The land was totally unoccupied, nothing being done with it, and they lived peacefully for about 4 years, growing beans, maize and bananas, raising pigs.

Then one of the local businessmen, who owns the gas station, turned up claiming the land belonged to him. He wants to sell it to a land speculator. Despite not having any titles to prove this, the police sided with him, and began regularly harassing the peasants, pulling down their houses. The businessman has also hired gun thugs to harrass the community. The National Agrarian Reform Institute was controlled by the supporters of the 2009 coup at this time and did not provide any assistance, and was actially providing fake land titles to other landlords. In the past they used to have policy to support peasants using land productively, but this was torn up after the 2009 coup. One peasant has had their house destroyed 5 times. The union leader, with the red hat with the union symbol on, standing next to the newly elected local LIBRE party mayor, has lost his whole family.

The community can’t build anything more than shacks or properly maintain the land as they used to due to the harassment. They need to bring extra water for the crops, but they have to do this at night as thugs hired by the supposed landowner will attack them if they see a water truck. The community is about half the size it once was (it’s now about 25 people, shared between two family groups), because last year a gunmen hired by the landlord shot dead a man and his wife while they were planting banana trees. The shack with the rusted corrogated roof with no door was where it happened. That section of the community, there were about 5 shacks, has been declared a no go zone by a local judge, effectively evicting the peasants, though some continue to raise maize and live on the land illegally. The evicted people have moved to Tegucigalpa. Many have family who have headed north to the US.

We went to visit the community with the Vice Minister of Agrarian Reform Rafael Alegria. To keep us safe from the thugs or anyone else, we went with police escort armed with Israeli assault rifles. It felt extremely wrong to hear the community describe how badly the police had treated them, while being the sole reason heavily armed policemen were walking around their community. 

This is bullshit, you can now be arrested for tweeting meanly about a politician’s death.

Was it misguided? Sure. Should she have stopped posting her way through the backlash? Probably.