Convicted American neofascist enjoys snowboarding in Whistler while unironically leaning on Canadian rule of law

Trump supporter convicted in Jan. 6 riot crossed border illegally, a border that Trump says is too easy to cross

When white supremacists and neofascists stormed the U.S. capital on Jan. 6, 2021 to overturn the legally elected government, most of them were too stupid to comprehend what they were actually doing.

It probably never occurred to any of them that they would go to jail for their sedition, and you can bet that almost none of them looked far enough ahead to see themselves seeking refuge in another country.

Antony Vo, then 28, stormed the capital that day with other insurrectionists, including his mother Annie. The two paused to pose for a photo with a rioter’s flag in the rotunda inside the U.S. Capitol, a photo Antony shared on Instagram.

It's important to remember while looking at the happy Vo family photo that five people died during the treasonous actions that day. Officers on the front lines of the riot suffered chemical burns, brain injuries and broken bones, according to a bipartisan Senate report attained by the Associated Press.

Jan. 6, 2021 was an example of the right-wing populist rejection of the legitimacy of public institutions. This is the sort of populism that has infected conservative movements from Turkey to Venezuela to the U.S. and even to a lesser extent here in Canada and British Columbia. Traditional conservatism is about maintaining our system and democratic institutions, indeed it is about conserving them the way they were in the past. Populism as we see with Trump is about tearing down the institutions of society, be they government, the judiciary, academia, the media. Drain the swamp.

The Jan. 6 rioters were, to a man and woman, at least right-wing populists, although many were much more extreme such as the 300 Proud Boys, the unapologetically neofascist movement in the U.S. But right-wing populism itself falls under the category of neofascism. This antiestablishmentarianism is nothing new but is ironic coming from the right because it resembles more the teachings of Karl Marx than Adam Smith.

Antony Vo was one of more than 1,000 people sentenced to jail after Jan. 6. The now 32-year-old was arrested in July 2021 by the FBI based at least in part on evidence from his own social media posts. He admitted he "stormed" the capital on more than one Instagram exchange.

“President (Trump) asked me to be here tomorrow so I am with my mom LOL” read one of them.

Instead of showing up to begin his jail sentence as required, Vo tried to claim asylum in Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam, Belarus and Russia via their embassies and consulates, to no avail.

So, Vo drove his vehicle across the longest undefended border in the world from North Dakota (or maybe it was Montana, somehow he can't recall) into Saskatchewan. He took refuge at a Buddhist research institute before heading west, landing in Whistler, where he hit the slopes on his snowboard awaiting processing of an asylum claim. He was literally on those slopes when interviewed over the phone by Toronto Star reporter Andy Takagi.

Before he was elected, Donald Trump promised on Truth Social that his first three acts of business when taking office would be to close the border, "drill, baby, drill," and free the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, which he called "hostages."

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump told CNN in May. “I can’t say for every single one, because a couple of them, probably they got out of control.”

Because of that promise and that Vo wasn't violent, he's trying to bide his time in Canada until Trump's inauguration when he'll be greeted at the U.S. border like a hero, I guess.

“I’m pretty much 99 per cent sure,” Vo confidently told the Star's Takagi in a telephone interview from the slopes of Whistler regarding his odds of being pardoned by Trump after Jan. 20, 2025. “I really don’t have any reason to doubt it ... it’s definitely a priority for him.”

In the same Star article, Queen's University law professor Sharry Aiken called the whole case "highly ironic" given Trump’s outspoken criticism of Canada’s handling of border security.

“I’m confident that the Canadian system will deal appropriately with Mr. Vo,” Aiken said, batting away ideas that Vo should be sent back summarily. “We’re a country that respects the rule of law. We have a legal process. He’s engaged in it. And he has the right to see that process through.”

He sure better hope he gets pardoned because he will not be accepted as a refugee in Canada, despite what might look like a lax approach by the country to not summarily boot him out.

Sean Rehaag, director of York University’s Refugee Law Lab said there aren’t many refugee applications coming to Canada from the U.S. There were just 142 from January to September of 2024, which compares to a total of 146,828 refugee claims from all countries.

None of those 142 U.S. ones were accepted.

Antony Vo has about two more weeks to shred the pow before Trump comes to office and, if all goes as planned for Vo, all the neofascists can pick up their get-out-of-jail-free card.

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Paul J. Henderson
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