Joseph Quesnel leans forward suddenly as the conversation returns to recent clashes with Anti Racist Action at McGill University.
"I was angry and I sent them an e-mail," says the political science student, his voice starting to quiver slightly "The inclusion of "RA-HO-WA" was not intended in any way to represent a physical threat."
"It's something I heard on a documentary once and used only for shock value. I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
Quesnel's use of the acronym for "Racial Holy War" has unleashed a wave of allegations of racism against Quesnel and his group Radical Watch.

An ARA press release dated Feb. 21 said Quesnel threatened them with a motto used exclusively by the World Church of the Creator, an American-based terrorist group whose members have committed a number of racially motivated murders.
They contend that he attempted to silence ARA while associating with well-known racist groups, including the Heritage Front and the Canadian Association for Free Expression.
"He has attempted to get student bodies to ban our information tables from campus buildings and to gather information to have our student club status revoked," says Allan, an ARA member. He did not want his last name released for safety reasons.

Fascist or nationalist?

Quesnel calls himself a nationalist, but others have called him a fascist.
He blames the ARA for "demonizing" him and his group, holding it partly responsible for his ongoing e-mail battle on an FTAA list serve.
Questioning his political background, leftist opponents of the FTAA have threatened to ban him from the list. There have also been attempts by QPIRG to strip him of voting rights at any of FTAA-Alert's general meetings.
"Promoting hatred against any group is something [Radical Watch] is against," Quesnel claims, adding that such clauses are included in the group's constitution. Unlike ARA, the four-member group has no official standing at McGill.
"Groups are very quick to label someone making a valid point homophobic, racist, sexist," Quesnel says. "You're told, 'You better shut up because you're obviously a Nazi or a skinhead.' If you criticize immigration and multiculturalism, you're going to fall into that very wide net and be demonized."
Quesnel opposes ARA's policies, which he claims "glorifies violence and has added to a stifling atmosphere of political correctness on campus." He was also very critical of their attempt to censor certain controversial books at McGill's bookstore.
He admits to contacting the Holocaust-denying Heritage Front, a group that has also criticized various ARA chapters across Canada, but only to get information on ARA.
He denies associating with the Canadian Association for Free Expression, although last year he signed a petition on their website denouncing proposed anti-hate legislation.
"People who are right-wing find they're the ones being squelched," said Quesnel, adding that as a civil libertarian, he doesn't always agree with racist rhetoric but agrees with the right to say it.
The whole ordeal, however, has forced him to re-evaluate his future with Radical Watch.
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