PGSO worker on leave due to alleged ties to white nationalist event

Antihate.ca is confident Coburn was there to attend the event.

“Absolutely. She was escorted in by the organizers. We saw her going right up to the front door,” alleged antihate.ca Executive Director Evan Balgord, who notes they sent a photographer to the event which took place at a cultural centre in Vancouver.

Its investigation included images of over 50 organizers and attendees of the conference, 20 of whom they’ve been able to identify – including Coburn. CKPG News reached out for comment from Coburn but have not heard back.

The PGSO released a statement regarding Coburn which in part said they became aware of Coburn’s alleged involvement on December 22 by a PGSO patron. It was after that that they decided to take the following actions:

“The organization is currently undertaking an internal review to assess the matter in light of its values, leadership responsibilities, and commitment to maintaining public trust. During this time, the staff member has been placed on paid administrative leave.

As this is a personnel matter, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra will not be providing further comment at this time. We ask for the public’s patience as this process continues, and reaffirm our commitment to equity, inclusion, and respect, as well as to fair and equitable treatment for all.”

Antihate.ca says some of the attendees that have been identified were fired by their employers.

“So, this is one of those social consequences of choosing to participate in this behavior. And we often hope that there is a positive outcome that comes from this. We hope that on a broader level, people see that participating in this kind of stuff has consequences and that a lot of Canadians, you know, don’t agree with it, don’t want to be associated with it, and we hope that deters people from being involved in hate to begin with,” said Balgord.

Antihate.ca doesn’t know how Coburn, a University of Toronto graduate, became involved in the movement, but say there were signs of her beliefs based on some of her published stories for an outlet called EV – a sort of far right, anti-feminist, women’s website.

“And her very first article, was ‘How I went from feminist to feminine’. And in that article, she wrote things like ‘I realized the wisdom behind traditional gender roles and I learned why women earn less money than men.’ I think it’s very fair to call that an anti-feminist talking point,” says Balgord, who notes Coburn wrote about 30 articles for them between 2021 and late 2024.

“And we don’t know exactly how she connected with the Exiles, the Golden Age crowd, or how they found her. But as somebody who looks at this space and we report in this space, it’s interesting to us that her trajectory took her from writing anti-feminist articles and then presumably that’s part of a story that takes her to attending a conference and performing at a conference for white nationalists and neo-Nazis.”

The Canadian Anti Hate Network encourages people to go to their website and read their article to see if you’re able to identify any of the others involved in this white nationalist event. You can find the article at antihate.ca.

by Greg Fry

PGSO worker on leave due to alleged ties to white nationalist event

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