Martin K. Weiche (January 6, 1921 – September 2, 2011) was a neo-Nazi political figure in Canada.
Background
Born in Lebus, Germany, January 6, 1921. Weiche was a self-confessed Nazi, but he never belonged to the Hitler Youth or the Nazi Party. As a teenager, Weiche joined the NSKK (National Socialist Motor Corps). Weiche fought for Nazi Germany as a pilot and soldier during World War II. He was later held as a prisoner of war at a Canadian-run internment camp in the Netherlands.
Coming to Canada after the war, he earned a living from the 1950s onwards by buying houses cheaply, renovating them and then selling them at a profit. In Sarnia, in 1965, Weiche built "Huron View Towers" with 74 units and a large penthouse suite, which was the largest apartment building in Sarnia at the time.
Weiche quit his building activities in 1980 and retired to his residence, known as "The Berghof", in Hyde Park, Ontario.
thumb|Martin Weiche's former home. Third Reich eagles used to be on the pillars shown.
Political activity
In the 1968 federal election in Canada, Weiche ran for election to the House of Commons of Canada as a "National Socialist" candidate in the Ontario riding of London East. Weiche won only 89 votes, 0.3% of the total cast in the riding.
He was identified as a leading figure in the "Canadian Nazi Party" which was led by William John Beattie of Sarnia until 1978 and was later identified as president of the "Canadian National Socialist Party", which was likely the same organization. This party was inspired by the Nazi ideology.
In 1971, he and Beattie disrupted the Social Credit Party of Canada national convention when they refused to leave. Their memberships in the party had been revoked by the party's executive council because their presence was "inimical to the interests of the party". Yelling that the party would have to "bring in storm troopers" to get them out, they disrupted the party's public affairs workshop, and the whole convention. They were allowed to stay as non-voting observers.
Weiche also ran as an independent candidate endorsed by the breakaway Social Credit Association of Ontario and the Western Guard in Trinity riding in the 1974 federal election. He won 64 votes, 0.3% of the total.
Until the 1970s, candidates were free to identify their political affiliation as they saw fit. As of the 1972 election, however, candidates who were not nominated by officially registered political parties could only identify themselves as "Independent" or "no party".
In 1980, Weiche was identified in the media as president of the Canadian National Socialist Party (an unregistered political party) when, in Sarnia, Weiche was invited to appear on radio station CHOK. The appearance was cancelled due to public complaints. Despite the cancellation, a clash broke out between followers of Weiche and members of the Conference Against Racist and Fascist Violence during a protest outside the station.
Later that year, a Ku Klux Klan cross burning and rally led by Alexander McQuirter was held on Weiche's farm in southwestern Ontario.
A subsequent cross burning on his property in 1993 attended by approximately 40 people dressed in Klan regalia led the provincial government of Bob Rae to consider amending the Ontario Human Rights Code to ban the activity.
Operation Red Dog
In 1981, Weiche was named as one of the financial backers of Operation Red Dog, a failed white supremacist plot to overthrow the government of Dominica. Don Andrews described Weiche as "a National Socialist, or Nazi [with] money and vast real estate holdings" who was interested in Dominica for business reasons. Weiche admitted he had been approached by ringleader Michale Purdue to invest in the scheme but denied any involvement saying "I wasn't interested in his revolution... Perdue is a liar about everything. Perdue is an infiltrator who had to stick it to some people."
Weiche made his fortune as a developer and, in 2000, was reported by Now Magazine to be a major financial backer of far-right leader Paul Fromm.
His property near London, Ontario, included a room designed to approximate Adolf Hitler's Alpine retreat.
A large backward swastika cut into a field behind Weiche’s home drew international attention to London with the launch of Google Earth.