At a Black Lives Matter forum organised by campus socialist group Solidarity on Wednesday, Padraic Gibson was speaking on the continuing oppression of Indigenous communities when little-known far-right activist Chris De Bruyne gatecrashed to live stream the gathering.
He initially refused to leave when approached by Solidarity students and campus security and stayed for approximately 20 minutes.
De Bruyne has attended Sydney’s recent BLM protests at Hyde Park and the Domain with fellow far-right activsts Bayden Mottee, Reg (Jaiden) Penney and George Jameson (ex-Party For Freedom) and live streamed himself guarding the Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park.
He has recently founded an organisation, which we refuse to name here, to garner support for his political actions and the All Lives Matter movement and has also run as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party. Thus far, however, the organisation has received almost no attention or support. De Bruyne live streams leftist rallies to lure protestors into rash reactions and spread inaccurate representations of leftist culture.
De Bruyne has publicly posted on his Facebook expressing appreciation for the Kenosha terrorist who shot multiple BLM protestors in Wisconsin last week, killing two. In this post, he criticised Anthony Huber, an unarmed protester who tried to disarm the shooter, as having a “long criminal record”, thereby suggesting his death was warranted.
Despite his presence, Solidarity members continued and finished their meeting before taking a photo expressing solidarity with First Nations communities and the Chatfield family as the inquest into Tane Chatfield’s death in custody was drawing to a close.
Soon after De Bruyne departed, police arrived, concerned that the small gathering was breaching COVID-19 restrictions, despite students and staff using university facilities and libraries for on-campus tutorials and meetings.
This comes after police have specifically targeted and shut down leftist and antifascist protests around Sydney in recent months, including a small socially-distanced protest at Sydney University on 31 July against staff and course cuts.
