James Alexander McQuirter

Who is James Alexander McQuirter?

James Alexander McQuirter was the Grand Wizard on the Canadian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1980s. In 1981 he was charged, along with Wolfgang Droege and other white supremacists, with plotting to overthrow the government of Dominica. McQuirter joined the white supremacist Western Guard as a teenager and first met Droege at the age of 16 in 1975. In 1976, he and Droege attended the "International Patriotic Congress" organized by American Klan leader David Duke and were recruited as Canadian organizers for Duke's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1978, McQuirter and Armand Siksna were charged with conspiracy to distribute hate literature following a police raid on Siksna's Toronto apartment.

McQuirter and Droege subsequently moved to Vancouver to join McQuirter's father in the used car business as well as organize for the Klan. In 1978, McQuirter returned to Toronto and joined the Nationalist Party of Canada's executive council but, in 1979, he allowed his membership in the party to lapse due to disdain for leader Don Andrews and resumed his activity with the Klan full-time.