Dan Boeckner and the woman he tried to erase

Earlier this year, an X user named @d_boeckner replied to a statement on human rights by the EU’s top diplomat by sending her vulgar, crude comments denigrating her and all Estonians as subhuman.

Women in public life are sadly all-too-familiar with this kind of abuse, especially on X.

What makes this troll more notable, however, is that @d_boeckner is Dan Boeckner, guitarist for two of Canada’s biggest bands, Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade. He's at the heart of North American public life, pictured here lurking behind Win Butler on Saturday Night Live.

Back in March, EU Foreign Affairs Chief Kaja Kallas had posted a statement announcing EU sanctions against 19 Iranian regime officials and organisations with direct involvement in the mass killing of pro-democracy protestors the previous month. She made no mention even of her own Estonian nationality.

Yet this enraged Boeckner who replied using vile sexually abusive language and saying that Estonians were only “elevated to sapience by the Soviet Union”.

The story was reported by Estonian World, which noted the disgust of the Estonian-Canadian community, but no one else.

To be fair, perhaps the media in Canada were just very confused about why a Canadian rock star would post something so deeply weird at 3.30am about a small democratic nation on the opposite side of the planet.

But we can now reveal that this was not a sudden out-of-character outburst.

It's the end result of Dan Boeckner's life-long descent into pro-Russian extremism. And it's part of a long term pattern of deeply troubling misogynistic behaviour, as revealed by his former life partner of ten years and bandmate, Devojka from the Operators.

Boeckner has previously said publicly that he “never worked as closely with another human mind” as Devojka, describing her as the creative force behind the Operators.

Devojka has since revealed that Boeckner is very different in private to the nice guy, revolutionary image that he has carefully crafted for the public.

She's on record saying Boeckner is an abuser and a "raging misogynist" who put her through unrelenting brutal trauma after isolating her from friends and family.

No media outlet has reported on Devojka's allegations before, nor examined the wider context. But this cannot be considered a private matter for a public figure who poses as virtuous while spreading ethnic hatred and atrocity denialism.

This is the story of Dan Boeckner, the woman he tried to erase, how he almost got away with it, and what else his hatred tries - and fails - to erase. And it's an ongoing story as Devojka has inspired many more people to stand up for truth and justice.

It's a story in four parts, coinciding with four misogynist abuse scandals.

Part One: The Canadian Communists

Boeckner has said in interviews that he became political as a teenager after starting his first rock band and embracing anarchism.

Some would suggest that’s more of a style aesthetic.

Later though, while touring the “former Soviet bloc”, he says his political views hardened, after seeing the suffering in “these sort of fringes of the European empire, like Estonia or Latvia.”

In reality, since the end of Soviet occupation, the Baltic countries have not only achieved some of the highest levels of good governance and freedom in the world, but also grown their economies twice as fast as Canada in the same period. Three times faster since joining the EU.

Nevertheless, Boeckner joined the Communist Party of Canada to help fight back against such suffering and then increasingly directed his anger at migrants from the Baltic countries and Ukraine, especially refugees who fled Nazi and Soviet persecution.

His language on this often drifts into fascist conspiratorial rhetoric, describing them as poison to Canadian society. This also suggests that he did not see what he wanted to see when visiting the Baltic countries and discovering modern dynamic Republics where people reject extremism exactly because they have been invaded and subjected to different versions of it.

In 2021, he continued his conspiratorial rhetoric as a guest on Historicly, a pseudohistorical podcast hosted by Esha Krishnaswamy who Dan has praised for her scholarly analysis, despite that being largely confined to cringingly stupid rantings about the existence of the Baltic countries as a Western conspiracy.

Krishnaswamy has repeatedly called for the annihilation of the Baltic countries, and incorporation into Russia, even before Russia's full scale war of aggression against Ukraine.

She uses the very same kind of dehumanising fascist language about ethnic groups that Boeckner would go on to copy.

During the podcast with Krishnaswamy, Boeckner goes deeper into his pseudohistorical conspiracy theories, leading into a discussion of Canada’s memorial to the victims of communism.

“If you're a victim of a communism, you are a Nazi,” says Krishnaswamy.

“Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much it,” replies Boeckner.

In reality, that timeline doesn't add up for many millions of the memorialised victims they go on to mock. It was during the Nazi-Soviet Pact era, when both totalitarian powers were colluding and praising each other, that much of Eastern Europe was invaded in agreement with the Nazis and subjected to Soviet crimes such as mass deportations, targeted at women and children.

Only the most extreme communists are still unable to acknowledge that. The Soviet Union itself condemned the Nazi-Soviet Pact as illegal collusion and acknowledged the victims of communism under Stalin, which it admitted included entire nation groups.

Nevertheless, Boeckner and Krishnaswamy laugh when describing the depiction of an impaled torture victim at the memorial, adding that the Soviet Union was “infinitely merciful” and any victims of communism would have deserved it.

“That would have been justice,” says Krishnaswamy.

“Yeah,” replies Boeckner.

Boeckner ends the show by giving a plug to his bands, starting with the Operators, and then encourages people to donate through Patreon to the Operators.

The following year, Russia launched its full scale war of aggression against Ukraine.

Krishnaswamy openly supports it, of course. Notably though, she doesn't even bother with the usual excuses peddled to Western audiences. She openly acknowledges it is an imperial war to erase Ukraine as a nation.

Meanwhile, Boeckner was still a member of the Communist Party of Canada when it was embroiled in an appalling abuse scandal, which came to light in mid-2022. There is no indication that Boeckner is directly involved in the party's culture that enabled it, but it will reflect a pattern of behaviour in his circles.

A senior leader in a paid position was accused of sexually abusing a much younger volunteer. The party promised the victim that her abuser would be dealt with. Then they did nothing. More members started complaining about the abuser. Then they did worse than nothing. They accused internal critics of instigating a “colour revolution” and expelled them. The party fractured and a vast number of members left in disgust. 

Meanwhile, Boeckner was still focusing his outrage on party-approved enemies. 

As Russia’s war raged in Ukraine, Boeckner was tweeting and liking pro-Russian and pro-Assad propaganda throughout 2022 from his X account, which back then was @danboeckner. He has since deleted that account, along with all his tweets on it, so we can only show one example that another Twitter user happened to save.

At Bad Baltic, we were the first to call him out for it.

Our post was later swamped by Boeckner’s fans and close associates. Many said they were shocked and disgusted to discover from us that Boeckner had… performed for Arcade Fire. Most reinforced the core accusations, with many adding that Arcade Fire is worse than genocide.

Many of his fans also said we should have instead talked about him being in The Operators.

We'll get to that, but there is a second abuse scandal to cover next.

Part Two: Arcade Fire

Boeckner became a full touring band member for Arcade Fire in early 2022, taking the place of lead singer Wim Butler’s younger brother Will.

The band was attempting to recover after five years of scathing reviews. They had ventured into satire with their previous album released in 2017, accompanied by a marketing campaign that leaned heavily into fake news and bots. It was supposed to be some clever mirror held up to society, but it failed to read the room. Critics and fans said it was trivialising serious issues without contributing anything beyond adding to the noise.

Their album and tour in 2022 was supposed to be a reset, returning them to a more serious image.

Fans started to notice, however, that promotion had become noticeably subdued, as if the band was preparing for something else to come out. The band's tweets around the album were already referencing that "no one's perfect" and "shit is going to get worse before it gets better".

Then it dropped.

Amidst the tour, Pitchfork published the news that multiple women accuse the 42 year old lead singer, Win Butler, of sexual abuse based on a consistent pattern of unwanted advances on fans as young as 18.

Arcade Fire’s Win Butler Accused of Sexual Misconduct by Multiple Women; Frontman Responds

Allegations of inappropriate behavior in his life offstage contrast with Butler’s virtuous public reputation. In lengthy comments, the frontman claims his extramarital relationships were consensual.

PitchforkMarc Hogan

In one case, Butler arrived at a fan's home after being told not to come and then, she says, forced himself upon her.

The stories are corroborated by text messages, in which Butler also instructs fans not to tell anyone about their involvement with him.

Several suffered severe mental health issues as a result, forcing them to leave the music industry.

After the victims' stories were published, supporting artists such as Feist pulled out of the tour at great personal cost to her and her team. Boeckner, the principled revolutionary, said absolutely nothing whatsoever. Once again, it was women who bore the greater cost.

He deleted his Twitter account so he couldn't be asked about the scandal. In all his ramblings, including across numerous regular podcast appearances, he has never had anything to say about the abuse. He complains instead that artists like him are not being paid enough. Yet he seems to be earning enough that he was keen to play on with Arcade Fire.

Here we start to get the sense of what Devojka from the Operators would later describe as Boeckner's "current milieu" and "women being taken advantage of by men who are enabled to do so with little to no consequences".

So let's now return to those requests from Boeckner fans back in 2022 to talk about the Operators instead.

Part Three: The Operators

Boeckner met Devojka, a Macedonian musician building her life in California.

She says he urged her to pack up her life and move to Canada to be with him because "the US is going to shit anyway" and he'd sponsor her visa to ensure she'd have settled status somewhere safer, even if the relationship didn't last.

They were soon describing each other as life partners, while also performing together in their synth pop group The Operators, along with friend Sam Brown.

Boeckner and Devojka are fully committed to The Operators together, states a Globe and Mail joint interview in 2019, in which Boeckner praises Devojka as the major creative force behind it.

After a decade as partners, the fairytale ends abruptly in 2024.

Around the same time, Boeckner announced his solo album, described in a press release by his record label Sub Pop as an autobiography that fuses together his life work.

Eleven men are praised for their contributions and inspiration. Devojka is completely absent, despite being its cowriter.

Fans of the IT Crowd may recall the scene in which the boss is praising everyone in the room with an increasingly dramatic buildup, except those who actually did the work. It's the press release equivalent of that, mixed with pretentious word salad about how Boeckner "understands the grit and gravel that accumulates in the heart and that it takes an unwavering courage to crack through that clutter and burrow to the other side."

Shortly before the album release, Devojka gave her own update about how Boeckner had erased her from the album that she had worked so hard on. And worse.

Devojka says Boeckner cancelled her visa without telling her, locked her out of joint accounts, and left her stranded, destitute, legally unable to work, without much needed healthcare, with no support network, facing abuse and harassment from his fans, and facing both imminent homeless and near term potential deportation.

Posting on her X account, Devojka describes Boeckner's abrupt abandonment "as well as other mistreatments I am not yet comfortable or feel safe to speak about".

"Seemingly, overnight, the entire infrastructure on which I built my entire life and future on was totally demolished by the person I loved and trusted most in the world. It is difficult to admire his continued success when his actions; his abuses of power and escalating retaliations against me, left me and our dog impoverished and facing homelessness....while he continues to profit off of my work, altogether foregoing any acknowledgment of my contributions to his new album - a simple professional courtesy. Instead I have been made invisible, my existence wiped off the creative record. 10 years of my support and collaboration. A third of my life."

She describes how staying silent has made her physically sick "and feeling complicit in a dynamic that is all too common: women being taken advantage of by men who are enabled to do so with little to no consequences."

"Dan, like many other men with his specific set of privileges, had the advantage of independence, of options. And he used them to unilaterally make decisions time and time again that were convenient for him, and had the worst outcomes for me. I don't think this needs to define him, and it's never too late to do the right thing. I very much hope his actions in the future are more aligned with the values he publicly espouses, and honoring of the commitments he privately promises. I also hope that accountability and integrity catches on amongst his current milieu."

Devojka is kind and conciliatory in much of her statement, suggesting in later posts that she was still processing trauma and abuse.

Despite the serious allegations, no media ever covered them and Boeckner's album received some sycophantic reviews from the industry.

Ryan Dillon writing for Glide and Kyle Mullin for Under The Radar both completely erased the Operators from Boeckner's list of previous and current bands, even when describing Boeckner as having been a synth pop icon.

Only Matty Wishnow, writing for Past Prime, notes that Devojka was the album's co-writer but adds with considerable understatement that the relationship "appears to be over".

Over the following year, Boeckner maintained complete silence about Devojka and her allegations, never issuing any comment in response.

He would have kept that up permanently, were it not for a slip up in mid-2025 while attempting to maintain his edgy revolutionary persona.

Boeckner screenshotted a tweet by menswear style influencer Derek Guy and posted it with a comment mocking him for not being more militant in support of migrants.

Guy spotted the hypocrisy and posted Devojka's statement in response, adding that he was upset by Devojka's post because he had been in a similar situation as a former undocumented migrant himself.

Guy added: "But I recognize you are radical enough to throw a fire bomb, but not radical enough to go to bat for a loved one."

For the first time, Boeckner was directly, publicly confronted about his treatment of Devojka. He was also humiliated publicly enough that he would have to respond.

During the exchange, Boeckner claims he was legally obliged to withdraw his sponsorship.

As many people noted, that was an abrupt change in tone from Boeckner.

A few moments earlier, he was posing as a revolutionary resistance leader, prepared to do anything to defend migrants. Then he was suddenly explaining why he was technically required to immediately inform the government about the end of a relationship in order to ensure they wouldn't issue a visa to one of them.

Boeckner deleted his original post about Guy, hoping to limit the number of people who'd see the rest of the exchange with Devojka's statement. Or, as he put it, to show solidarity with Guy.

About that legal requirement to withdraw sponsorship though. Lawyers we spoke to say that isn’t true.

Boeckner refers to his risk of being accused of fraud but that is only if the relationship was never genuine. Not if you blindside your very genuine life partner at the very end of a seven year process.

If a relationship with a sponsor ends during a visa application, then the only requirement is to be honest about that with Canada’s immigration department, IRCC. They may lean toward rejecting the application as a result. Or they may weigh up circumstances and approve it anyway. Withdrawing sponsorship is an entirely separate voluntary choice you make only to ensure the application is nuked. It also doesn't explain why Boeckner wouldn't inform Devojka to give her any time to replan her life.

Ethically, many would argue that the sponsor maintains some duty of care beyond the end of a relationship if the other person has uprooted their life, left behind their support network, likely made many irreversible sacrifices, and based all their future plans on it. 

Even if sponsorship is withdrawn, this duty of care often does extend to practical support during the immediate transition, such as help with temporary housing, finding a new sponsor or status pathway, and not weaponising immigration status in the breakup. This is especially true if the breakup was one sided or there is a large unbalance in power dynamics, as is certainly the case here.

Boeckner is not just a citizen, but significantly more wealthy and in control of all main finances for their relationship. He also has a large fan base, both for his music and his politics.

And yet Boeckner chose to handle this with Devojka in the cruelest possible way, reneging on promises without telling her, stripping away her livelihood, and - according to Devojka - even weaponising his fan base to harass her, all while he continued to be celebrated alongside other abusers.

That Q. Anthony Ali who vouches for Boeckner then attacks Devojka's character in a subsequent post was suspended from the Canadian Association of Black Journalists for anti-semitism, including by pledging his support to Hamas after the October 6th massacre.

Boeckner could argue that his relationship with Devojka is a purely personal matter. As if a public figure has the right to alleged private abuse, even while being publicly outspoken on everything else, including hypocritically on migration. The only issue he never discusses publicly and is never held to account on is the issue of abuse against women, even though it's the one issue he is so repeatedly familiar with.

Boeckner could claim that Devojka's accusations are just not true. He could try to claim this raging misogyny is just not in his character. And thus we come full circle.

Part four: Back to the Balts

It's quite difficult to claim you have been unfairly accused of being a misogynistic abuser in private when you also behave as a misogynistic abuser in public, at least through targeted rhetoric.

Boeckner has never attempted to explain his vile post to the EU Foreign Minister.

Neither Boeckner, nor Wolf Parade, nor Arcade Fire, nor Heated Rivalry ever responded with any kind of apology or explanation to the Estonian-Canadian community after they wrote a letter complaining about Boeckner's hate speech.

In their silence, we can at least explain why he especially hates Estonian and Baltic women.

"No matter how you slice it," said Boeckner on that Historicly podcast, "the communists were the only ones who reliably constantly fought against the fascists during World War Two."

This is extreme pseudohistorical nonsense. The Nazi-Soviet Pact era lasted nearly two years, roughly a third of World War Two. They held a joint parade after fighting Poland together. After the fall of France to the Nazis, Britain was largely alone fighting the Nazis. It's the reason why Russia still carves the dates of the war as starting only in 1941 when the Nazis turned on them.

The Baltic countries were occupied as a result of that Nazi-Soviet Pact, which the Soviet Union spent nearly half a century denying.

And so Baltic peoples were at the forefront of exposing the Nazi-Soviet Pact, both within the Soviet Union and among diaspora communities in Canada, and campaigning to repeal the deal, annulling their annexation agreed between the Soviets and Nazis. This united people from all walks of life to reject totalitarianism in all forms.

Under pressure, Moscow first argued that only fascists would equate nazism and communism. They spread that propaganda as far as Canada, relying on groups such as local communists.

But it didn't work. The re-independence movements kept growing stronger in the Baltic countries. The Soviet Union changed tack. In 1989, they officially acknowledged Nazi-Soviet collusion and also condemned mass crimes under Stalin.

People like Boeckner just didn't get the memo, still stuck on their Stalinist lines to take, spreading conspiracy theories about Baltic and Ukrainian exiles and their “predetermined project to equate communism and fascism," as Boeckner said on the podcast.

“Its end goal is to flatten history and equate these two things," he adds, while talking about Baltic peoples. But that also applies to Soviet leaders in the late 80s, which by his own logic must also be fascists for condemning the Soviet Union's own crimes.

And later in that podcast: “And it's kind of, to me, it's like the worst horseshoe. That's like saying liberating Auschwitz is just as bad as creating Auschwitz, which is not.”

No, it's saying all the crimes of Nazism were bad. It's saying Nazi-Soviet collusion is a bad thing and a rules-based world of sovereign nations is a good thing.

You don't have to be a communist to oppose nazism and you don't have to be a nazi to oppose communism, even while acknowledging that these are distinct evils. Trying to invalidate opposition to either one is just trying encourage victims to gravitate to the other, but the right thing is to reject all forms of totalitarianism.

That's what the Baltics did.

The re-independence movements succeeded and ended Soviet occupation by formally annulling the Nazi-Soviet Pact, causing a chain reaction that helped destroy the entire Soviet empire. People like Boeckner will never forgive them for it.

The supreme irony, after all this, is that Dan Boeckner is now the living embodiment of horseshoe theory.

He says he's a communist but he relies heavily on fascist rhetoric about subhuman ethnic groups and migrants as poison, while associating with extreme anti-semites and Russian imperialists, and justifying the Nazi-Soviet Pact - and he will never forgive the Baltics for annulling it.

Because he's horseshoe guy.

And the moment he sent that vile tweet, he confirmed what was obvious about his character all along. We believe Devojka and many of us across the Baltic countries and the Baltic community in Canada and around the world hope that she finds her way to live her best life wherever and however she chooses.

The moment Boeckner sent that vile tweet, he also confirmed that none of his private abuse can be considered a mere a private issue for this very public hate spreader. This is all newsworthy and needs discussing. The Canadian and music press must stop looking away.

We repeatedly reached out to Sony Music, record label for Arcade Fire, and Sub Pop, record label for Wolf Parade and Dan Boeckner, for this article. They never responded.

They likely still think all this will blow ever if they stay quiet longer.

But, inspired by Devojka, we can report that there are discussions in the Estonian-Canadian community and other Baltic and Ukrainian communities in Canada to raise their voices against the hate.

Devojka was kind to say that her treatment need not define Boeckner, and yet his continued silence over these culminating scandals and his wider atrocity denialism may certainly come to define Dan Boeckner forever as the horseshoe guy.