CARLYLE, SASK. — The former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party is facing a hate speech charge in Saskatchewan.
RCMP say they received a report last year of hateful material being posted online in a public forum.
Mounties say someone was wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group but did not elaborate.
They say 35-year-old Travis Patron of Redvers, Sask., was arrested Friday and charged with one count of wilful promotion of hatred.
He is scheduled to appear in provincial court in Carlyle, Sask., on May 13.
Patron founded the now-defunct Canadian Nationalist Party and led it into the 2019 federal election.
He ran as a candidate in the rural Saskatchewan riding of Souris-Moose Mountain and received less than one per cent of the vote.
Patron has been convicted of other offences, including wilfully promoting hate in 2022, after he called for the genocide of Jewish people in a video posted on the party’s website and social media accounts.
He has also been convicted of harassment and impersonating a police officer.
The Canadian Press
