Canadian political leader charged with inciting hatred

TRENTON, Canada

The leader of a Canadian far-right political party was charged with promoting hatred by posting an anti-Semitic video online, police said in a press release Wednesday.

“Beware the Parasitic Tribe” was allegedly posted to YouTube by Travis Patron, 29, head of the Canadian Nationalist Party, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of Saskatchewan.

The charge follows an almost two-year investigation which began in June 2019 after police were notified of the video by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

The YouTube video said that “inside manipulators” wormed their way into media and Canada’s central bank for nefarious purposes.

However, police said it is not the only anti-Jewish video allegedly posted by Patron. Police were made aware of four others posted between April and June of 2020. The Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to hunting down Nazis and fighting anti-Semitism, was pleased with the arrest and charge.

The organization noted the Nationalist Party had also posted on its social media pages that Jews were “liars and deceivers.”

"Canadians are one step closer to seeing justice being served,” said Michael Levitt, the organization’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release Wednesday.

“This is an especially big win for the Jewish community, which has year after year remained the most victimized group when it comes to hate crimes and the target of a growing number of hate groups in Canada and around the world. It is unacceptable for any individual, let alone the leader of a so-called political party, to promote such hatred against a minority group and call for their removal from a country."

The Nationalist Party, which was registered as an official political party with Elections Canada in 2019 and participated in the federal election the same year drawing less than 300 votes, is headquartered in the Canadian western province of Saskatchewan.

Patron was to appear in court later Wednesday.