A 26-year-old Ottawa man is facing terrorism and hate charges after allegedly creating propaganda videos for a neo-Nazi group, making him the first person to face both types of charges simultaneously in Canada.
The RCMP have charged the man, Patrick Gordon Macdonald, with participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating terrorist activity, and the commission of an offence – the willful promotion of hatred – for a terrorist group.
RCMP Corporal Tasha Adams said the charges against Mr. Macdonald, which were announced Wednesday, relate to three propaganda videos produced in 2019 for the Atomwaffen Division, or AWD, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group that has been listed as a terrorist entity in Canada since 2021. The goal of the videos, she said, was to promote the group, encourage recruitment and encourage terrorist activities.
“To simplify it, hate is the tool being used to further terrorism,” Cpl. Adams said.
The charges follow a separate case last year, in which the RCMP charged a teenager from Windsor, Ont. with terrorism in relation to his alleged ties to the Atomwaffen Division. Experts say the cases suggest the RCMP is taking white supremacists and hate groups more seriously, and that the focus on propaganda in this week’s charges marks a shift.
“Instead of trying to capture or find a way to fit propaganda into existing terrorism offences, they’ve said we’re just going to call it what it is: it’s the promotion of hate – and you’re doing it for terrorist purposes,” said Leah West, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.
“And that’s unique. It’s not been done before.”
Cpl. Adams said that the specific charge of promoting hate propaganda on behalf of a terrorist entity is punishable by life in prison.
The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) began its investigation in April, 2020, after the Mounties received information about people allegedly involved with Atomwaffen, according to an RCMP news release.
The group, also known as National Socialist Order, is part of a network of violent white-supremacist organizations that urge their members to foment a race war with random strikes against members of minority communities. Its origins date back to 2013 in the United States, though it has since expanded internationally.
According to the federal government, the group “calls for acts of violence against racial, religious, and ethnic groups, and informants, police, and bureaucrats, to prompt the collapse of society.”
Though this is partly done in person – for example, through training camps where members receive weapons and hand-to-hand combat training, and through violent acts at public rallies, including the August, 2017, rally in Charlottesville, Va. – a significant part of the group’s mission is carried out online.
Cpl. Adams said search warrants were executed in March and June of last year in Ottawa and Quebec, respectively, as part of the investigation. She said another person, from Kingsey Falls, Que., was also arrested, though they are not currently facing charges.
Mr. Macdonald was first publicly identified as an alleged neo-Nazi propagandist by VICE News in 2021, the same year the federal government listed Atomwaffen as a terrorist organization.
In May, 2022, Seth Bertrand, a 19-year-old from Windsor, Ont., was charged with terrorism in a separate case, in relation to his alleged ties to the Atomwaffen Division. He had submitted an online application to join the group, and offered his skills and commitment, the RCMP said in a statement at the time. The force added that Mr. Bertrand “committed various hate motivated offences” in the Windsor area between February and March, 2022.
He is expected to stand trial this fall.
Police and prosecutors in Canada have faced pressure to pursue terrorism charges against white supremacists and hate groups since at least 2017, after a man shot and killed six people in a Quebec City mosque. The killer was convicted of murder, but he was never charged with terrorism offences.
Michael Nesbitt, an associate professor of law at the University of Calgary, said there has been a marked shift in terrorism charging practices in recent years.
In the past three years, he said, more than half of terrorism charges laid have related to far-right activity, ”which is a huge shift from the first 20 years of how we charged this.”
A 2021 analysis by Prof. Nesbitt of the previous two decades of charging under the Anti-Terrorism Act found that virtually every person charged up until that point was alleged to have been associated with, or influenced by, the Islamic State or the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Prof. West said she has also observed a change. “It definitely shows that the RCMP and INSET have kind of changed how they’re thinking about this, and are taking it very seriously … recognizing the importance of propaganda, especially to the Atomwaffen movement,” she said. She sees this week’s case as a signal that “criminal law investigations and prosecutions are finally catching up with what is actually taking place in the real world.”
“Going after a propagandist in this way, in a really forceful way with criminal law, is something we haven’t seen. And it’s very unique, and could actually potentially serve as a warning.”
Molly Hayes