There is a Belleville connection to a court case that has garnered international coverage.
A man from the Ottawa area was found guilty this week for his role in racist recruitment videos and terrorist propaganda.
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Screen shots from Atomwaffen Division propaganda videos (Courtesy RCMP).
Patrick Gordon Macdonald, 26 at the time the charges were laid, was arrested by the RCMP in 2023.
The Mounties – Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, investigated a now-defunct international terrorist group called Atomwaffen Division, which has links to neo-Nazi ideology.
The case was the first in Canada where an individual advocating a violent ideology was charged with both terrorism and hate propaganda.
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Screen shots from Atomwaffen Division propaganda videos (Courtesy RCMP).
Atomwaffen Division is on Canada’s terrorist entity list.
Macdonald, who at one time went by the handle “Dark Foreigner”, was charged with:
- Participating in activity of a terrorist group
- Facilitating terrorist activity
- Commission of offence for terrorist group (wilful promotion of hatred
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Screen shots from Atomwaffen Division propaganda videos (Courtesy RCMP).
The local connection comes from videos that were created by the group.
In 2018 and 2019, when Macdonald was 20 and 21, the videos were shot in three locations, Saint-Ferdinand Quebec, Ottawa, and Belleville.
The Belleville shoot allegedly took place at an abandoned cement plant in Belleville.
The videos show individuals shooting weapons, burning American, Israeli, and European flags, and discussing purging the weak.
According to coverage from the CBC, Atomwaffen believed that we were living in a Jewish-controlled society, and the group wanted to create a white ethnostate.
Superior Court Justice Robert Smith said Macdonald was guilty of all charges.
A pre-sentence report is expected in an Ottawa court later this month.
Screen shots from Atomwaffen Division propaganda videos (Courtesy RCMP).
