Patron gets one-year sentence for promoting hate in online video

The founder and former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party has been sentenced to one year behind bars for wilfully promoting hate towards an identifiable group.

Travis Patron was sentenced during an appearance Thursday in Estevan Court of King’s Bench. He had been found guilty Oct. 5 after a jury trial in the southeastern Saskatchewan city.

Justice Neil Robertson accepted the Crown’s recommendation that the 31-year-old Patron serve one year behind bars. Because he has been in jail since his arrest last year, Patron was credited for time served, leaving him with 168 days left to serve on his sentence.

The charge against Patron stemmed from an online video he posted in 2019 called “Beware the Parasitic Tribe.”

During closing arguments at the trial earlier this month, Crown prosecutor Ryan Snyder said the video promoted hatred by advocating for the expulsion of a people. While that group was not named as Jews in the video, Snyder said Patron’s video had “pretty much every anti-Semitic trope in the history of anti-Semitic tropes.”

The prosecution pointed to a quote from Patron’s video that said: “What we need to do is remove these people once and for all from our country.”

Patron — who represented himself during the trial — stayed silent during the sentencing hearing, including when the judge asked if he had remorse.

Patron also was placed on a one-year probation order, which included a ban on posting about Jewish people on the Internet.

In August, Patron was found guilty on two counts of assault causing bodily harm in Regina and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. With credit for time spent on remand, Patron’s sentence amounted to one day on each charge, to be served concurrently.

Patron ran for the Canadian Nationalist Party — which has been criticized for its far-right stance and an ideology perceived by some as hateful and racist — in the 2019 federal election in the Souris-Moose Mountain riding. He finished last with 168 votes.

— With files from Discover Estevan and The Canadian Press