Canada man charged with terror over far-right videos

A man in the Canadian capital of Ottawa has been charged with alleged ties to the Atomwaffen Division, an international neo-Nazi terrorist group.

Patrick Gordon Macdonald, 26, faces terrorism and hate propaganda charges, Canada's federal police force said.

It's the first time both counts have been brought in Canada against someone accused of promoting violent far-right ideology, according to the RCMP.

Atomwaffen Division was listed by Canada as a terrorist entity in 2021.

Mr Macdonald is alleged to have participated in, produced and distributed three videos for Atomwaffen Division, promoting its ideology.

He is due in an Ottawa court on Wednesday.

A second man was also arrested and may face charges at a later date, the RCMP said in a statement.

Atomwaffen and many other white nationalist groups subscribe to a philosophy known as accelerationism - a belief that society is inherently unstable and that they should push for a revolutionary collapse of the system.

According to the Canadian federal government, the Atomwaffen Division - founded in the US in 2013 - "calls for acts of violence against racial, religious, and ethnic groups, and informants, police, and bureaucrats, to prompt the collapse of society".

It has branches in countries including the US, the UK, Germany and Canada, and "members have also carried out violent acts at public rallies, including the August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia", the site of a deadly white nationalist rally.

The arrests were the culmination of an investigation that began in April 2020.

Inspector David Beaudoin, who heads the RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Quebec, said any investigation into the far-right can be a challenge, as members often go to great lengths to conceal their identity, like using encryption technology to communicate.

The far-right is also fragmented in Canada, he told the BBC, with members often changing affiliations to evade police or because of infighting, making it a "continuous challenge to track and monitor [them]" for police.

In 2022, the RCMP arrested a 19-year-old in the province of Ontario after he filed an online application to join the Atomwaffen Division.

In the US, Brandon Russell, 27, founder of the Atomwaffen Division, faces charges of plotting to attack power installations around Baltimore.

He and his co-accused, Sarah Clendaniel, 34, were arrested before the alleged attack was carried out. Both have pleaded not guilty.