2 Ontario men accused of belonging to neo-Nazi terrorism group | Globalnews.ca

The RCMP have charged two Ontario men with “knowingly” participating in an international neo-Nazi group listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.

The two men – who were not named by the RCMP’s Ontario national security division – are accused of creating terrorist propaganda and recruiting videos for Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group founded in the United States in 2013 and has spread internationally.

Court documents obtained by Global News list the accused as Matthew Albert Althorpe of Thorold and Kristopher Erik Nippak of East York. The RCMP’s Ontario Division confirmed the men’s names Friday afternoon.

The RCMP said the two men are accused of participating in the creation of manifestos for the “Terrorgram Collective” – a loose association of far-right extremists that organize using encrypted messaging facilitated by the Telegram app.

According to court documents, the 18-month investigation followed Althorpe and Nippak from locations in both Québec and Ontario, and covered alleged offences dating back to April 2018.

Both men are accused of knowingly participating in the activities of a terrorist group, while Althorpe faces a number of other charges including three counts of hate crime offences, facilitating terrorist activity, and instructing a person to carry out a terrorist activity, among other charges.

Trending Now

Atomwaffen Division was listed as a terrorist group by the Canadian government in early 2021. The international neo-Nazi group was founded in 2013 in the U.S., and has since expanded to the U.K., Canada and Germany, according to the Canadian 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,” according to Public Safety Canada. “AWD has previously help training camps, also known as hate camps, where its members receive weapons and hand-to-hand combat training.”

— More to come…

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.