Trial of alleged neo-Nazi terror propagandist 'Dark Foreigner' begins in Ottawa

Using the online alias "Dark Foreigner," an Ottawa man made hate propaganda videos and images for an international neo-Nazi organization to promote hatred against Jews and others, and to recruit people to spread that hate, federal Crown prosecutors alleged at the beginning of his trial on Monday.

Patrick Gordon Macdonald, 27, pleaded not guilty to participating in terrorist activity, facilitating terrorist activity and committing an offence for the terrorist group Atomwaffen Division in 2018 and 2019.

Atomwaffen Division — now defunct — was later branded a terrorist organization in Canada in 2021.

The charges against Macdonald were laid last year, after Vice News published a series of stories about "Dark Foreigner" starting in 2021. He was the first person in Canada to be charged with both terrorism and hate propaganda offences, the RCMP said at the time.

He has been out of custody on bail since August 2023 after his parents promised to supervise him at their Ottawa home and pay $40,000 if he breaches any of his release conditions.

In court Monday, Macdonald sat quietly and still in the front row with a relative nearby.

His trial before Justice Robert Smith alone is scheduled to last three weeks.

Macdonald present for filming, Crown alleges

In her opening address Monday morning, federal Crown attorney Catherine Legault said Macdonald was present for the shooting of three videos, provided equipment to make them, and helped produce and edit the videos.

The allegations against Macdonald have not been proven.

Three Crown witnesses are expected to testify about content they found online, Legault said. Others will testify about what was found on Macdonald's digital devices after search warrants were executed at his home and a residence in Quebec where part of a video was filmed.

The Crown's first witness is Barbara Perry, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and director of its centre on hate, bias and extremism.

She was asked to write a report for the trial on right-wing extremism in Canada and beyond, neo-Nazism/neo-socialism, Atomwaffen Division, the neo-Nazi James Mason (who is himself labelled a terrorist entity in Canada) and the fascist concept of accelerationism (to accelerate the collapse of liberal democracy through violent racial conflict and replace it with a white ethnostate).

Macdonald's defence lawyers, Douglas Baum and Ariya Sheivari, don't want Perry to be qualified as an expert for the trial and take issue with the accuracy of her report.

The defence and Crown are set to argue about it Tuesday. The trial continues.