Canadian Nationalist Party founder Travis Patron guilty of criminal harassment, impersonating police
Patron confronted woman, accused her of kidnapping own daughter outside Saskatoon hotel
A Saskatchewan man who once led the Canadian Nationalist Party is staying in jail after getting convicted of criminal harassment and impersonating a police officer.
A jury convicted Travis Patron in December. He had been charged after a woman complained about a confrontation at a local hotel on July 29, 2023.
At the time, police said they were called to a hotel in Saskatoon on Spadina Crescent East after a disturbance involving a man impersonating a peace officer. They said the man, later identified as Patron, had said he was a police officer and accused a woman of abducting her own child.
Police said the woman went for help inside the hotel. Patron followed her inside, causing a disturbance, but bystanders intervened and he fled on foot, police said.
Jurors at Patron's December trial heard that the woman's five-year-old daughter is from a mixed race marriage.
Passing sentence Friday, Justice Ron Mills described Patron's contention that the woman needed to prove she had not kidnapped her own daughter as "simply nonsense."
This was the third trial for Patron since January 2024. The charges all related to a series of events over a couple of days in July 2023 in Saskatoon.
Patron was convicted at trial in February 2024 of criminal harassment after following an off-duty RCMP officer at the Midtown Plaza.
And then in November, he was convicted of impersonating a police officer in connection with an incident where he approached a woman on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
Patron has been in custody since August 2023. With credit for time served, he has 102 days left behind bars. He will also be on probation for one year once released.
Patron has one matter remaining — a breach of probation allegation — that will be dealt with in provincial court on Jan. 21.
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