Face of Nation : The Canadian Nationalist Party (CNP) became eligible today to register as an official political party. Elections Canada is now compelled by law to release a document containing party members’ names and addresses to anyone who asks.An anti-hate group says it plans to expose the identities of more than 250 Canadians who signed an Elections Canada application allowing a far-right group to move one step closer to getting on the ballot this fall.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network said that while it condemns violence, it remains firm in its decision to publish CNP party members’ names and hopes releasing the information online can address hateful attitudes through peaceful discussion.
“We feel people shouldn’t be able to hide in the shadows,” said Amira Elghawaby, a human rights advocate and board member with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, which has been threatening to publish the identities of all the members of the CNP since earlier this summer.
“We should really know who in our neighbourhoods are supporting this in a bid to shame them, because hate has no place in our communities, it has no place in our society and we need to call it out wherever it is … We should be trying to engage with these folks and ensuring that those types of hateful attitudes are addressed, of course, peacefully through dialogue …”
The party has come under fire by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network over its alleged racist views, which led to an ongoing RCMP investigation into allegations of possible hate speech.
RCMP in Saskatchewan launched an investigation into an online video posted on the website of the CNP and on its Facebook and YouTube pages. It shows party leader Travis Patron denouncing what he describes as “the parasitic tribe” or “black sheep” he claims control the media and the central bank in Canada.
“What we need to do, perhaps more than anything, is remove these people once and for all from our country,” Patron says, speaking directly to the camera.
The CNP says its policies are based on Christian values and that it discourages homosexuality. The group also wants Canadians of European descent to maintain a demographic majority and calls for capping the rate of immigration at under 100,000 people a year, said Patron. In response to the vow to disclose the party membership list, some members of the CNP have pulled their names from the paperwork submitted to Elections Canada, said Patron.
“Some of our members are simply concerned that physical harm may come to them, physical or social harm,” said Patron, adding he worries his supporters might be fired from their jobs for backing his party.
“I’m a bit put off that the privacy laws in our country allow such a thing to take place, especially when the organization in particular who has made these threats against us has built a reputation on nothing but hypocrisy. They call themselves the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, yet they themselves are the ones resorting to tactics of harassment and slander.”
