SASKATOON – The former leader of the now-defunct Canadian Nationalist Party is being held in custody after he was arrested and charged in connection with two separate incidents in Saskatoon.
Travis Patron is charged with two counts of impersonating a peace officer, one count of criminal harassment, and two counts of failing to comply with court-ordered conditions. He appeared in Saskatoon court Thursday. He was remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear again on Aug. 9 for a show-cause hearing.
Saskatoon police say they were called to a hotel in the 600-block of Spadina Cres. at about 8:50 a.m. on July 29, following a disturbance involving a man impersonating a peace officer.
When police arrived, they learned that a man had approached a woman and her child, identified himself as police, and accused her of abduction. The woman went into the hotel with her child to get help and the man followed her inside, causing a disturbance. Bystanders intervened and the man fled on foot.
A few days later, at about 2 p.m. on Aug. 1, in the 70-block of Campus Drive, a man approached a woman, identified himself as a peace officer and offered to escort her through the area. The woman declined and the man left.
Through video evidence and their investigation, police were able to identify the man and confirmed he was responsible for both incidents. Police went to an address in the 200-block of 5th Ave. North on Aug. 2 and arrested Patron without incident.
Patron was the founding leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party. He was a candidate for the party in the 2019 federal election in the Souris-Moose Mountain constituency, and finished last in the six-candidate field.
The party has since been deregistered by Elections Canada.
He was convicted on Oct. 5, 2022, by a jury in Court of King's Bench in Estevan for wilful promotion of hate to an identifiable group, which was Jewish people. Patron had been charged in February 2021 by Carlyle RCMP for an online video titled Beware the Parasitic Tribe.
On Oct. 27, 2022, he was sentenced to a year in prison but received credit for time served and was released before the year was up. He was also given a year of probation.
His arrest came hours after the University of Saskatchewan sent out a campus-wide warning about someone allegedly trespassing on university property and posing as a staff member. The university posted a photo of the man, claiming the individual was Patron.
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