ESTEVAN - The former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party has been found guilty of hate speech.
Travis Patron of Redvers was convicted on Oct. 5 by a jury in Court of King's Bench in Estevan. He charged with wilful promotion of hate to an identifiable group.
He was remanded into custody for sentencing on Oct. 20.
The trial began on Sept. 26 with jury selection. Opening statements followed, and then the prosecution presented witnesses. Patron, who represented himself, did not bring forward any witnesses.
Closing statements occurred on Oct. 3. The judge gave instructions to the jury in the morning of Oct. 5, and the jury needed less than an hour of deliberations to convict Patron.
Patron was charged with one count of wilfully promoting hatred to an identifiable group, stemming from a video, Beware the Parasitic Tribe, that was posted to YouTube in June 2019. The charge was laid by the Carlyle RCMP in February 2021.
Earlier this year, he was convicted on two counts of assault causing bodily harm against two women, and was sentenced to concurrent 18-month sentences. He was credited for time served on the sentence, but remained in custody while awaiting the hate speech trial.
The assaults against the two women occurred in the fall of 2019.
And last year, he was found guilty of mischief, stemming from an incident at the Redvers branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, and two counts of breach of an undertaking.
Patron ran in the Souris-Moose Mountain constituency in the 2019 federal election, finishing sixth. The Canadian Nationalist Party has since been de-registered.
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