WARNING: This story contains descriptions and images of racist online content targeting Jews.
Patrick Gordon MacDonald has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting hate, fear and division by calling for violence against Jews with terrorist propaganda images and videos he helped make.
In April, Justice Robert Smith convicted MacDonald of all three charges he faced: participating in terrorist activity, facilitating terrorist activity, and inciting hate against Jews for one or more terrorist entities, including the now defunct Atomwaffen Division and the neo-Nazi James Mason.
Crown prosecutors had implored the judge to hand down 14 years for MacDonald’s “vile” crimes he committed under the alias Dark Foreigner, while his defence argued for six to eight years and about 10 months of credit for time already served in custody and on bail under strict conditions.
Smith began delivering his decision Monday morning.
In 2018 and 2019 — when he was 20 and 21 — MacDonald helped create three racist, hate-fuelled terror recruitment videos in Ottawa, Belleville, Ont., and Saint-Ferdinand, Que., among other places.
One video shows people wearing skull masks moving through a wooded area and shooting firearms. Near the end, the flags of the U.S., Israel and European Union are shown on the ground, being drenched in an accelerant and set on fire, interspersed with shots of armed people in tactical formation storming a building.
The video includes a slur against Jews. “Stay tuned shooters,” is the last text to appear.
WATCH | MacDonald found guilty this past spring:
Patrick Gordon Macdonald showed no emotion as he was convicted of participating in and facilitating terrorist activity by helping make and share propaganda for the now-defunct terrorist group Atomwaffen Division, and inciting hate against Jews.
MacDonald, a first-time offender, read a statement saying he takes “full responsibility” for his actions and is “sorry for the awful things I said and drew. I wish to never do anything like this again.”
He apologized to the “broader Canadian community with all of its diversity: Jewish, Muslim, Black, Indigenous, Asian, and anyone else I missed.
“My remorse is sincere, and I hope you can accept it.”
