Canadian Nationalist Party founder Travis Patron guilty of criminal harassment for racist incident

It took a Saskatoon jury less than two hours to reject Travis Patron's claim that he followed an off-duty RCMP officer around a downtown mall, yelling racial insults, as a matter of national security.

"Having a jury of his peers, of Canadians, saying no, this wasn't right and what you did was wrong, is exactly what our society stands for and that upheld the administration of justice," prosecutor Lana Morelli said in an interview.

"Some of the things that Mr. Patron put forward as part of his defence in my mind didn't make sense, because it's not an issue of national security that two individuals that have different skin colours are walking around together."

Patron represented himself at the jury trial at Court of King's Bench before Justice John Morrall.

In October 2022, Patron was convicted of hate speech for willfully promoting hatred against Jewish people. He was sentenced to one year in jail, but with credit for time served, had a little more than five months remaining on his sentence.

One of his release conditions was that he keep the peace.

On July 30, 2023, Patron encountered an off-duty RCMP officer and his girlfriend at Midtown in Saskatoon. The officer had testified at Patron's hate trial and cannot be named because of a court-ordered publication ban.

"The first interaction was cordial and the complainants walked away," Morelli said.

"The second interaction, Mr. Patron had hailed them down to start asking them questions and he began asking them questions about their culture, their background and ultimately asked why the complainant was walking around with a Canadian woman if he was not born in Canada."

Patron returns to court on Feb. 2 for sentencing arguments. Morelli said she'll be arguing for a sentence that puts him behind bars.

Travis Patron captured on surveillance footage from University of Saskatchewan. (University of Saskatchewan)

This trial is the first of three Patron is facing in Saskatoon. He has two other sets of charges that relate to allegations he impersonated a law enforcement officer.

In the same time frame as the Midtown incident, Saskatoon police were contacted about an incident on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

Police say Patron approached a woman, identified himself as a peace officer and offered to escort her through the area, but she declined his offer and he left.

The university issued a notice about Patron allegedly trespassing and impersonating staff.

Police say they were also called to a hotel on Spadina Crescent East on July 29 after a disturbance involving a man impersonating a peace officer. They say the man, later identified as Patron, had said he was a police officer and accused a woman of abducting her own child.

Police say the woman sought help inside the hotel. Patron allegedly followed her inside, causing a disturbance, but bystanders intervened and he fled on foot, police say.

Patron will stand trial first in November and then again in December on charges of breaching his probation, criminal harassment and falsely presenting himself as a peace officer, Morelli said.