Two members of the Nationalist Party of Canada, Donald Andrews and Robert Wayne Smith, have been charged here with violation of Canada’s criminal code hate propaganda section in connection with the party’s “Nationalist Report” publication, police reported last week.
The police said party leader Andrews and Smith have been served with summonses charging them with promoting hatred against identifiable groups, specifically Jews and Blacks. They are to appear in court August 23.
The charges were approved by Attorney General Roy McMurtry. They came after a six-month probe by a special Ontario province police squad of investigators. The publication came to the attention of the Attorney General in January. Police also seized material in a raid on a Toronto home and printing office in March. The Nationalist Report lists Smith as editor.
Andrews, a native of Yugoslavia, served 10 months of a one-year sentence in 1977-78 on conviction for conspiracy and possession of explosives. Other than a case involving anti-French Canadian propaganda in Windsor, Ontario, five years ago, the Andrews-Smith case represents the first time the Attorney General has acted against hate-mongers.
He has reportedly been reluctant to act because the language of the criminal code section makes it difficult to get a conviction against defendants.
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