A Toronto-area man has been charged with a hate crime after police allege he made a number of statements against the Muslim community online.
Police would not say what the alleged comments were, only that they were made through social media over five months.
Kevin Johnston, 45, of Mississauga, Ont., is charged with wilful promotion of hatred. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
Johnston runs the website Freedom Report, but police would not say whether the charges are linked to that publication.
Ontario's attorney general, who gave consent for the charge to be laid, would not comment on the case.
But he says the government takes hate crimes seriously.
"In a multicultural and inclusive province like Ontario, the promotion of hatred stands in direct opposition to our fundamental values of equality and diversity. Hate divides people and communities," Yasir Naqvi said in a statement.
"Hate crimes are, by their very nature, serious offences because their impacts can be devastating, spreading from the individual, through the social fabric of our communities and society as a whole."
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