A 19-year-old Windsor man faces terrorism charges after an RCMP investigation into a series of hate-motivated crimes in the Windsor area last year.
While investigating crimes between February 12 and May 20, 2021, police found out a suspect completed an online application to join the Atomwaffen Division, also known as the Nationalist Socialist Order. The Southern Poverty Law Centre classifies the group as an international, extreme right-wing, Neo-Nazi group from the Iron March. Members are called "accelerationists" who believe only violence can establish order in what they consider an apocalyptic world.
He allegedly offered his services.
The RCMP initiated their investigation after Windsor Police probed three separate acts of vandalism outside the Trans Wellness Ontario centre on Tecumseh Road East.
In the first incident, homophobic slurs and a swastika were spray-painted on the front windows. Less than a week later, police were back at the centre after the vandals struck again. This time, the suspect spray-painted more homophobic slurs, racial slurs and another swastika. Then, just days later, a rusted brake rotor was tossed through the facility's window.
Windsor Police officers arrested Seth Bertrand last April and charged him with three counts of mischief under $5,000.
Now Bertrand is charged with participating in or contributing to any activity of a terrorist group.
The charges have not been proven in court.