A 3D printer, a framed picture of Adolf Hitler, and a knife with Nazi symbols were found in Patrick Macdonald’s home.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Screencapture from an Atomwaffen Division propaganda video. Source: Telegram
The trial of Patrick Macdonald is nearing the end of its first week, as the Atomwaffen propagandist faces three terrorism charges.
Better known by his pseudonym Dark Foreigner, Macdonald, 27, is accused of participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating terrorist activity, and the commission of offence for a terrorist group.
Week one saw witnesses from law enforcement responsible for the 2022 raid on Macdonald’s home as well as analyzing the seized devices on the stand.
An image of Patrick Gordon Macdonald during a gala taken in December 2023 by event photographer Paul Couvrette. Source: Scottish Society website
Macdonald’s home was the subject of a raid in March 2022, while a separate search took place in central Quebec in June of that year, also in relation to the Atomwaffen Division.
The week ended with testimony from two RCMP digital analysts.
Sgt. Jonathan Savaria discussing the extraction of the contents of Macdonald’s two mobile phones and personal computers. He did not go into the specifics of the contents, but detailed the process of extracting the data, how it was organized, and the tools used to examine the various devices.
Macdonald’s defence, led by attorney Doug Baum, kept their cross-examination limited to questions about how images extracted from one of Macdonald’s mobile devices were assigned dates. He has asked the court not to consider materials created outside the period of the indictment, April, 1 2018 to December 31, 2019.
The entire report on Macdonald’s phone was not visible to the court, but during a discussion of the data extracted from the images found on the devices, an image that looked like a selfie of Macdonald, a stylized picture of soldiers, and accused killer Casey Anthony were all visible.
Ian Haya, a video and audio analyst with the RCMP, took the stand in the last half of Friday. Recognized as an expert by the court, Haya’s testimony focused on the examination and extraction of the data from the three videos that Macdonald is alleged to have participated in producing with Atomwaffen Division.
Tuesday and Wednesday featured the bulk of testimony by officer Billel Zaidi who documented and bagged the evidence as it was seized from the Macdonald household. He made note of multiple digital devices, “tactical clothing,” a knife engraved with symbols from National Socialist Germany, a framed picture of Adolf Hitler, and a ceramic plaque with the phrase “fascism, deal with it.”
Macdonald was also in possession of a 3D printer and a “handwritten manuscript,” Zaidi said through a court translator.
He added that in the manuscript Macdonald admitted to posting online as Dark Foreigner.
All these objects were reportedly found in Macdonald’s room and office located in the basement of his parents’ home in Ottawa.
Macdonald’s defence team made sure to limit the officer’s responses to why the objects were chosen for documentation or seizure, not an interpretation of their meaning or use.
The proceedings were sometimes delayed as the French interpreters struggled with technical terms, names, and more. Crown Attorney Katherine Legault and Justice R. Smith—who is presiding over the case—are both bilingual and often suggested more accurate language.
Two digital investigators, one from the RCMP and another formally employed by the Ontario Provincial Police, took the stand to talk about materials they found relating to Dark Foreigner and Atomwaffen Division using open-source intelligence gathering.
The court was shown three videos found on Telegram by Atomwaffen Division seeking recruits and advocating violence against marginalized people. It was not stated in court, but some of the footage was recorded in an abandoned Quebec location.
It depicts men in skull masks entering into a building, holding firearms.
Researchers determined at the time that some of the weapons were airsoft rifles.
The first days of the trial were dedicated to assessing the expertise of Barbara Perry, a sociologist and director of the Centre for Hate, Bias, and Extremism, in what is called a voir dire—a trial within a trial.
Barbara Perry has provided occasional advice and recommendations to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
While not called to comment on the evidence, Perry submitted a report explaining the international far-right, the history of the Atomwaffen Division, James Mason—author of the book Siege which was required reading for Atomwaffen members— and the ideology of militant accelerationism.
The defence argued that Perry was “no expert” and her report should be excluded as prejudicial. He pointed to a series of errors relating to names, dates and locations of other attacks as well as the origin of certain symbols relating to German military units in the Second World War.
Baum also pointed out that Perry was called to be an expert in the case of the London, Ontario murder of five members of the Afzaal family in 2021 by Nathaniel Veltman, but her testimony was not accepted.
Justice Smith pointed out that the court did accept her as an expert, but ruled that testimony about the broader far-right and neo-Nazis might result in a bias against Veltman. Justice Smith also noted that Veltman was not a member of a group, while Macdonald is accused of aiding a terrorist organization through the creation of recruitment videos.
The Crown called this the “great distinction” between the cases.
Using another case, the Crown pointed to the trial of Seth Bertrand to show that understanding violent extremism is important for moving forward. Bertrand is also in court this week facing terror charges for allegedly attempting to join what he believed was Atomwaffen Division splinter National Socialist Order.
Macdonald’s defence team also argued that several cases did not merit being included as examples of far-right extremism in Perry’s report. This included Atomwaffen co-founder Devon Arthurs, who murdered two other members of the group in Florida; four-time killer Jeremy Skibicki, who predominantly targeted Indigenous women; and Alek Minassian, who killed 11 and injured 15 people with a van in Toronto after posting online about the incel ideology.
Baum conceded that “the term accelerationism is not commonly known.”
“Even Atomwaffen,” Justice Smith added.
He would ultimately rule “that Dr. Perry is a duly qualified expert” in the far-right and hate crimes, calling her knowledge “highly relevant” to understanding the Atomwaffen Division.
The court also heard a breakdown by investigators that matched the location of a second video to a former schoolhouse in rural Quebec.
Patrick Gordon Macdonald, known for years as Dark Foreigner, chose to enter a plea of not guilty in court today.