Two Quebecers linked to ultra-nationalist group arrested for allegedly threatening Trudeau, Muslims

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MONTREAL -- Two people with links to the far-right ultra-nationalist group the Storm Alliance have been arrested for inciting hatred and encouraging others to commit premeditated murder.

RCMP officers arrested one of the two for inciting genocide against the Muslim community in comments posted to Facebook in addition to the other charges.

An RCMP spokesperson declined to comment to CTV News on the precise nature of the threats.

“They were sufficiently concerning for us to take action,” RCMP spokesperson Melanie Cappiello-Stebenne said, adding she did not know the ages or genders of those arrested.

Cappiello-Stebenne said the two people were not currently being detained, but were questioned and have yet to be charged.

The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams began investigating the two people in September, and the truck driver from the Lanaudiere region and Montrealer who identifies as a member of the Storm Alliance are suspected of calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's murder during the last election campaign, according to La Presse.

Along with the arrests the RCMP seized pieces of equipment, including computers.

Nancy Sirois is an administrator of the Storm Alliance Facebook group and posted Saturday that the group has disassociated itself from the individuals who were arrested.

They were, she wrote, kicked out of the group several months ago "for similar behaviour and words which we do not subscribe to at all."

"We cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of every citizen acting on their own initiative," Sirois wrote.

An exchange between the two people on Facebook allegedly discussed Trudeau being shot in the forehead, and was accompanied by a photo of a vandalized campaign poster of Hochelaga Liberal candidate Soraya Martinez with a Nazi swastika covering the Liberal logo.

The RCMP investigation found several publications related to Trudeau or the Muslim religion. Comments range from mocking Trudeau for wearing a flak jacket during a campaign stop to references to the Quebec City mosque shooting and the mass-killing in Christchurch, New Zealand, according to La Presse.

The reports do not cite an upcoming court date.

RELATED IMAGES Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with The Canadian Press during a year end interview in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday December 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld