Controversial Mississauga resident Kevin J. Johnston has been charged with wilfully promoting hatred toward the Peel Muslim community, Peel Regional Police said Monday, July 24.

The charge relates to information published on “various social media sites” over the past five months, but police would not be more specific on the content of the postings.

Police said “numerous incidents” were reported to them, sparking the “lengthy” investigation.

Police had to ask for consent from the Ontario Attorney General’s office to lay the charge. When that consent was given Monday, Johnston, 45, was arrested and formally charged with one count of wilful promotion of hatred.

Johnston has been a prominent figure in the debate centred around Muslim prayer in Peel schools.

In March, he offered a $1,000 “reward” for any video students secretly could take of Muslim students praying at school.

The school board accused Johnston, a former Mississauga mayoral candidate, of encouraging hatred with the reward offer, an allegation Johnston refuted.

“I am looking for everyone, including teachers and students, (to provide evidence) of hate crimes against Jews, against women, against infidels and against Canadians,” Johnston said at the time, adding he believes the messages during Muslim prayer incite hate and he is vehemently opposed to the Qur'an being read out in “our schools.”

Following disruptions of Peel District School Board meetings this spring, where the issue was dealt with, Johnston was banned from attending future meetings. He was escorted off school board property by police during a meeting March 22.

Last October, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie filed a hate-motivated-crime complaint with Peel police after Johnston’s website published an article claiming the mayor was trying to convert the city to Islam so “they can kill her son just for being gay.”

Peel police would not comment on whether or not that article was one of the postings that lead to the charge, but it was posted more than five months ago, and police said the charge relates to postings made in the past five months.