A Mississauga man who has been charged with willful promotion of hatred says he’s “not going anywhere,” and that he intends to run for mayor of the city.

The charges come after “a lengthy investigation into numerous incidents reported to police, involving Kevin Johnston and concerns information published on various social media sites,” Peel police said in a news release Monday.

Johnston, 45, was released on bail after a brief appearance in court Monday. The conditions of his release included an order to have no contact with three people, whose names are under a publication ban. He was also ordered to stay 100 metres away from any mosque or Muslim community centre in Ontario, except for when travelling on the road.

Johnston, wearing a blue polo shirt and jeans, sat calmly in court as the details of the case were read in court.

Outside the courtroom, he was defiant.

“I’m going to run for mayor against Bonnie Crombie next election,” Johnston said. “She can’t stop me through the courts.”

Johnston does not have legal counsel yet. He will appear next Sept. 8.

Johnston has previously ran for mayor, and lost to Mississauga Mayor Crombie in 2014. He is best known for his strong views about the Muslim community, having opposed the construction of a mosque in Meadowvale, offered prize money for videos of students praying on Fridays, and protested against the federal anti-Islamophobia motion, M-103.

Last year, a story published on the Mississauga Gazette site resulted in Crombie filing a hate-crime complaint with Peel police. It was not immediately clear if that complaint prompted Monday’s charges.

For police to lay a hate-related criminal charge, a criminal offence must have occurred – such as an assault, damage to property — and hate or bias toward a victim must have motivated the criminal offence.

At Queen’s Park, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said the government “takes allegations of hate crime very seriously. Ontario prosecutes these cases vigorously, where there is a reasonable prospect of conviction.

With files from Robert Benzie

“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,” Naqvi said Monday.

The consent of the attorney general is required to lay hate-crime charges.

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Naqvi’s office confirmed he received a formal request from Peel police to lay the charge of willful promotion of hatred.

“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,” he said.

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