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The rally and party had been getting more attention after the events in Charlottesville, which saw violence erupt following rallies of white nationalists and Nazis. One person was killed after a car slammed into a group of counter-protesters.

In a Facebook video Wednesday afternoon, Patron said: “We are not a white supremacist, white nationalist, far-right extremist movement. That’s not who we are. We do not exclusively represent one race of people. We do not believe that any particular race is superior of inferior to any other. In our party membership today, we have people from an assortment of backgrounds.”

He went on to describe the party ideals as socially and fiscally conservative, and added: “We oppose globalism, we opposed homosexuality, we oppose transgenderism and we oppose the Islamification of our country.”

He said in the video plans for the Toronto rally were made July 3 but gained more attention after the events in Virginia. In the video, Patron insists the party wants to keep open dialogue of ideas.

“If we choose to close that channel of dialogue, we tend to see that people feel silenced and people feel trapped and oftentimes they are forced to communicate their political ideas through force and that often results in violence,” he said. “We don’t want that here in Canada, we don’t need that here in Canada.”

Patron’s personal website says he founded the CNP at the age of 25. The website says his party represents “the revival of the Canadian identity” and a return to true ethnic heritage.

The website also lists a number of books that Patron has read, which, among several self-help and business books, includes Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer.

Patron has founded a Bitcoin investment firm called Diginomics, and has written several articles on the subject of cryptocurrency for the website The Cointelegraph.

mmelnychuk@postmedia.com