VANCOUVER—A man who describes himself as personal security for Maxime Bernier is a founding member of the Canadian Nationalist Party — a newly minted political party that advocates for white nationalism.

Darik Horn has appeared at events next to the People’s Party of Canada Leader, who is rallying votes in the lead-up to the Oct. 21 election. Horn was with Bernier at a Sept. 24 Toronto Star editorial board meeting and was at Bernier’s side in Hamilton on Sept. 30 for an interview with celebrity YouTuber Dave Rubin that devolved into heated protests, counterprotests and arrests.

Horn began supporting the PPC after volunteering for white nationalist Faith Goldy’s failed 2018 mayoral bid in Toronto and has described himself as a PPC “super volunteer.” He joined the Canadian Nationalist Party (CNP) in May and was one of the 250 people who signed in support of giving the organization official party status, according to documents filed with Elections Canada.

The Anti-Racist Canada collective (ARC) released the list of 250 names in a bid to hold party founders socially accountable, naming Horn as close to Goldy and as security for Bernier.

In response, Horn tweeted: “You are making ‘neo-Nazi’ meaningless by using it as a casual insult, and everybody that matters already knows that I’m a nationalist and patriot. Thanks, however, for advertising my security work. I do all the hard and high-value jobs.”

Bernier and Horn did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Star Vancouver.

Bernier, who split last year from the federal Conservatives, has denied accusations that he or his party espouse white supremacy, racism or xenophobia. The party’s platform calls for capping immigration to 150,000 people a year, with a larger percentage of “economic” immigrants.

The CNP specifically advocates to maintain a demographic majority of European heritage in Canada and wants to rewrite the constitution to replace multiculturalism with “ethnic nationalism.” They would cap immigration at 100,000 people per year.

Canada accepted roughly 310,000 immigrants last year. In 2017, the Government of Canada adopted targets of 340,000 by 2020, with a 60 per cent growth in the economic class.

Founder and leader Travis Patron has repeatedly denied accusations of white nationalism, both on behalf of himself, members of his party and his party’s platform.

Patron did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Star Vancouver.

Edwin Hodge, a University of Victoria professor specializing in right-wing extremist movements and white supremacist activism in North America, said the CNP’s stance on a European-descent majority is a “dogwhistle” that allows the party to espouse a message to a particular group without treading into hate speech.

“It’s a politically correct way of saying he wants to maintain a white ethnostate,” Hodge said of Patron and the CNP.

“They know that standing on the steps of city hall in Toronto and screaming ‘Jews will not replace us,’ will not sell,” he added, referring to the white supremacist chant that became the slogan of the infamous Aug. 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Patron is running as a candidate in Saskatchewan and is under investigation by that province’s arm of the RCMP Hate Crimes unit after posting a video on his party’s website condemning the “parasitic tribe,” which he alleges controls Canadian banking and media. Leaders of the Jewish community have spoken out about the video, calling it hateful and anti-Semitic.

“What we need to do, perhaps more than anything, is remove these people once and for all from our country,” Patron says in the video.

He has denied the “parasitic tribe” reference is about Jews.

Modern right-wing extremist groups use dog-whistle politics to package what they’re saying for a wider audience, says Hodge. He pointed to the Ku Klux Klan, which argued that they don’t hate Blacks, they simply love white people.

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Canada has seen a dramatic rise in the number of white nationalist and right-wing extremist groups over the past year, causing police and security agencies to reassess the threat the movement poses, according to a report by the Toronto Star.

Right-wing extremist parties in Canada often use free speech arguments to defend their actions in an attempt to appeal to the centrist or liberal Canadian who thinks it fair to listen to both sides, Hodge said.

“They don’t care about free speech, just forcing open the doors,” Hodge explained. “They’ve used that liberal tolerance and weaponized it against the foundations of a democratic society.

With files from Omar Mosleh and Alex Boutilier

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