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Photo by J.P. Moczulski for National Post

On Monday, Peel Regional Police announced Johnston had been charged with one count of wilful promotion of hatred, a Criminal Code offence with a maximum penalty of two years in jail. The announcement said the charge “stems from a lengthy investigation into numerous incidents reported to police … and concerns information published on various social media sites.”

Peel Region Sgt. Josh Colley said police compiled a document of Johnston’s activities and sent it to the Ontario attorney general’s office, which has to sign off on any hate crimes charge.

Colley declined to say what specifically led to the charge, but said in general it was “using social media sites to convey a hate message.”

In addition to Freedom Report, Johnston helps run a website called the Mississauga Gazette, which describes itself as an independent community newspaper but is occasionally used for his inflammatory rants. One of them viciously attacked Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, saying she was turning the city “into a dangerous Islamic war zone” so Muslims could “kill her son just for being gay.”

Photo by Chris Doucette / Postmedia Network

Crombie later said she filed a hate-crimes complaint to Peel police over the post, which was later taken down.

In one video, Johnston is shown trying to enter a Peel District School Board meeting, but is prevented by police who tell him the school has a legal order not allowing him on the property.

Johnston’s attacks on Khalid’s anti-Islamophobia motion weren’t his only foray into federal politics. He interviewed several candidates during the Conservative leadership race, including a one-hour phone interview with Maxime Bernier. Bernier’s spokesperson later told The Canadian Press they’d been unaware of Johnston’s views, thinking Bernier was just talking to a local Mississauga journalist.