An individual from Ontario was convicted by an Ontario Superior Court judge on Wednesday for his involvement in the operations of a terrorist organization. Kristoffer Nippak, aged 33, was apprehended and charged in December 2023 for knowingly engaging in activities associated with a terrorist group following an 18-month investigation conducted by the RCMP in central Quebec, eastern and northern Ontario, and the Niagara Region. He was arrested alongside another individual, Matthew Althorpe, from the Niagara Region.
Althorpe received a 20-year prison sentence in March for three terrorism-related offenses, as reported in a news release from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. Nippak’s charges were connected to his involvement with the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), a recognized terrorist entity in Canada. AWD is described as a militant extremist neo-Nazi group that originated in the United States in 2015, according to information from the Canadian government’s official website.
The group, also identified as the National Socialist Order, has conducted “training camps” where members undergo combat and weapons training, in addition to engaging in violent actions at public demonstrations, as outlined on the website. The court’s decision to find Nippak guilty was significantly influenced by an AWD recruitment video, which showcased armed individuals in skull masks and AWD insignias carrying out various activities like marching through a forest, shooting guns, clearing buildings, and burning flags of the United States, Israel, and the European Union.
Justice Maureen D. Forestell highlighted that the Crown successfully demonstrated “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Nippak was aware of AWD’s terrorist status when he participated in the production of the recruitment video.