Hate crime charge hangs over Ontario candidate

OTTAWA • Twenty-five names and you’re in. Oh, and you can’t work for the government.

Aside from that, there’s not much stopping anyone from running for a seat in the Ontario legislature, even if you were once stripped of your medical licence and have an upcoming trial for hate crimes.

All those apply to James Sears, candidate in Ottawa Centre who bills himself as “Canada’s biggest troll.”

Sears, 54, is editor of the Toronto newsletter Your Ward News, a quarterly publication that has been described as “racist” and a “hate rag” by its critics.

Sears chose the riding as a way to confront Yasir Naqvi, who was attorney-general in November when Sears and Your Ward News publisher, Leroy St. Germaine, 76, were charged with wilfully promoting hatred against women and Jews.

Sears said Thursday that he chose to run in Ottawa Centre specifically to confront Naqvi and work against his re-election.

Sears is one of six candidates running in Ottawa Centre, and running for the CCP — Canadians’ Choice Party — which has two candidates in the election. In all, 15 parties are fielding candidates in the election while 15 more people are running as independents.

There are a few rules for candidates: They must be 18 or older on election day, a Canadian citizen and have lived in Ontario for six months. They must not be disqualified under the Legislative Assembly Act, for which the major hurdle is to not be an MP, senator or government employee.

To be nominated, they need valid signatures from 25 residents of the riding in which they intend to run. There is no fee. The deadline to register is May 17.

Sears has run in past federal and municipal elections and says he intends to run for mayor of Toronto in October’s municipal election.

In a rambling “letter to constituents” on his website, Sears describes himself as “an aggressive advocate for the Christian patriarchy, promoting male masculinity by educating the public on the New World Order’s agenda of chemically and psychologically castrating Western men, turning many into treasonous Soviet lackeys.”

In addition to the hate crime charge, Sears also faces a charge of uttering threats because of an article he published in Your Ward News about prominent Torontonians Lisa and Warren Kinsella, who have called the publication a “neo-Nazi rag” and led a campaign to stop it from being delivered by Canada Post.

EDUCATING PUBLIC ON THE NEW WORLD ORDER’S AGENDA.