Politician under fire again for retweeting ‘ethno-nationalist’ group

A Halifax city councillor under fire for retweeting a Canadian “ethno-nationalist” group has dismissed criticisms, even as official complaints poured into city hall Friday.

“The attacks on me are political,” Coun. Matt Whitman tweeted.

On Thursday, Whitman had retweeted a letter addressed to Mayor Mike Savage and regional council from ID Canada, a self-described “ethno-nationalist” group created as “a response to Canada’s decaying identity, increased third-world immigration and the prevalence of anti-European sentiments.”

The document was critical of the municipality’s decision to take down a statue of Halifax’s controversial founder, Edward Cornwallis, and place it in storage while council determines its long-term fate.

By Friday, the city said it had received 21 complaints about councillors in the last 24 hours, though it could not disclose who they were lodged against.

Whitman accused the media of being “reckless again” in its coverage, and said in his tweet Friday he won’t tolerate racism.

The one-page ID Canada letter said the statue’s removal represented “an egregious affront to our past” and a “brutal disregard toward the accomplishments of Canada’s European founders.”

Another councillor, Deputy Mayor Waye Mason, said he was stunned when he saw the retweet after someone pointed it out to him Thursday afternoon.

“I looked at it and went, ‘Holy crap — this is racist stuff,’” he said Friday. “This isn’t a political thing ... no man, you retweeted white supremacy, full stop.”

He immediately took to Twitter to scold Whitman for retweeting the letter from the group, which on its website promotes the idea that, “Canada is a nation of European values, traditions, customs and culture. Canada was never meant to be a melting pot of thirdworld migration.”

“You are retweeting a neonazi hate group. I am speechless. What the hell is wrong with you?” tweeted Mason.

Whitman acknowledged that he didn’t have time to look into the group before retweeting it, saying, “I don’t background check every tweet I see.” He said he has deleted the retweet and blocked the group. He did, however, update his Twitter profile to say, “Tweets, Likes and Retweets are NOT necessarily endorsements so relax, move on...Next.”

On Friday, Whitman added that when he was Halifax’s deputy mayor he would never have acted as Mason did Thursday: “Waye is a smart guy. An ambitious guy.”

Many on Twitter called for Whitman to step down.

“You should really resign from being councillor of our community,” one woman tweeted. “You should not be in this position.”

Mayor Mike Savage said councillors must be responsible for things they tweet or retweet.