A 29-year-old man from Thorold, Ont., stood in a downtown Toronto courtroom Thursday admitting to three terrorism charges involving a neo-Nazi militant accelerationist group called “Atomwaffen Division” (AWD).
Matthew Althorpe, who has been in custody since his arrest in December 2023, turned and looked to the gallery where a number of people, including a woman holding a baby, watched on.
The baby said “dada” as Althorpe waved to the child.
Reading from a 32-page agreed statement of facts, federal prosecutor Amber Pashuk detailed the investigation into Althorpe, which began in June 2022 when the RCMP commenced an investigation, dubbed Project Sepia, to look activities involving Althorpe and his associates.
The investigation focused on Althorpe’s role in creating three separate propaganda and recruitment videos.
Althorpe participated in the filming, editing and publication of these videos on Telegram, a social media messaging service.
Pashuk outlined how Althorpe was also instrumental in creating three influential publications on behalf of “Terrorgram”, a network of Telegram channels promoting militant accelerationism and publishing them to a wide audience on Telegram.
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The documents each advocated violence including the sabotage of critical infrastructure, the murder of police officers, high-profile assassinations and mass casualty attacks.
In December 2023, authorities executed search warrants at five residences including at Althorpe’s home.
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“Investigators seized clothing, books, patches and flags that demonstrate that Althorpe and his associates. They seized firearms and 53 electronic devices. The electronic devices contained raw footage from at least one of the AWD videos, showing Mr. Althorpe’s participation in it,” Pashuk said in court early Thursday.
She told court the devices also contained early drafts of the publications for “Terrorgram” as well as notes and communications showing that Althorpe was directly involved in writing, producing and publishing them.
The three chilling propaganda videos were also shown in court capturing men wearing masks with skulls on their faces, firing rifles and walking through the woods. Ominous music plays while graphics encourage viewers to join the Atomwaffen Division.
Pashuk said since at least 2018, Althorpe had been a leading proponent of militant accelerationism both online and in real life.
Militant accelerationists believe there is no political solution, and they aim to accelerate societal collapse through acts of terrorism that intend to provoke a race war, according to Pashuk. “Their goal is to replace society with a white ethnostate,” Pashuk added.
Pashuk said about 125 groups and networks identify as military accelerationalist and have been recognized as terrorism organizations by various governments, “including the two in which Mr. Althorpe was involved.”
Evidence shown in court states that in 2019, Althorpe had an AWD flag hung on the wall of his bedroom in his mother’s basement. That photograph was found on Althorpe’s hard drive.
The Crown is suggesting a 20-year sentence would be appropriate whereas defence counsel Robb Macdonald said nothing more than 14 years would be suitable. Justice Kelly agreed to defence’s request for a mental health assessment for Althorpe.
The case will return to court in November to set a date for a sentencing hearing.
That trial is expected to begin in the new year.
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