Halifax councillor under fire after retweeting ‘ethno-nationalist’ group

Halifax regional councillor Matt Whitman is under fire after retweeting a letter from a white supremacist organization on Thursday afternoon.

The letter, written by ID Canada and addressed to Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, was critical of the recent decision by the city to remove the statue of its controversial founder Edward Cornwallis.

“Canadians expect the memory of our European founders to remain unpolluted by revisionist attitudes,” the letter reads.

“This incident is a worrying manifestation of a brutal disregard towards the accomplishments of Canada’s European founders.”

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ID Canada describes themselves as an “ethno-nationalist and identitarian youth movement” that says Canada was “never meant to be a melting pot of third-world migration.”

Many of the tweets on ID Canada Twitter account link to videos or images with anti-Islamic and anti-immigration messages.

Whitman, councillor for District 13, deleted the retweet after Global News asked him if he had realized the tweet was from a self-identified “ethno-nationalist” group.

“I did not know that…. Deleted,” he said in a text on Thursday.

Backlash

One of the first reactions to Whitman’s tweet came from Waye Mason, deputy mayor and councillor for District 7.

“You are retweeting a neo-nazi hate group,” Mason tweeted. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Mason said in a follow-up tweet that Whitman has since blocked him.

Whitman has also updated his Twitter bio so that it now reads: “Tweets, Likes & ReTweets are NOT necessarily endorsements so relax, move on.”

Mason has since offered Whitman a piece of advice.

“Apologize for not taking the time to actually know what you were retweeting,” he wrote. “Reflect that you keep making the same mistakes and not learning.”

WATCH: Halifax council hears second apology from Councillor Matt Whitman over offensive comments

1:55 ‘He should be apologizing to all residents’: Halifax council hears second apology from Councillor Matt Whitman over offensive comments

History of controversial comments

Whitman has a history of controversial statements. Last year he attracted negative attention for participating in a so-called “Chinese fire drill” and, in a separate incident, using the word “negro” in an interview.