19-year-old Winnipeg man allegedly tied to neo-Nazi group 'not a crazy terrorist,' grandmother says
CBC
The grandmother of a 19-year-old Winnipegger facing terrorism-related charges says she burst into tears when she heard the seriousness of the allegations against him.
Nevin Young was arrested on Jan. 12 on 26 counts of mischief under $5,000 after he allegedly spray-painted antisemitic graffiti, including the initials of an international extremist group, on various structures within a Charleswood neighbourhood over a three-month period late last year.
On Tuesday, RCMP announced he was facing four new charges related to terrorist activity.
Alice Nepinak said she was shocked when she heard the news.
"I burst into tears because I know as soon as it turns federal — I mean like this is serious, serious stuff," she said.
Nepinak said Young has ADHD and global developmental delay, a diagnosis for children who are significantly delayed in their development.
She said the 19-year-old was still attending high school, and wasn't expected to graduate until he was 21 because of accommodations due to learning challenges.
"He's not a crazy terrorist. He's just a poor boy that has issues," she said.
"He doesn't have that full-grown-person maturity. And the potential to be thrown in jail and locked away for 10 years, you know, how do you contend with that if you don't quite even understand how the world really works?"
Young has been charged with facilitating terrorist activity, participation in activity of a terrorist group, and two counts of commission of an offence for a terrorist group.
In an email Thursday, the RCMP said city police identified "material that falls within the national security mandate," leading to the new charges.
The RCMP said online radicalization is part of the investigation, and that there are links to the racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist group M.K.Y., also known as Maniac Murder Cult.
Several "M.K.Y." graffiti tags and swastikas were spray-painted over Charleswood. People in the neighbourhood and members of Winnipeg's Jewish community say the messages were hateful and made them feel unsafe in their own city.
Georgios Samaras, an assistant professor of public policy at King's College London who specializes in extremism, said M.K.Y. is just one in a network of small groups of neo-Nazis often radicalized online, but trying to translate that into offline action.
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