Metzgers Jailed in Canada on Racial Hatred Charge

SAN DIEGO â€”  White supremacist Tom Metzger and his son, John, have been arrested and jailed in Canada on suspicion of violating an immigration law that bars anyone likely to incite racial hatred from entering the country, Canadian officials said.

When he returns to California, Tom Metzger may also face a jail sentence for leaving the country without permission--flouting probation terms set after a 1991 hate-crime conviction in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

A hearing will be held today to determine if the Metzgers broke Canadian law and should be deported. They could return to the United States as early as tonight, said Milton Best, a spokesman for Immigration Canada in Toronto, where the arrest took place early Sunday morning.

The Metzgers went to Toronto to address several hundred members of the white supremacist group Heritage Front on Saturday night and were arrested after they left the event, Tom Metzger’s daughter, Lynn, said.

Best said the arrest, carried out by city, provincial and federal police at 12:50 a.m. Sunday, was peaceful.

“They are known to law enforcement agencies in Canada, including immigration,� Best said of the Metzgers, of Fallbrook.

“Once we became aware that they were in Canada, we were naturally concerned, because it is our contention that they should not have been admitted. They are persons who are likely to commit an indictable offense--inciting racial intolerance.�

The offense carries no penalty besides deportation, said Detective Sgt. Robert Shirlow of the Toronto Metropolitan Police.

Tom Metzger and two co-defendants were sentenced to six months in jail last December for their role in a 1983 cross-burning in a racially mixed neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Metzger was granted an early release in February by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. D. Smith to be with his critically ill wife, who has since died of lung cancer.

Metzger is a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the White Aryan Resistance group. His son, John, is co-founder of the so-called skinhead movement.