Edmonton - The Calgary-based leader of the white supremacist group Blood and Honour group received a 13-month sentence Monday for possession of a shotgun while subject to four court-ordered weapon prohibitions.
Kyle Robert McKee, 27, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon.
Court heard McKee and several friends came to Edmonton from Calgary to attend a rally in March 2012. During that event, members of Blood and Honour and anti-racism protesters briefly clashed downtown. Police mostly kept the two groups apart and no one was injured or charged during the duelling rallies.
That night, McKee was present during an assault outside a Liquor Depot in Sherwood Park. Investigators with the Edmonton police department hate crime unit said that assault was racially motivated. Racial slurs were directed at a pair of South Asian men before violence erupted in the parking lot, police said.
Officers began investigating McKee in connection with the assault and wanted to find clothing he had been wearing on the liquor store's surveillance tapes, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Officers kept McKee under surveillance until his arrest outside his workplace April 12, 2012, Crown prosecutor Ashley Finlayson said.
When officers searched his rental home for the clothing, they found a 12-gauge shotgun and shells in his desk drawers. Finlayson said the shotgun's barrel was sawed off, but not to the point where it would be considered an illegal weapon.
Due to assault and weapons convictions dating to 2006, McKee was under four court orders not to posses guns.
"There's no evidence of him threatening anyone with the firearm or using it in anyway," Finlayson said. "He would have known he's not to have any firearms or ammunition in his possession."
Defence layer Naeem Rauf said his client did not own the shotgun, but admitted it was in his possession.
After serving 13 months in custody since his arrest, McKee no longer has any time left to serve of his sentence and was expected to be released shortly from the Edmonton Remand Centre.
Court heard that McKee plans to return to Calgary after he is released from custody.
McKee originally faced charges of assault and assault causing bodily harm in connection with the Liquor Depot assault, but those charges were stayed Monday.
In March 2011, several members of Blood and Honour were charged after a string of assaults on Whyte Avenue. The group was in Edmonton to hand out flyers for an upcoming rally in Calgary. Three men have since been convicted and a fourth is still before the courts.
