Regina mayor, officials duped by white supremacy group

The mayor of Regina has cancelled a proclamation to declare a week in October "European Heritage Week" after he says he was fooled by a white supremacy group.

The group called Nationalist Party of Canada put in a request in July.

Mayor Michael Fougere said the letter was "very innocuous in the way it was written...it was supporting languages, culture, diversity of Europe and what happens in Europe here in Canada."

Fougere said the city has a screening process which the letter went through, but without knowing much more about it he signed off on the request.

"I'm not hiding from this," said Fougere. "We made a mistake. An honest mistake, we corrected it and its now time to move on."

Thegroup's letter was misleading because it made no mention of its racist beliefs, he added.

The city heard the group was a white supremacy organization through the media this week. That's when Fougere revoked the decision.

Tuesday the group was also asked to remove any City of Regina information off their website. Fougere said Regina was not the only city that has been tricked by this group. Halifax, Victoria, and Fredericton also accepted the group's request before realizing what it was about.

The mayor says moving forward, the city will review how it researches and accepts proclamation requests.