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Calgary neo-Nazi crowdfunds to pay ticket for blocking Pride bus

Calgary Transit's Pride bus

A neo-Nazi who got a $5,000 ticket for blocking a rainbow-coloured Pride bus in Calgary took to GoFundMe to help pay the fine, but found little support.

According to the Calgary Sun, “notorious local neo-Nazi” Kyle McKee, 29, stood in front of the bus for about 20 minutes last week in a show of solidarity with a transit driver who refused to drive the Pride-themed vehicle.

“Christianity is under constant attack and not given the same religious freedom and protection as other groups,” McKee told Yahoo Canada News by email.

“When I seen in the mainstream media and on social media a brave transit driver being publicly crucified for standing up for his moral convictions I thought I would stand with him — or rather in front of a bus — in support of religious freedom being equally given and in protest of the fact that it isn’t.”

Calgary police confirmed they slapped McKee with the maximum fine for interfering with the operation of a transit vehicle.

“It must have seemed a little like a white supremacist’s version of the Tiananmen Square tank protest, albeit without the moral backing of the entire world,” wrote Sun columnist Michael Platt.

McKee took to the crowdfunding site GoFundMe in a plea for money from like-minded individuals.

“I am asking for donations to help pay this ticket earned by peaceful protest for our rights!” he reportedly wrote on the page, which has since been removed.

The campaign reportedly netted two donations totalling $60 before being taken down Wednesday.

Both McKee and GoFundMe confirmed the site suspended the account and is investigating after it received complaints.

According to GoFundMe’s terms and conditions, “campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts” are not allowed.

The site has previously come under fire for allowing a page in support of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown.

The Sun calls McKee a “a seasoned protester” who has “previously helped organize white supremacist rallies in Calgary, and for years he has spoken out against races and cultures that don’t match his own.”

He was sentenced to 13 months in 2013 for illegally possessing a shotgun. In July, he was acquitted of assaulting a man with pepper spray for insulting Hitler.

McKee is next due in court Nov. 3.