Edmonton BLM activist and council candidate celebrates death of slain police officer

An Edmonton Black Lives Matter activist who is running in the city's October council election celebrated the death of Sgt. Andrew Harnett, who was killed in the line of duty after being run over at a traffic stop.

In a since-deleted tweet, Abdulhakim Dalel responded to a Twitter user questioning why Justin Trudeau had not yet released a statement on the slain police officer.

"Cuz he was a corrupted Police Officer," Dalel replied. The tweet finished with five laughing emojis.

Dalel has received criticism on both his Twitter and Facebook pages, with one user identifying himself as Métis telling Dalel to "[do] us all a favour and go home and keep your mouth shut." Dalel dismissed the criticism by calling the user "mixed with Caucasian."

Dalel has been quoted by multiple news outlets over the years to talk about issues pertaining to racism, including in the Toronto Star and BlogTO.

Dalel is now running for Edmonton City Council for Ward Metis, formerly Ward 7, which Dalel misidentified in his campaign advertising material. He also ran for the NDP's nomination in the Federal riding of Edmonton Griesbach in 2015, but lost to Janis Irwin, who subsequently lost to Conservative MP Kerry Diotte.

The candidate has a history of inflammatory statements, including describing Albertans as a whole as "ignorant and racist."

He also allegedly called a member of the Canadian Armed Forces asking him about his position on the military calling him "white trash" and asked him how many innocent people he killed in Afghanistan.

Dalel also once described former Prime Minister Stephen Harper as "the father of the White supremacy" and described the Conservative Party as Canada as "the new KKK in Canada."

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Dalel is running for council in Ward 7. While Dalel claimed this in his campaign material, the ward has since been renamed to Ward Metis.