Toronto - The New Democrats in Ontario said they expelled a veteran legislator from the party caucus because he was found to be a member of an anti-Islam group on Facebook.

The party's regional director issued a statement on Wednesday providing more details about the ousting of Paul Miller, which was announced last week with little detail about why.

Lucy Watson said in a written statement that the vetting before the expected June election discovered that Miller was a member of the Global Alliance Against Islam group on Facebook.

Watson said the result came after "a pattern of troubling behavior that indicated Paul Miller may have anti-Islam, homophobic, and racist views."

"This pattern of behavior went beyond the limits of reason."

"Any other candidate and any other member of this caucus—in the context of attempting to run for any party—will be excluded for being a member of a racist anti-Islam group."

Her comments came hours after Miller claimed that he does not post his own posts on Facebook, suggesting that a former staffer may have posted offensive posts using his account.

He was not available on Wednesday to respond to the party's specific allegations.

Earlier today, he said he did not have the opportunity to explain his position before being expelled from the party caucus.

He said he was shown a Facebook post that he did not write, and said he was speaking with a lawyer to challenge the party's allegations, which he described as "false allegations."

He attributed the party's decision to expel him to "cancel culture," and pointed to tension between him and party leader Andrea Horwath, saying she did not speak to him directly about the matter.

He said, "We had our disagreements over politics and the party's direction. Unfortunately, in our society now, if you disagree with someone... they find a way to fabricate things."

He did not go into full details about his issues with the party's "new direction," but repeated his previous assertions that the party wants to run "a new kind of candidate."

"I don't think I fit this mold." Miller also said he was asked in 2017 and 2021 not to run again.

Horwath, who has been party leader since 2009 and also represents a Hamilton area member, did not comment on the situation on Wednesday.

She said on Monday that she had never removed a member from the party caucus before. She described the move as a "difficult decision" but said she could not provide more details at that time.

Watson's statement on Wednesday also referred to a 2018 complaint about Miller from a staffer that was resolved, but included allegations of racist and homophobic remarks.

She said it was an "explicit expectation" of the party that Miller change his behavior. "There were no public or private complaints of homophobic, racist, or Islamophobic behavior," but she referred to an independent investigation by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board that "confirmed the old pattern."

Edited by: Dima Abu Khair