(Sudbury, Ontario) A Northern Ontario candidate running for a seat in Canada’s parliament could find himself sitting in jail instead, after telling high school students that gays should be executed.

Sudbury police are investigating David Popescu under Canada’s hate crime law, which makes it a federal offense to promote hatred or incite violence against minorities, including gays and lesbians.

Popescu was one of a number of candidates invited to participate in a question and answer session with students at Sudbury Secondary School.

He made the remark after a student asked him for his opinion of same-sex marriage which became legal in Canada in 2004.

People who were in the room said that students jeered Popescu when he made that comment and others, including blaming the economic downturn and environmental damage on the wickedness of society and that, “God would hurt” those who had an abortion.

Reporters were not in the room when Popescu made the remark. But contacted later by The Sudbury Star newspaper, he repeated the comment about gays.

“A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages and I said I think homosexuals should be executed,” he told the paper. “My whole reason for running is the Bible, and the Bible couldn’t be more clear on that point,” he told the paper.

“We are actively conducting a criminal investigation in this matter,” Sudbury Deputy Police Chief Frank Elsner told The Star.

Elsner said the information will be turned over to the Ontario Attorney General’s office to determine if a charge will be laid.

Popescu is known in the region for his far-right views, but a spokesperson for the city’s LGBT community said this time he went too far.

“He’s not simply saying that lesbians or gay men are mentally ill or somehow deviant or criminals. He’s saying we should be subject to the death penalty,” Gary Kinsman told The Star. “I think sometimes violence and hatred towards gays and lesbians gets dressed up in sort of a religious guise and is somehow tolerated. I just don’t think it should be tolerated at all.”

Canadians go to the polls Oct. 14 to elect a new government.