Montreal Court Convicts Canadian Neo-Nazi of Antisemitic Incitement
Canadian neo-Nazi Gabriel Sohier Chaput. Photo: Screenshot
A court in Montreal has found a Canadian neo-Nazi guilty of fomenting hatred against Jews, taking the unusual step of holding him in custody prior to sentencing on the grounds that he is a flight risk.
Gabriel Sohier Chaput, a 36-year-old neo-Nazi activist, was deemed by judge Manlio Del Negro to have “actively promoted” antisemitic hatred in his writings.
“Not only does [his writing] foment hatred, but it incites and encourages readers to take action,” Del Negro wrote in his opinion.
The article in question was published by Sohier Chaput in 2017 in the Daily Stormer, a white supremacist outlet. Sohier Chaput wrote more than 800 articles for the site using the pseudonym “Zeiger”, the court heard, making him one of its more prolific contributors.
In the article, Sohier Chaput pledged that 2017 would be a “year of action” that would result in “Nazism everywhere, until the streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies.” Del Negro was unconvinced by Sohier Chaput’s claim that the article was intended to be “humorous and ironic,” arguing that the defendant’s justifications were “specious, insincere, opportunistic, misleading, far-fetched, implausible, concealing the truth and cobbled together to conceal the true intention of the defendant.”
The judge also criticized Sohier Chaput’s denial and distortion of the Holocaust. “Even 77 years after the end of the Second World War, that we still persist today in trivializing the role that Nazism played towards the Jews during the Holocaust, and in continuing to harass them, is profoundly shocking,” Del Negro said to applause in the courtroom.
Over the objections of Sohier Chaput’s lawyer Hélène Poussard, Del Negro ordered her client to be held in custody in advance of sentencing, saying that his crime was “contrary to the values of our society” and warning that he could flee or continue to promote hatred through the use of a pseudonym.
Jewish leaders welcomed the court’s decision. “The message is really clear: you can’t explain hate with humor or aversion. When you try to incite hatred, it will be dealt with and punished,” Eta Yudin of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) told the Quebec news outlet Le Devoir.