A Quebec court judge said Friday that the prosecution of a Montreal man accused of spreading hatred against Jews failed to establish that the killing of Jews by Adolf Hitler’s regime was the result of Nazi ideology.
The case involves 35-year-old Gabriel Sohier Chaput, who faces a case of intentionally promoting hate in relation to an article he published in 2017 on the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer. The blog post included racist images and comments about Jews, and the website displayed pictures of Hitler and other images associated with Nazism.
Prosecutor Patrick Lafrenier said it was common knowledge that the Daily Stormer was a far-right website and that Nazi ideology directly murdered millions of Jews.
But Judge Manlio del Negro was not satisfied. “You (Mr.) Lafrenière, did not offer an expert opinion,” the judge said.
“The Crown is asking a lot,” said Del Negro. “You are making arguments which have not been put into evidence (…) I cannot believe that doing what you are asking me to do does not prejudicially affect the accused.”
Sohier Chaput’s defense attorney, Helen Possard, jumped into the discussion by telling the judge that, “Today, Nazism is used to describe everything. We mix the Holocaust with Nazism.”
Pussard said that, “It is not because the Jews were exterminated that it was part of the ideology.” He then suggested that Jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps “to save money”.
The judge reprimanded him: “You have crossed the limit!” They said.
Then the judge turned to Lafrenier. “You see, (Mr.) Lafreniere, it’s your fault. It would have been easy to prove that the Daily Stormer was a far-right site. It would have been easier to bring in a historian to prove that Nazism was behind the extermination of the Jews. “
Both sides agreed to return to court on August 29 to set a date for a debate on whether it is common knowledge that the Daily Stormer is a far-right website and that Nazism actually led to the Holocaust.
Earlier on Friday, Lafrenière made his closing arguments, attempting to demonstrate that the text by Sohier Chaput and the context in which it was published was abhorrent. The article said 2017 will be the year of “non-stop Nazism everywhere”.
“You have to take the context into account,” Lafrenier said. “Nazism is the greatest expression of hatred for the Jews.”
The article’s derogatory comments, its offensive tone and description of Jews as “our enemies”, the lawyer said, are “likely to foster hatred” against the Jewish community.
Pussard gave his closing arguments in March, stating that his client was being ironic and trying to make his readers laugh.
Meanwhile, Sohier Chaput testified during the trial that the Daily Stormer was a “parody site”.
Lafrenière said Friday that the site is a serious website in all respects and is not intended to be a joke.
Sohier Chaput, who wrote under the pen name of Zeiger, published nearly 1,000 articles on The Daily Stormer, making him one of the site’s most prolific contributors.
Lafrenier said the accused had written the entire article and that some of the derogatory words used for Jewish people were not added by an editor, as claimed by Sohier Chaput.
About 40 protesters affiliated with the anti-fascist movement were in front of the Montreal Courthouse to express a lack of confidence in the judicial system “to counter the effects of the far-right and fascist threat”.
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