The Court imposed a 15-month prison sentence on Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, found guilty of fomenting hatred against Jews “in a premeditated manner.” » In a rare gesture, the judge rejected out of hand the common suggestion of three months of incarceration proposed by the Crown and defense lawyers.
Such a sentence would be contrary to the public interest and would trivialize the offense, declared Judge Manlio Del Negro of the Court of Quebec, delivering his judgment orally on Friday at the Montreal courthouse.
The population should not see this as another example of the proverbial “sweet sentence”, especially here where the offender’s actions are “highly reprehensible” and when six years later, he “adheres steadfastly to his hateful ideology.” »
“It is difficult to conceive of an offense which transgresses the fundamental values of Quebec and Canadian society more than that of fomenting hatred,” continued the magistrate, who had to justify why he exceptionally deviated from the lawyers’ common suggestion.
The 36-year-old Montrealer was found guilty last January. At the heart of his criminal trial was a 2017 article written for the neo-Nazi and white supremacist website The Daily Stormer.
Under the pseudonym “Zeiger”, he wrote that 2017 would be “the year of action”. “We must ensure that no social justice warrior or Jew can remain in peace. » He also called for “continued Nazism [non-stop nazism] everywhere, until the streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies.”
Although the offender stood trial for a single article, he was one of the most prolific contributors to the Daily Stormerhaving written between 800 and 1000 contributions in two years.
Writings that give “goosebumps,” commented Judge Del Negro in his decision.
“You could say he acted as a hate influencer. »
He was “not a weirdo who posts offensive messages out of the blue on social networks”: Sohier-Chaput wrote his numerous messages “in an intelligent, articulate, structured and premeditated manner through the site of the Daily Stormer, urging its readers to despise and mistreat people of the Jewish faith and to take action through violence.
His attempts to pass off his publications as “humorous remarks which should not be taken literally” did not convince the judge.
From the day of observations on the sentence, in July, the magistrate had expressed his disapproval of the common suggestion of three months of incarceration. A member of the public would be shocked and stunned by such a sentence, he argued in his judgment on Friday: “their arms would drop,” he illustrated. He seems surprised that the public prosecutor proposed such a sentence: “the Court is of the opinion that it [le procureur de la Couronne] failed to appreciate the immense seriousness of the offense that the offender committed and its harmful repercussions on the community. »
The judge refused to be moved by the remorse expressed by the offender: they did not seem sincere to him, but rather “opportunistic”, that is to say to paint a favorable image of him in order to obtain a more favorable sentence. light.
Because even today, he expresses neither regret nor remorse towards his victims. His only regrets are for his loved ones who were affected by the criminal proceedings brought against him, the judge ruled harshly.
In the age of the Internet, which makes it possible to broadcast quickly and on a large scale, anyone must be dissuaded from spreading such hateful speech, rules Judge Del Negro, who believes that it is up to him to send a clear message that speech of hatred have no place in the world and that “this message must be heard loud and clear. »
In addition to his 15 months in prison, Sohier-Chaput received three years’ probation and a total ban from writing on social media or any other type of publication. The offender always has the possibility of appealing this sentence.