“It’s like the leader of the hate mongers in the world and you suggest a three month sentence!” Judge Manlio Del Negro could not believe on Wednesday that the Crown could ask for a very lenient three-month prison sentence for an influential neo-Nazi guilty of fomenting hatred against Jews.
The crimes committed by this 36-year-old Quebecer are “extremely serious”. Under the pseudonym of Zeiger, Gabriel Sohier-Chaput was at the end of the 2010s the most prolific author of the very influential neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, a “horrible” neo-Nazi and white supremacist publication, according to the judge. In a hateful text at the heart of the trial, he urged his many readers to “take action” against Jews.
When the Crown prosecutor Me Patrick Lafrenière suggested imposing a three-month prison sentence on Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse, Judge Del Negro appeared stunned. He then listed for ten minutes more severe sentences imposed across the country in similar cases.
Surprisingly, defense attorney M.e Antonio Cabral finally rallied to the suggestion of the Crown, when he wanted to claim six months in prison at home. As both parties now support the proposal, it is a “joint suggestion”.
“What you are suggesting strikes me as being at the lower end of the applicable ranges for someone who has committed an extremely serious crime. […]. In the present context, where hatred is omnipresent throughout the world, and is spreading like a virus. And you believe, the two lawyers, that a sentence of three months incarceration is sufficient to achieve the penological objectives? “Launched Judge Del Negro, who was “highly concerned” by this sentence.
Under a recent Court of Appeal decision, the judge can hardly repudiate a “common” suggestion filed after a trial. Here, however, Judge Del Negro seemed to be seriously considering the possibility of imposing a harsher sentence. He thus officially notified the parties of his “disapproval”.
Beliefs
The judge argued that Gabriel Sohier-Chaput’s pre-sentence report was “extremely negative”. “He tried to justify his actions. He still adheres to the ideas he had in 2017, ”denounced the magistrate.
Indeed, the report concludes that Gabriel Sohier-Chaput was not “shaken [dans] his convictions “. He continues to claim that his writings were humorous – his defense at trial.
” [Sohier-Chaput] reiterates having made exaggeratedly offensive remarks to desensitize part of the population with the aim of calming the social climate, and to make the ambient discourse less polarized, an explanation which seems to us to have little credibility”, writes the author of the report.
Moreover, the offender “trivializes his behavior”, which is “worrying”, since Gabriel Sohier-Chaput states the “enjoyment” that writing brought him “things that cannot be said, because of the ‘History “.
Before the court, Gabriel Sohier-Chaput described himself as a “changed person”. “I’m a different person now,” he said. He said he regretted causing “sadness and negative emotions” in some people. “It was not my intention,” he assured. “Opportunistic” excuses, according to the judge.
“I was very political at the time. These days, I’m focusing on my career and my life. I am no longer involved in anything. It is no longer something that interests me, ”assured Gabriel Sohier-Chaput.
“Words Matter”
The neo-Nazi thinker was a leading figure in the American far-right movement in the 2010s. In his criminal text, he wrote that 2017 would be “the year of action”. He advocated “Nazism, everywhere, [non-stop nazism] until our streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies”.
“The message conveyed is the promotion of Nazism and its ideology, namely the persecution and extermination of the Jews. It incites the reader to consider the Jews as their enemies and, consequently, to dislike and want to hate them,” the judge concluded at the trial. The accused appealed the judgment.
A representative of the Jewish community testified Wednesday about the very serious consequences of such writings for Jews. “Words matter. Hatred in writing leads to violence in the real world,” said Eta Yudin, vice president at the Center for Israel-Jewish Relations Advisory.
The judge will render his judgment next September.
The story so far
January 23, 2017
Gabriel Sohier-Chaput publishes an article on the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer in which he incites hatred against Jews.
August 2017
Gabriel Sohier-Chaput participates in the famous rally of the extreme right in Charlottesville in the United States.
November 24, 2020
Gabriel Sohier-Chaput appears at the Montreal courthouse. He had been the subject of an arrest warrant for two years for a criminal charge.
January 23, 2023
He is convicted of willfully fomenting hatred against Jews.