A Montreal man on trial for an antisemitic article evoking violence published on a neo-Nazi website offered the defense that it was satire aimed at goading the sensibilities of the political left.
Gabriel Sohier Chaput, 35, is charged with one count of wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group that hinges on a single piece that appeared in January 2017 on the U.S.-based website The Daily Stormer under his pseudonym Zeiger.
He pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Chaput faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
It’s been a long road to bring Chaput to justice. In 2018, the Montreal Gazette ran a series of articles about Chaput who had become the focus of anti-fascist activists. They unmasked Zeiger, a prolific contributor to the notorious Daily Stormer, as Chaput and identified him as an influential figure in the neo-Nazi movement. Footage was found of him attending the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
B’nai Brith Canada filed a complaint to Montreal police and a warrant for Chaput’s arrest was issued in November 2018. His whereabouts, however, were unknown for some time, and only in August 2020 did he make his first court appearance.
The first days of Chaput’s trial were Feb. 28 and March 1 before Quebec Court Justice Manlio Del Negro and final arguments are scheduled for March 4.
Chaput testified that he had between 800 and 1,000 pieces posted on The Daily Stormer over 2016 and 2017 under the byline Zeiger, which was corroborated by Montreal police investigators.
In a lengthy self-defense Chaput claimed his appeal for “non-stop Nazism everywhere” in the article’s opening paragraph was a “joke,” as was the following: “2017 is the year of action. We must be certain no SJW (social justice warrior) or Jews can stay safely untriggered. Nazis everywhere until our streets are flooded by the tears of our enemies.”
Chaput said he “was aware certain Jews could interpret it as being a promotion of the persecution of Jews, but that would be a wrong interpretation” because no rational person believes a massacre of Jews could happen today.
He explained that his aim was to shock those on the far left because “the Holocaust and antisemitism is the supreme evil. It’s what political correctness gives the highest support to. It’s like the sacred cow. If we want to bring down political correctness it’s necessary to touch on the Jews and antisemitism. If not, we don’t get there. That’s why we speak about it constantly. That’s the strategy.”
Chaput, a francophone who was writing in English, claimed Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin, a well-known white supremacist, modified some of the article, adding a pointedly violent passage and the illustration of an SS guard opening a gas chamber.
The article refers to a news report on the appearance at that time of Nazi symbols in Vancouver and the shock felt by an elderly Auschwitz survivor who says, “I am here. I survived.” To this, the article follows with, “Yes, for the moment.”
B’nai Brith senior human rights liaison Michal Schlesinger, a Toronto lawyer, stressed that expressions like those made by the accused should be brought to criminal court and not left to human rights tribunals because of the potential danger posed to all communities.
“It starts with Jews, Black people, Asians today, but everyone is part of a group that can be discriminated against,” she said. “Wilful promotion of hatred is something that has to be vigorously prosecuted to keep our communities and our democracies safe. Since the sort of hatred we’re talking about sets the stage for violence, it cannot be treated gingerly.”
B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn stated that, “Working to incite hatred and violence against one’s fellow citizens is utterly abhorrent and has no place in Canadian society.
“Jewish communities around the world have been repeatedly targeted and attacked in recent years because of the views and online propaganda of people like Chaput. What he did must not be taken lightly in the eyes of the law.”
