‘I think you should stop talking,’ judge tells lawyer debating meaning of Nazism

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The defence lawyer representing Montrealer Gabriel Sohier Chaput, who is on trial for wilfully promoting hatred, claimed the Holocaust was an “economical solution.”

Author of the article:

Jason Magder • Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

Jul 08, 2022 • 2 days ago • 4 minute read • 18 Comments

Gabriel Sohier Chaput, seen at the Montreal courthouse in February 2022, has testified his writings on a neo-Nazi website were not meant to be taken seriously. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

The trial of a Montrealer accused of hate speech devolved Friday into a bizarre debate over whether the Nazis were responsible for the Holocaust.

In court, the defence lawyer representing Gabriel Sohier Chaput, who is on trial on a charge of fomenting hate, insisted the Holocaust was merely an “economical solution.”

“The Nazis didn’t originally intend to kill millions of Jews in concentration camps,” defence lawyer Hélène Poussard said in court. “It was a solution that someone close to Hitler came up with in order to save money. It was cheaper to gas these people than to (deport them). They were brought to camps to take their things, but the idea to gas them was strictly economical. That’s what I learned in school. What do you want me to say? I’m not trying to shock people, and maybe I’m wrong.

“For me, it’s clear that Jews were killed in concentration camps, by Germans, but were these Germans Nazis? Yes. Maybe. But that doesn’t necessarily mean when we use the term Nazi, that’s what it means.”

Poussard added she didn’t believe that Nazis, the political party of Adolf Hitler, were behind the Holocaust. She said the term Nazi merely refers to a national socialist, and the original intention of the party was not to exterminate Jews.

“I think you should stop talking; you are saying things that go against what is reasonable,” Judge Manlio Del Negro told Poussard in court.

The debate began because Crown prosecutor Patrick Lafrenière argued in his closing statements the judge could take for granted that when Sohier Chaput referred to “non-stop Nazism” in his writings, he was referring to persecution and violence against Jews, as it is well known the Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust against the Jewish people, exterminating six million over the course of the Second World War.

Del Negro, however, said Lafrenière made an error in not calling a witness to properly explain the concept of “Nazism,” and that’s why the lawyers were not able to agree on the term Friday.

Protester Sao sits outside the Montreal courthouse on the final day of the trial for alleged neo-Nazi ideologue and propagandist Gabriel Sohier Chaput in Montreal on Friday, July 8, 2022. The Montréal Antifasciste collective held an anti-Nazi protest outside the courthouse from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Chaput is on trial for hate speech. Photo by John Kenney /Montreal Gazette

Lafrenière concluded his closing arguments Friday, saying Sohier Chaput knew he was spreading hate when he posted an article on the Daily Stormer website.

Sohier Chaput knew by invoking the Holocaust and “non-stop Nazism” he wasn’t merely being offensive, but fomenting hate against an identifiable group — an indictable offence that comes with a maximum two-year prison sentence, Lafrenière argued.

“He posted to a site, the Daily Stormer, that was clearly visible to the general public, and was clearly an instrument of spreading hate,” he said.

Lafrenière said anyone reading Sohier Chaput’s remarks can conclude he was spreading a hateful message against Jews.

While Lafrenière made his arguments, a protest was held outside the courthouse by a group denouncing the authorities’ handling of the investigation into Sohier Chaput.

Montréal Antifasciste called the process a “botched police investigation and a poorly prepared prosecution, which is all the more galling given the overwhelming mass of evidence already assembled by journalists from the Montreal Gazette.”

A former IT consultant, Sohier Chaput was the focus of a series of Gazette articles in 2018 that described him as one of North America’s most prominent neo-Nazis.

The series reported he hosted meetings for neo-Nazis in Montreal and attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a right-wing extremist drove his vehicle into a crowd and killed a 32-year-old counter-protester.

Writing under the name Zeiger, Sohier Chaput was the Daily Stormer’s second-most prolific contributor. He faces a charge of wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group, stemming from a 2017 article warning it “will be the year of action.”

“We need to make sure no (social justice warrior) or Jew can remain safely untriggered,” the article read. “Non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies.”

The trial resumed Friday after beginning in March, when Poussard said Sohier Chaput’s writings may have been repugnant, but he had the right to make them under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Hate speech will often blame the targeted group for something, like the Jews were responsible for the World Trade Center attacks. Mr. Sohier (Chaput) didn’t do this,” Poussard argued.

She added writings can be considered criminal if a reasonable person reading them is incited to act out against the targeted group. That was not the case with the writings in question, Poussard said.

She pointed out that among the 800 to 1,000 articles Sohier Chaput wrote, prosecutors were able to use only one as the basis for criminal charges.

Testifying in his defence, Sohier Chaput said his writings were exaggerations and were not meant to be taken seriously.

Montréal Antifasciste said whatever the verdict, it’s up to all citizens to root out hate.

“We must deny Nazis, white supremacists and other fascists space to grow and develop,” the group wrote.

The parties will be back in court on Aug. 29 to set the next court date.

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