Guilty as Charged

"In the final analysis, the court does not retain the hodgepodge of explanations provided by Gabriel Sohier Chaput about his writings."

"[The court] rejects his entire account, because his explanations leave no doubt. The court finds that the explanations provided are specious, insincere, opportunistic, deceptive, far-fetched, implausible, concealers of the truth, and were cobbled together to conceal the true intention of the accused."

"[Sohier Chaput] intentionally promoted hatred, through the Daily Stormer platform, against people of Jewish faith."

"The evidence in this regard is overwhelming. In closing, allow [myself] to make the following observation: the victims [Jews and other groups] of the Holocaust and also the victims of other genocides perpetrated throughout history, as well as their families deserve to be left in peace. The suffering they have been put through is inexpressible and defies the meaning of humanity."

Quebec Court Judge Manlio Del Negro, Montreal

"We need to make sure no [social justice warrior] or Jew can remain safely untriggered."

"[2017] will be the year of action."

"Non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies."

'Zeiger' aka Sohier Chaput, Dailu Stormer

Gabriel Sohier Chaput aka 'Zeiger'

A series of articles published by the Montreal Gazette in 2018 described Gabriel Sohier Chaput as one of North America's most prominent writers on the Daily Stormer, an infamous, race-baiting, antisemitic rag of a far-right news website. Sohier Chaput was linked in the articles to the Zeiger pseudonym he signed off with when publishing hundreds of articles on the website of the Daily Stormer where it was pointed out that he organized meetings for a local neo-Nazi group.

The publishing of the Montreal Gazette articles in a display of investigative journalism uncovering the  presence and influence of a coterie of neo-Nazis and fascists actively working to denigrate, demonize, slander and harass Jews and their institutions led B'nai Brith Canada to file a complaint to the Montreal police. This led to a warrant being issued for the man's arrest in 2018.

 

Andrew Anglin, Founder, Daily Stormer

Sohier Chaput was charged under the Criminal Code with willful promotion of hatred "by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, [that] willfully promote hatred against any identifiable group". On conviction, the charge carries a maximum penalty of a two-year sentence in prison. When the trial began a year ago, Helene Poussard, the defence lawyer, stated that while her client was guilty of having posted between 800 and 1,000 items under the Zeiger pseudonym he was within his constitutional rights.

 

His writings were repugnant, stressed the lawyer, but he had a right to post them under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Her argument failed to impress Justice Del Negro, who ordered that Sohier Chaput be taken into custody. Since the warrant was issued for his arrest in 2018 he had never been earlier detained. "There is nothing ironic in the fact that millions of Jewish people and others were exterminated during the Holocaust orchestrated by the Nazis ... it is one of the saddest events in the history of humanity."

 

Members of the Montreal Antifascist collective protested outside of the courthouse Friday, as closing arguments resumed in the hate propaganda trial of Gabriel Sohier-Chaput. The 35-year-old Montreal man appeared in court by video conference. (Radio-Canada)

 

The Shameful Conduct of the Canadian Military

"Do we have a clear expression of CAF policy toward this group [the Azov Battalion]?" 

"This may or may not prompt questions, but we need to be ready and not come across as being taken by surprise.”

Chris Henderson, then assistant deputy minister for public affair

 

"In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West, to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination and instruction in irregular warfare."

Soufan Report

 

“Given the fact that the [Latvian SS] fought for a victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in history, and that among those serving in it were active participants in the mass murder of Latvian Jewry, as well as of German and Austrian Jews deported by the Nazis to Riga, such comments are incomprehensible, let alone deeply offensive, coming from a senior minister of a country with full membership in the European Union and NATO."

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center

A news broadcast by German ZDF station showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion with nazi symbols on their helmets. Photo by Files /ZDF station

 Once again the Canadian Armed Forces' top brass has been revealed to be strangely oblivious to the fallout of matters they engage in without due thought to appropriate behaviour and their consequences. The Canadian public has been treated to a full-throated cry of desperation from female CAF members who have suffered sexual harassment and violence and when they bring the situation to the attention of military authorities, the issue is set aside, the victims of sexual violence left to steam in frustration, their abusers free to continue their upward trajectory toward leadership.

More latterly, the public has been reminded once again of the unsavoury contacts the Canadian Armed Forces leadership, along with government diplomats engage in through casual and personal contact with self-declared admirers of fascism and neo-Nazis abroad. Canada has a 'special' relationship with Ukraine through Canada's membership in NATO which has pledged to protect Ukraine from the intentions of the Kremlin to re-forge a union with Ukraine which the current government of Ukraine has no interest in and which Moscow has pursued with a vengeance.

Another factor in Canada's commitment to military partnership with Ukraine is the lobbying presence of large number of Ukrainian-Canadians urging a more firm alliance between Canada and Ukraine. An incidental but telling issue took place a few years ago when the Russian Embassy in Canada brought to the light of day, Canada's then-minister of Foreign Affairs and currently deputy Prime Minister and heir apparent to head the Liberal government's Ukrainian heritage. Chrystia Freeland's grandfather, it was revealed, was an ardent Nazi collaborator as the editor of a Ukrainian newspaper during WWII.

In his newspaper, Nazi propaganda found its place, along with vicious anti-Semitic sentiments; in no small measure doing his part in aiding and abetting fascist Germany in its dehumanization of European Jewry on their way to total genocide. So the Ukrainian community in Canada, has great influence in the country. However, since Canada is a country comprised of immigrant populations, a great congregation of people from all over the world, so too do Chinese-Canadians, Indian-Canadians, Italian-Canadians and other ethnic/cultural groups have influence, as they should, as Canadians.

In the latest revelations it would appear that Canadian officials and members of the military met with and were briefed by leaders from the Ukrainian Azov Battalion; neither the officers nor the diplomats involved voiced any objection to the meeting although they were briefed befirehand that they would be meeting with overt Nazi sympathizers. Photographs were taken of the meeting, which were used for propaganda purposes by the Azov Battalion online, stating that the Canadian delegation had expressed "hopes for further fruitful cooperation".

 

The Canadian Forces have decided, as a result of public embarrassment when an Ottawa newspaper revealing the unsavoury aspects of CAF interactions with foreign military forces, to mount a review of the issue. A review undertaken in response to the latest revelations of Canadian diplomats and military personnel meeting with Azov Battalion members while in Ukraine; a decision that arrived just as a Jewish group in Ukraine circulated a new video of Ukrainian paratroopers singing a song to honour Stepan Bandera who was an infamous anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator whose group was linked to the mass murder of over 100,000 Jews and Poles during the Second World War.

 

These new revelations fold neatly into the near past when senior Canadian Forces leaders took a pass on condemning glorification of Nazi collaborators in Latvia and Ukraine, where Canadian troops are conducting training sessions. The Latvian Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks publicly praised members of the Latvian SS who fought for the Nazis, proudly stating them to be "the pride of the Latvian people and of the state" and that his country would not "allow anyone to discredit their memory".

As a friend of Pabriks, then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan refused to comment, much less to condemn glorification of the SS unit. Canadian generals saw no reason to break their silence, at the 2019 event and declaration. The Latvian SS included personnel who took part in the wholesale murder of Jews during the Holocaust. Members of the unit were among the last defenders of the Nazi regime in Berlin.

Members of the Azov Battalion attend a protest against local elections in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine in Kyiv on May 20, 2016.   Reuters

 

Just coincidentally, as though underscoring the lax attitude and moral and ethical failings of the military hierarchy in Canada and government leaders disinterestedly overseeing their conduct in such matters, Canada’s training mission to Iraq was brought under scrutiny when it was revealed that Canadian soldiers complained in 2018 to their commanders that among the Iraqi troops they were training were war criminals who enjoyed sharing videos of their atrocities, including executing prisoners and raping a woman to death.

Truth and Consequences

Patrik Mathews, (RCMP Manitoba/Reuters)

"I did not hear any particular apology to our country. to me, it's galling to think someone who's not an American would know better than us what kind of country we should have here and decide that you hate America so much you're going to infiltrate our country and tear it down."

"In the letter you submitted, you didn't necessarily inspire confidence that you've changed to the point that there's no longer a threat of violence from  you."

"Nevertheless, you have stated that all you want to do is go back to Canada and live a normal life. We all hope that is something that will happen once you serve this sentence."

"[...Conversations, text exchanges and planning represented more than merely] wishes and hopes and far-flung fantasies [of a pair of] wide-eyed neophytes."

"They were specific, serious and calculating in the actions they intended to perpetrate."

District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.

Former Manitoba army reservist Patrik Mathews has been sentenced to nine years in prison for his involvement in what the FBI called a neo-Nazi plot to start a race war in the United States.CBC

Nine years in prison for former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews, 28, for his role in a plot to exploit escalating U.S. social tensions in the hopes of triggering a "race war", in the assessment of the FBI. A resident of Beausejour in Manitoba, he excused himself for his ill judgement when "I got involved with the wrong people". As though the choice to connect himself with the white supremacist group The Base was an incidental error for which he was not seriously at fault. He had no idea, he claimed, of the depth and seriousness of their intended actions.

Judge Chuang, after reviewing all the evidence presented to him, and carefully reading through the letter submitted by Patrik Mathews exonerating himself and blaming a misunderstanding on his part, took due consideration of both the defence and the prosecution positions on the punishment to be meted out to the terror-by-accidental-affiliation chastened man who was, he claimed, innocent of any intent to carry out any acts of violence.

Apart from the sentence of 9 years in prison for his lapse in judgement, there is an additional penalty of three years of supervised release once his prison term is completed. And when justice has been served, he will be deported back to Canada. Both Matthews and his co-defenant, U.S. army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr., pleaded guilty to weapons charges associated with the plot to precipitate a clash between police and thousands of heavily armed gun control protesters, in Richmond, Virginia.. 

 

In August 2019, Brian Lemley and William Bilbrough attended a training camp for neo-Nazi group The Base. Lemley is standing second from left, holding a long gun in the air. Bilbrough is kneeling in the centre while holding a blade. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)

 

The defence had petitioned the court for location to a prison facility in Minnesota so their client would be located closer to his family in Manitoba.  Originally, he informed the court he believed The Base was committed to ideals that were less extreme, focusing on immigration controls. He characterized the work of The Base as "horrifically and disastrously wrong", though it might have been seen by him to be good, clean fun at the time.

 

He could have been given a sentence up to 25 years in prison, in reflection of the "terrorism enhancement" provision requested by the prosecution. On the other hand, the defense counsel argued a sentence of less than three years, for after all the defendants' plan ultimately was never carried out. Contrastingly, his crimes, prosecutors argued, were serious and his motives even more so.

 

During a search of the apartment Mathews shared with one of the co-accused, law enforcement agents found videos of Mathews saying violent, anti-Semitic and racist things. (U.S. Attorney detention memo)

 

Court had been presented with ample evidence of the plot unfolding, where the two spoke in terms of killing federal officials, derailing trains and poisoning water supplies; all part of a violent scheme to disrupt and exploit political and social tensions in the hopes of triggering a race war in the U.S. Another co-defendant, William Garfield Bilbrough IV, also pleaded guilty to assisting Mathews to enter the U.S. illegally, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The heavily incriminating evidence that came to light was gathered through FBI wiretaps, "sneak-and-peek" warrants, and the cooperation of undercover officers. As all too often happens in cases of this nature, Patrik Mathews' father described his son as a man with a good heart but a troubled soul, who had suffered as a child from being pushed around by schoolyard bullies, resulting in an attitude of social alienation.

Mounties found this handwritten list of mass shootings when they executed a search warrant at Mathews' Beausejour, Man., residence in August 2019. The list included the year, number of people dead and whether the shooter was on medication. (U.S. prosecution sentencing memorandum)