, A self-styled Nazi hunter was before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal yesterday arguing that an alleged white supremacist -- the first he's targeted in Ottawa -- be fined and banned from spewing hate on the Internet. (
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Racist webmaster gets 6 months for hate propaganda
(CBC News, 24 January 2007)
A notorious Montreal-based white supremacist whose body is covered in racist tattoos was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail for willfully promoting hatred on a website he created.
Jean-Sébastien Presseault built and managed a website that featured racist and anti-Semitic music, documents, literature and cartoons available for download, including songs with titles such as "Skin is Black, You Make Me Sick."
Before he was arrested in 2003, Presseault's U.S.-based website received hundreds of thousands of hits, and material was downloaded from it more than 300,000 times, according to Montreal police.
Presseault has been in custody since June 2006, when he pleaded guilty to willfully promoting hatred, after he was picked up by police for uttering threats against the judge hearing his case.
On Tuesday, Quebec judge Martin Vauclair concluded Presseault, now 30, is a racist and violent man, and rejected the defence's request for a more lenient sentence to be served in the community.
Crown prosecutors sought a one-year sentence with three years' probation, but are satisfied with the six-month prison term.
"This is a sentence that sends a message, that, as judge Vauclair says in his judgment, will denounce and dissuade people to commit these crimes,"
said Thierry Nadon, a Montreal lawyer who prosecuted the case.
But anti-racist advocates were disappointed.
"If you know six months will maybe get you out in 30 days, it's maybe not a very high price to pay, so maybe you take that chance," said Moise Moghrabi, a spokesman with B'nai B'rith.
Presseault's lawyer had wanted him to serve his time outside of prison, arguing his client is a family man, with a wife and young daughter.
Presseault is the second person in Canada to be convicted and sentenced under article 319 of the Criminal Code, which deals with online hate propaganda.
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Quebec man sentenced to prison for racist website
(CTV.ca News Staff, 23 January 2007)
30-year-old neo-Nazi has become the first man in Quebec history to be sent to prison for promoting hate on the Internet.
Quebec court Judge Martin Vauclair said there is a risk Jean-Sebastient Presseault may offend again, and sentenced him to a six-month prison term Tuesday.
Presseault's website urged hatred against Jews and blacks, and Vauclair stressed he also had a violent history.
Last May, Presseault was arrested for threatening to kill a judge and possessing an illegal handgun.
Crown prosecutor Thierry Nadon had asked for a one-year sentence and said he was disgusted the website's content, which included racist cartoons and songs.
The defence lawyer had asked for a three-month sentence to be served in the community.
But Moise Moghrab of B'Nai Brith Canada said the judge's sentence was too lenient.
"(Presseault) was actively recruiting hate mongers, so I think six months will not discourage anyone like him from doing another website," he told CTV Montreal.
Presseault is only the third Canadian to be sentenced to prison for spreading hatred on the Internet, and Nadon said the courts are too lenient with such crimes.
"A maximum of two years is considered one of the least serious crimes in the Criminal Code," said Nadon.
"If we want to send a stronger message, then the maximum should be higher."
Meanwhile, legal expert Sunny Handa at the University of Montreal argued that law enforcement officials lack the resources to tackle hate websites.
"The growth is dramatic," said Handa. (Read more...)
Neo-Nazi gets six-month prison sentence in Montreal for spreading hatred
(Montreal Gazette, 23 January 2007)
MONTREAL -- A neo-Nazi who had a racist website that included songs and cartoons promoting the murder of blacks and Jews was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison.
Jean-Sebastien Presseault, 30, had pleaded guilty to promoting hatred.
Quebec court Judge Martin Vauclair acknowledged the crime was premeditated and that there is a risk that Presseault will reoffend.
However, he said he weighed the possibility of rehabilitation and noted the Internet site didn’t affect anyone directly.
Crown prosecutor Thierry Nadon had asked for a one-year sentence and the defence had suggested a three-month sentence to be served in the community.
"We have to take into consideration that the maximum is two years and two years as a maximum is one of the least serious crimes in the criminal code,"
Nadon said.
He said he was taken aback by the material on the Internet site, which included racist songs and cartoons.
"I was shocked by the cartoons," Nadon said. (Read more...)
Bid made to jail Winnicki - Human rights agency says the white supremacist broke a federal release condition.
(FREE PRESS REPORTER, 12 January 2007)
Canada's human rights commission has asked a federal appeal court to send a London white supremacist back to jail.
Tomasz Winnicki has broken a federal court condition, which was keeping him out of jail, that he not indirectly or directly contact human rights staff or Ottawa anti-racism activist Richard Warman, the Canadian Human Rights Commission argues.
Winnicki showed up at a human rights hearing into the Internet activities of former Londoner Melissa Guille in November, knowing Warman and commission staff would be there, the commission said.
His appearance came in the midst of death threats from other white supremacists against Warman and a federal court judge because of their actions involving Winnicki, the commission noted.
Given the death threats, "I became very uncomfortable and upset upon seeing him, and I feared for my safety and the safety of the commission member who was present," Warman said in an affidavit to court backing up the commission motion.
"He keeps trying to get himself back in jail," Warman added in an interview yesterday.
But Winnicki argues he had a right to show up at the public hearing and stayed as far away as he could from both Warman and the tribunal chairperson.
"The purpose and effect of my attendance was to observe a public tribunal hearing regarding legal issues of great concern to me," he said in his affidavit.
"At no time did I communicate with, contact or interfere with the privacy of Mr. (Read more...)
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