Alleged Montreal neo-Nazi testifies his online writing intended as humour, not hate

An alleged neo-Nazi known online as "Zeiger" testified in his own defence at his trial Tuesday, saying his online content was intended as satire and "irony that isn't irony," rather than hate.

Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, 35, who freely admits to being a right-wing nationalist, appeared before Quebec court Judge Manlio Del Negro at the Montreal courthouse. He said his writing was designed to "disarm" people on the left, who are "too sensitive."

"The goal was that in the future when someone calls you a Nazi you can say, 'Oh, like the people at the Daily Stormer who use pictures of frogs? That's ridiculous,'" he said.

Sohier-Chaput has pleaded not guilty to a single count of wilful promotion of hate propaganda against Jewish people.

He has admitted that as Zeiger, he contributed to the Daily Stormer between 2016 and 2017 and wrote part of the article at the centre of this case, entitled "Canada: Nazis Trigger Jews By Putting Up Posters On Ch--k Church," using a racial slur to refer to the Asian community.

Using antisemitic memes and editorial comments, the article celebrated neo-Nazi posters pasted on a bus stop in British Columbia, insulting a Holocaust survivor who had been interviewed about the incident. The 91-year-old man said seeing the posters reminded him of being a target of racial slurs as a child in Hungary.

"Here I am: I made it," the man told Global News. "For now," the Daily Stormer's article added.

Sohier-Chaput said some of the inflammatory comments and images had been added by Daily Stormer editor Andrew Anglin after he sent Anglin a draft.

Sohier-Chaput said he chose to republish that article with commentary because he found it absurd that journalists chose to interview a Holocaust survivor after posters claiming Nazism was the key to Canada were put on a bus stop.

He said people who would read his articles and feel encouraged to participate in Nazism "don't exist in real life" and "Nazis who want to do ethnic cleansing and want a full-blown Holocaust don't actually exist."

"It's a Hollywood invention," he said.

However, he acknowledged someone could read his article and interpret it as inciting persecution of Jews, and he admitted part of his goal was to offend, but not promote hate.

"We need to make sure no SJW [social justice warrior] or Jew can remain safely untriggered," Sohier-Chaput admitted to writing in his article. "Non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies."

He said the Daily Stormer uses humour, irony, sarcasm and jokes to fight back against the far left. He said those on the left are led by their emotions and invoke the Holocaust and the words "fascism" and "Nazism" to put down people on the right. He said his purpose was to make fun of that approach.