Quebec man, 38, to face charges for online hate related to social media posts

GRANBY, Que. — A 38-year-old Quebec man appeared in court Tuesday on charges of inciting hatred and advocating genocide in connection with racist and homophobic posts on a social media account.

A judge ordered that Valentin Auclair of Granby, Que., be sent for a psychiatric evaluation to determine his fitness to stand trial, and he is due back in court Jan. 13.

Auclair faces two charges of inciting hatred against an identifiable group and one charge of advocating genocide. The charges relate to communications between July 30 and Aug. 10, 2019 and between Nov. 4, 2019 and Jan. 5, 2020.

Granby police spokeswoman Caroline Garand said police began an investigation after receiving a complaint Sunday from a Montreal resident about a local man’s posts on VK, a Russian social media site.

A junior college philosophy professor who has previously written about the far right was the first to expose the posts, writing about them on his blog Sunday, and on Monday an article appeared in the local newspaper La Voix de l’Est.

The suspect was arrested that evening at his home in the town, about 85 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

The posts in question include alleged hate speech against Muslims, Jews, blacks and homosexuals as well as several posts promoting Aryan supremacy.

There were also messages praising the murderers behind the attacks on Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique in 1989 and the Quebec City mosque in 2017.

After his writings were brought to light, the author of the posts took to the site to say he was a victim of slander and that his right to freedom of speech was being trampled.

Garand says the man is not someone previously known to the police.

David Ouellette, research and public affairs director for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Quebec, said the centre contacted authorities on Monday after seeing academic Xavier Camus’ blog post denouncing the online hatred.

Ouellette said he personally reviewed the VK publications and was “really taken aback by the breadth and scope and sheer intensity of his hatred of Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Latino, blacks, you name it.”

He said the writing is particularly troubling in the current international context of violent anti-Semitic attacks. “This is the kind of threatening language that should be taken very seriously,” he said.

The charge of advocating genocide carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while the maximum for inciting hatred is two years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press