The NY Daily News reports that a neo-Nazi leader is planning to defend himself against hate crime charges by proving his bigoted comments on white supremacist websites are factually correct, his defense attorney says.
Former Canadian math lecturer Terry Tremaine has been charged with 11 criminal counts for posting messages online declaring that Jews are “a parasitic race,” “blacks are intellectually inferior to whites,” and “Hitler was a lot nicer to the Jews than they deserved.”
Saskatchewan’s Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Frederick Kovach has ruled that Tremaine can revisit extremist, hate spouting online forums to seek information which would support his defense, which is to show taht his viewpoints are borne out by truth.
Terrence Cecil Tremaine (born in Regina, Saskatchewan in July 20, 1948 – Happy birthday!) is the founder and national director of the National-Socialist Party of Canada.
“The former math lecturer — who is usually confined to sharing his creepy Hitler-boosting and white power messages in shadowy (and equally creepy) web sites with no credibility — will now be treated to a highly publicized trial in a respectable courtroom in which he will be able to air his nasty views for all the country to hear and read about in great detail in mainstream newspapers and newscasts,” writes Marni Soupcoff in the national Post, adding: “This does not strike me as a positive development.”
Adrian Humphreys, writing for Anti-Racist Canada, cites Tremaine’s lawyer Doug Christie, who told the press: “They are holding Mr. Tremaine accountable for thousands upon thousands of thousands of statements of fact, statements of opinion, statements of mixed fact and opinion.”
“Some of them — some of them — not all of them [but] certainly some of the facts are verifiable,” the attorney said. “Consequently, there are many possible defenses,” including truth.
Judge Kovach imposed some restrictions on the neo-Nazi’s “research”:
“Mr. Tremaine may only post questions pertaining to research for the preparation of his defense,” the order reads, adding that each message must first be vetted by the Crown prosecutor in the case. A notation of the court order must precede all messages and conclude with: “Please address only the question if possible, as I cannot engage in discussions of any other nature.”
Just to conclude this really depressing report on a cheerful note, here’s the Blues Brothers’ immortal clip: “I hate Illinois Nazis.”