Jean-Claude Rochefort was arrested in December 2019 in connection with publications and photomontages he published on the internet praising Marc Lépine, who murdered 14 women on December 6, 1989 at the École polytechnique de Montréal.
In the material he published, Jean-Claude Rochefort notably invited his audience to celebrate Saint-Marc-Lépine Day as part of the 30th anniversary of the murder.
Already accused in court in 2010 of having made death threats against women on his website, Rochefort now wrote under a pseudonym. The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) cyber investigation team nevertheless managed to locate him and arrested him again in December 2019.
He was found guilty on August 12 of intentionally inciting hatred against women.
In his ruling, Judge Pierre Labrie of the Superior Court of Quebec dismissed the defendant’s claims that his publications constituted satire, hyperbole or self-mockery.
Emphasizing the use of the words kill and kill and the use of images of firearms and decapitated women in the defendant’s publications, the judge had taken into account in his judgment that Rochefort could not escape the fact that he made statements that he was willingly inciting hatred against women.
Jean-Claude Rochefort was therefore sentenced to 12 months in prison on Friday.
“The seriousness of the crime, Mr Rochefort’s profile and the aims and principles of sentencing lead the court to conclude that 12 months imprisonment is appropriate in the circumstances. »
— A quote from the excerpt from the sentencing judgment of Judge Pierre Labrie of the Superior Court of Quebec
At the end of the hearing, Crown Prosecutor Jérôme Laflamme was satisfied. This is an offense punishable by a maximum of two years in prison and Sir received 12 months. So it’s an important sentence, commensurate with the seriousness of the content, the publications made and the hatred that this content has generated against women, he said.
And to add: it is an offense that is insidious. It’s a woman abuse offense (and here it is) another example of woman abuse that was taken seriously by the judge and court.