Canadian Anti-Feminist Jailed for ‘Promoting Hatred Against Women’

A Canadian anti-feminist blogger charged with “promoting hatred against women” appeared in court on Thursday to ask a Quebec judge to grant his request to post bail.

Officers arrested Jean-Claude Rochefort, 70, at his home last week, according to a press release issued by Montreal police.

“If we speak out against feminism, we go to jail,” Rochefort told Judge Serge Delisle on Thursday.

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“All my life, I was afraid of the feminist power, there is always this fear of the Quebec man to lose our jobs, our privileges.”

Rochefort’s attorney said his client has no history of violence and should be granted bail, according to Canada’s CTV News.

Prosecutors in the case argued Rochefort should not be allowed to post bail.

“Mr. Rochefort uses the collective wound to spread a message to say, essentially, that [the Polytechnique Massacre] was a good thing,” prosecutor Josiane Laplante told the court.

Rochefort is accused of celebrating Polytechnique shooter Marc Lepine, the perpetrator of a mass killing in Dec. 1989 that left 14 women dead.

Lepine said he was motivated to commit the grisly act because he was “fighting feminism.”

Rochefort allegedly used a pseudonym to praise Lepine on his blog, authorities said.

In blog posts, Rochefort has allegedly called feminism a “cancer” and said women should be “assassinated” if they refuse to be exiled from society with men.

Police searched Rochefort’s Montreal home on Thursday and seized computer equipment as evidence.

Authorities said Rochefort would remain in jail at least until his bail hearing on Monday.

Rochefort was arrested in 2009 on similar charges and sentenced to community service, according to CTV News.

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Rochefort is being charged under a 2017 amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code, which criminalizes “hate propaganda” against individuals because of their sex, gender identity or gender expression.

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