James Sears (l) and Leroy St. Germaine were convicted of demonizing women and Jews in their Toronto newspaper ‘Your Ward News.’ Photo: Screenshot.

The one-year sentence handed down on Thursday by a Canadian court against the editor of an antisemitic publication was praised as a “clear message” that spreading hatred would not be tolerated, a statement released by B’nai Brith Canada, a leading Jewish advocacy organization, declared.

James Sears and LeRoy St. Germaine, respectively the editor and publisher of Your Ward News, were convicted in January of  “willful promotion of hatred” against women and Jews. Justice Richard Blouin sentenced Sears to one year in prison, the maximum for the crime.

The trial earlier this year heard how in editions published between 2015-18, YWN demonized feminists as “dangerous people” and called women “tri-orificed chattels.” An enthusiastic purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories, the paper was also filled with articles denying the Holocaust and blaming Jews for the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks in the United States.

St. Germaine is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

The government had asked for a one-year sentence for Sears and a six-month sentence for St. Germaine.

“This strong sentence was necessary to send a clear message — that repeated and remorseless attempts to spread hate in Canadian society will not be tolerated,” Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada said in reaction to the sentencing.

He added, “The punishment fits the crime, and should help to deter similar hateful publications today and in the future.”

Blouin said that he wanted to sentence Sears to a year and a half, but was limited by the law to just twelve months.

Your Ward News may continue to publish as long as it does not violate the law, the judge said.