Your Ward News publisher LeRoy St. Germaine sentenced to 12 months of house arrest

The publisher of Your Ward News, 77-year-old LeRoy St. Germaine, was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest at hearing held Thursday, Aug. 29, in Ontario Court.

In January of this year, St. Germaine and the paper’s editor James Sears, 55, were found guilty of promoting hatred against women and members of the Jewish community.

Sears was sentenced to 12 months in jail on Thursday, Aug. 22, by Ontario Court Judge Richard Blouin.

In delivering the sentence to Sears, Blouin said he would have given Sears an even stiffer sentence had the law allowed it.

He said Sears and Your Ward News “promoted hate to a vast audience in an era where online exposure to this material inexorably leads to extremism and the potential for mass casualities.”

Judge Blouin suggested a sentence of 18 months would have been more appropriate, but one year was the maximum he could hand down.

After the sentence was delivered, Sears was led from the Toronto courtroom in handcuffs.

Earlier this week, Sears was released on bail pending an appeal of the conviction.

In sentencing St. Germaine to house arrest on Aug. 29, Judge Blouin that St. Germaine did not pose a danger to the community.

The sentence means St. Germaine will be under supervised house arrest and must remain in his home except for medical appointments and one day of shopping a week for necessities.

The Crown had seen seeking a six-month prison sentence for St. Germaine.

In a statement released on Aug. 29 after St. Germaine’s sentencing, B’nai Brith Canada’s Chief Executive officer Michael Mostyn said he mixed feelings about the ruling.

“We are disappointed that St. Germaine won’ be spending any time behind bars. However, at a time of rising extremism, this case serves as an important reminder to hate-mongers that their venom will not be tolerated in Canada,” Mostyn said in the statement.

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