Ont. man’s sentence for advocating genocide not long enough, Jewish groups say

A Brantford man was convicted for threatening Jews. But as CTV’s Jeff Pickel reports, one group said his sentence isn’t enough.

A Brantford man is free after serving just under two years in jail for hate crimes.

Leslie Bory, 55, was convicted earlier this year of “advocating genocide, promotion of hate” and two counts of uttering threats.

A Brantford court heard that Bory used various social media channels to spread messages of hate and violence towards the Jewish community, police and politicians.

According to the Crown, Bory also laid out a blueprint to kill Jewish people through his podcast and online videos.

“The amount of content he made that was hateful is highly aggravating,” the Crown prosecutor said. “He made hours and hours of video over several years. All of these videos had the same goal in mind, to convince others that Jewish people needed to be killed.”

The Crown recommended Bory serve a total sentence of seven years. They asked for the maximum of five years for advocating genocide, plus one year for promoting hate and six months for each count of uttering threats.

Justice James Ramsay admonished Bory for his crimes, saying: “every Canadian is a victim” and “a poison has been injected into our public discourse.”

Bory, he added, attempted to spread his message through social media but was not successful at gaining a wide audience.

“Over a two-year period, the accused hosted hours and hours of mind-numbingly boring podcasts, which was followed by an average of 200 people,” Justice Ramsay said.

The defense asked the judge for a sentence of time served.

Bory’s sentence

After weighing Bory’s pre-trial custody and incarceration, which was called “difficult” due to multiple assaults and overcrowding, the judge ruled that time served was sufficient.

Bory spent a total of 23 months in jail pre-trail. His time served was credited as 1.5 days for every day of incarceration so, in total, Bory was credited for 35 months served.

Jewish groups advocate for change

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights group, were unhappy with Bory’s sentence.

“I would say that this case is really indicative of a failure of our justice system, more broadly, to hold hate criminals accountable,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, the senior director of policy and advocacy for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

She said they filed the initial police complaint against Bory after viewing some of his posts.

“We’re talking about an individual here who laid out, over long periods of time, a blueprint for committing acts of mass violence and genocide towards a minority group here in Canada.”

Kirzner-Roberts worries the sentence does not do enough to deter and denounce these crimes.

“Individuals like Mr. Bory, involved in very dangerous activities, are getting away with a slap on the wrist,” she said.

Currently, the act of advocating genocide has a maximum sentence of five years and no minimum sentence.

The Jewish human rights group, B’rnai Brith, are also advocating for a mandatory minimum and longer maximum.

“We believe that is something that needs to change,” said Richard Robertson, the organization’s director of research and advocacy. “When someone is calling for the eradication of Canadian society, there needs to be a sentence that serves as a deterrent against those who wish to commit this crime in the future.”

Firearms ban

Court heard that Bory and his wife had several firearms and were part of the target shooting community.

So, in addition to time served, Bory was given a firearms ban and cannot live in a home where firearms are present.

Justice Ramsay said: “[Bory] is going to have to find a new hobby.”