A local would-be politician who spouted hours of hateful rhetoric online has been found guilty on four charges, including threatening Jews, police, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre.
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Leslie Bory. 55. was found guilty by a jury of 11 people on Wednesday after a trial where hours of his video ramblings were played and Bory himself addressed the jury in long speeches that touched on global politics, Zionists, swastikas, COVID-19, masking and the World Economic Forum.
“He has a wide range of grievances,” said defense lawyer Ian McCuaig in his closing submissions.
“He uses a lot of really inflammatory language,” McCuaig admitted, but he noted it was important to hear Bory’s comments in the context of his listeners, who voluntarily went to Bory’s YouTube and then BitChute channel to hear his rants.
“His evidence (at the trial) was that ‘No one ever listened to me’ and there’s no evidence that a single person ever acted out on his statements. He’s been saying these things for years.”
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Bory testified earlier this week that his speeches that accused leaders and groups of being pedophiles, referred to COVID vaccines as the “Jew-jab” and said the Holocaust was the ‘holo-hoax’ were “theater” designed to get more viewers to his videos.
But assistant Crown attorney Armin Sethi disagreed, saying Bory had recorded “two years of hate” in relentless, repetitive messages.
“It is clear Leslie Bory had a specific intention to advocate for genocide against Jewish people,” said Sethi.
“His words, his videos, his lawn signs all advocate genocide.”
Early in 2023, Bory posted large signs on his Mohawk Street property that said “2 Years in Prison for not agreeing with Jews is Jewish Bolshevik Supremacy” and others denouncing Trudeau and vaccines.
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He advocated killing politicians who ordered mask mandates during the pandemic along with any police officers who signed any charges for those breaking mask mandates.
When questioned on the stand about his statements threatening Trudeau and Poilievre, Bory said he had no intention of harming them and was simply trying to get attention.
But days after a video was posted where Bory invited his listeners to come to his Mohawk Street home with their guns and ammunition, police visited, said Sethi, and found “a boarded up residence with access to many firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and non-perishable items stacked in corners.”
During the trial Bory’s lawyer argued the guns were safely stored and equipped with trigger locks.
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McCuaig successfully had the weapon charges dismissed in a directed verdict, along with the charge of inciting hatred in a public place.
Bory, who has run in seven provincial and two federal elections in the Brantford-Brant and Haldimand-Norfolk areas, complained in his trial that he was excluded from election debates, where he could proclaim his views.
At an all-candidates debate in 2019, Phil McColeman, seeking his fourth term as MP for Brantford-Brant, walked out due to Bory’s comments about Jews and immigrants while others in the audience called out Bory for his words.
A sentencing date has yet to be set for Bory, but Justice James Ramsay released him from jail, where he’s already served 23 months due to not being able to find a surety acceptable to the court.
He can live at home, with no weapons and can use the internet, “but no hate propaganda” warned Ramsey.
@EXPSGamble
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