Still not a hate crime

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by Patrick Lejtenyi

A group of neo-nazis are back before the courts, this time on manslaughter and aggravated assault charges. The case centres on the violent death of Christian Thomas, a 39-year-old white man who was killed following what police are calling a bar brawl on June 24, 2000. On the night in question, Sacha Montreuil, 26, Adam Guerbuez, 25 and Frédéric Morin, 22, alledgedly beat Thomas into a coma over a difference of opinion outside an East-End bar. Thomas died six days later.

What anti-nazis are asking is why the assault is still being treated as a simple bar fight. "It's terrorism," says Jeff Beaumont--an alias--of Montreal's Anti-Racist Action (ARA). "That's what you call acts of violence carried out because of political beliefs."

The trial, which opened Friday, is like a bloodier, more serious sequel to the 1999 court case involving some of the same cast who were convicted of trashing a St-Laurent bar and hospitalizing of its patrons. Of the 10 skinheads at Bar Chez Hélène the night of Thomas's murder, only three were charged. Of the seven remaining, four have criminal records and three were convicted of the St-Laurent bar attack. The police say the neo-nazis were not involved in Thomas's death.

"That's flat-out lying," Beaumont says. "How can they commit assault in 1997 and 1998 and are now back on the street involved in a murder? What does it say about our police system that's supposed to protect people from them and their racist beliefs?"