November 7, 2012

(JTA) — A miner from British Columbia has been charged with a hate crime for anti-Jewish content on his website.

Arthur Topham, 65, of Quesnel, was charged Monday with promoting hatred against an identifiable group on his website, Radical Press. Topham has run the website, described by local media as anti-Zionist, since 1998.

The charge comes six months after a criminal investigation into the website’s content was opened, according to the Toronto Sun.

Topham was also charged with a firearms-related offense.

Complaints against the website, which has referred to Jews as snakes and Zionists, date back to 2007.

Topham also has posted materials against Jews, including the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” on his website

 “Judging from the wording of this indictment it looks like it’s going to be a battle between the Christians and the Jews,” Topham wrote in a post on his website Monday.

Topham’s lawyer, Doug Christie, has previously defended Holocaust deniers Ernst Zundel and James Keegstra. Christie told local news radio station 1130 that Zionism is a political belief, “albeit connected effectively to Jewish groups, Jewish ideas,” and that opposing a political belief is not a crime.

 

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