Police have issued an arrest warrant for a Montreal man accused of being an influential neo-Nazi.
Gabriel Sohier Chaput – who goes by the alias “Zeiger” online – is wanted for the willful promotion of hatred, according to the arrest warrant issued last month. He is also accused of hate speech and attempting to recruit others to join the neo-Nazi movement.
In May, an investigation by the Montreal Gazette revealed that Zeiger was an IT consultant in his early 30s living in Montreal. Zeiger was a prolific writer on online neo-Nazi forums and for the Daily Stormer, a popular U.S. right-wing website.
Chaput was identified as the man behind the pseudonym after he was spotted at the now-infamous white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. in August 2017.
“Anti-fascists in Montreal were able to identify that the person who spoke in the VICE documentary [about the rally] with a Quebec accent was this person named Zeiger and research into who Zeiger was led them down a path of realizing that he was this very important figure within the global far right,” Jon Milton, one of the journalists who broke the story in the Gazette, told CTV Montreal.
The Montreal Gazette story revealed that Chaput had been recruiting other young white men to join the neo-Nazi cause online and in person. Members would meet in apartments and local bars throughout Montreal, according to the paper.
Since Chaput’s identity was revealed, his Facebook page and his other online postings have disappeared.
Montreal police said they believe Chaput may be residing outside of the country, but said he will be arrested if he tries to return to Canada. His last known address was in the Montreal borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.
With a report from CTV Montreal’s Rob Lurie
