April 20, 2022
TORONTO – B’nai Brith Canada is expressing satisfaction that a hate-monger in Ontario has pleaded guilty to sending extreme antisemitic mail and fraudulently impersonating individuals.
Joseph Huber of Bracebridge, Ont., pleaded guilty this week to all four counts laid against him – two counts of criminal harassment and two counts of impersonation with intent.
In July of 2019, an investigation was launched after B’nai Brith Canada received numerous envelopes containing a large amount of hate mail. Using a fraudulent identity, Huber’s letters advocated for the genocide of the Jewish people through a second Holocaust. Former Canadian Senator Linda Frum, who is Jewish, also received the hateful mail from Huber at her office in Ottawa while still serving in the Senate.
Huber’s repeated use of others’ identities in sending the hate mail was a clear attempt to deflect suspicion away from him and towards them, in his ongoing distribution of antisemitic material.
“I am extremely appreciative that the Toronto Police Service treated these matters with the seriousness that they unquestionably deserved,” Frum told B’nai Brith Canada. “I commend them for their work and their efforts and am grateful.”
Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada, echoed the ex-Senator’s comments. “Considering the extreme and threatening nature of the mail we received, we commend the Toronto Police Service for acting in uncovering this individual’s true identity and arresting him,” Mostyn said. “With the guilty plea, we look forward to seeing Huber’s future sentencing reflect the gravity of his crimes and removing him as a danger to Jews and Canadian society as a whole.”
Investigators conducted open-source searches using multiple key words from within the seized hate literature. Many of Huber’s files contained messages of hatred toward people of the Jewish faith as well as images of swastikas and Adolf Hitler.
