An Ontario man has pleaded guilty to harassing B’nai Brith Canada and an ex-senator by mail and through impersonating individuals.
Joseph Huber of Bracebridge, Ontario 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 2019, B’nai Brith and former Canadian Senator Linda Frum received numerous envelopes containing a large amount of hate mail leading to an investigation.
“Using a fraudulent identity, Huber’s letters advocated for the genocide of the Jewish people through a second Holocaust,” B’nai Brith said in a statement. “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.”
According to B’nai Brith, many of Huber’s files contained messages of hatred toward people of the Jewish faith as well as images of swastikas and Adolf Hitler. Investigators conducted open-source searches using multiple key words from within the seized hate literature.
Frum told B’nai Brith that she was thankful the Toronto police took the matter seriously.
“I commend them for their work and their efforts and am grateful,” she said.
B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn also praised the work Toronto police did to uncover the individual behind the letters.
“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.”