VANCOUVER — A former federal Green candidate disavowed by the party for her anti-Semitic views is on trial in Germany for publishing videos denying the Holocaust.
Monika Schaefer ran unsuccessfully for the Greens in Alberta’s Yellowhead riding in 2006, 2008 and 2011, but the party rejected her as a candidate in 2015 and publicly condemned her views the next year after a video emerged.
German authorities charged Schaefer with six cases of “incitement of the people” for publishing multiple videos denying the Holocaust, said Andrea Mayer, a spokeswoman for Munich’s public prosecutor’s office. Schaefer’s trial began July 2 and is set to continue until August 17.
“The maximum penalty for each case is up to three years’ imprisonment,” Mayer said.
Schaefer was visiting relatives in Germany and attended a court hearing in a different case when she was arrested on Jan. 3, and she’s been in custody ever since, Mayer added.
Schaefer and her brother, Alfred, are German-Canadian and he also faces charges in Germany for Holocaust denial, said Helmut-Harry Loewen, a retired University of Winnipeg sociologist who monitors hate groups.
“Both siblings are now emerging as key figures in the Holocaust denial movement, both in Canada and in Germany,” he said. “They have supporters here in Canada. (more...)
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