Canada has handed down its first-ever jail sentence for Holocaust denial.

A court in North Bay, Ontario, sentenced Kenneth Paulin, 51, to nine months behind bars and two years of probation after finding him guilty of willfully promoting hatred against Jews and “condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust.” Crown prosecutors confirmed that the ruling on Sept. 18 marked the first time in Canadian history that someone has received imprisonment specifically for denying the historical reality of the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people.

The conviction followed a seven-month investigation by the North Bay Police Service’s Criminal Investigation Section. Police said they launched the probe in November 2024 after receiving complaints about Paulin’s online posting. Following multiple warrants and a request to Ontario’s Attorney General for formal approval, law enforcement arrested and charged Paulin in June.

Authorities said his assortment of social media posts and videos targeted Jews with slurs, conspiracy theories, and calls to violence. He called Jews “demons” and said they are “to blame for every American who falls.” He condemned Jews as responsible for “almost 100 percent” of the world’s problems. He even called for a “Worldwide Jew Hunt” and said that “antisemitism is the only thing that can save the world.” In one video he titled “Their victim card gets permanently denied as the hollow-cost-Hoax is exposed” he mocked the Holocaust as a “hoax,” while another post read, “Six million didn’t happen, but it should’ve.”

In a community impact submission to the court, Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC), described the content as “an orchestrated effort to spread hatred, to normalize antisemitism, and to encourage others to view Jews as enemies to be mocked, hunted, and destroyed.”

Kirzner-Roberts said that “the vile antisemitism we are confronting today has inflicted deep and lasting harm on Jewish Canadians, the minority group most frequently targeted by hate crimes in this country. But it’s important to note that such hatred does not end with Jews – it corrodes our democracy, emboldens extremists, and threatens the values that hold Canada together.”

The statement praised those who had investigated, charged, and prosecuted Paulin.

“We are grateful to police, the Attorney General, and Crown prosecutors for ensuring this precedent-setting case was pursued with the seriousness it deserves. We are also pleased that a jail sentence has been handed down, not only for the incitement of hatred against Jews, but also for the denial and glorification of the Holocaust,” Kirzner-Roberts stated. “By standing firmly against such hateful rhetoric, this ruling affirms that every Canadian deserves to live with dignity, safety and freedom, free from intimidation, dehumanization, and fear.”

The North Bay Police Service stressed that the case was a reflection of the impact that hate crimes can have on a community. Acting Deputy Chief Jeff Warner said the investigation demonstrated “the great work being done by the officers in our Criminal Investigation Section” and emphasized a commitment to “sending the message that hate has no place in today’s society.”

Canada’s Criminal Code has long criminalized the “willful promotion of hatred” under Section 319, but until recently it did not explicitly single out Holocaust denial. That changed in 2022, when the Canadian Parliament adopted Bill C-19, a budget law that added a new subsection, 319(2.1), making it a crime to “willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust.” The amendment carries a maximum of two years’ imprisonment.

The statute defines the Holocaust as “the planned and deliberate state-sponsored persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by the Nazis and their collaborators,” and applies to public communications outside private conversation.

With the new subsection, Canada joins a group of countries that explicitly outlaw Holocaust denial. In Germany, Section 130 of the criminal code (Volksverhetzung) makes denial, trivialization, or glorification of the Nazi genocide punishable by up to five years in prison. In France, the 1990 Gayssot Act criminalizes questioning crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust. Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, and Romania are among the other countries with similar laws. A 2021 study by the European Parliament noted wide variation in enforcement but confirmed that the principle is well-established in Europe that Holocaust denial is not protected speech but a form of incitement.

Paulin’s conviction reflects the continued proliferation of Holocaust denial propaganda, which can often reflect the paradoxical sentiment of rejecting the historicity of the Nazis’ crimes against humanity, while simultaneously wishing they had occurred, as the convict revealed in his posting “Six million didn’t happen, but it should’ve.”

A UNESCO report in 2022 found that 16.2 percent of Holocaust-related content on major social media platforms involved denial or distortion. On fringe platforms, the proportion rose to 49 percent. The United Nations has warned that social media continues to amplify denial narratives, feeding extremist propaganda and violent ideologies.

In Canada, antisemitic hate crimes have spiked to new highs. According to an annual audit by B’nai Brith Canada, there were 5,791 incidents reported in 2023, with nearly half occurring online. Jews remain the religious minority most frequently targeted by hate crimes in the country.