Archive/File: fascism/canada/ontario gm.090294
Last-Modified: 1994/09/02
Source: The Toronto Globe and Mail, Sept. 2, 1994, A4

Grave-desecration conviction restored

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has restored the conviction of a
former teacher who committed "vicious and abhorrent" acts of
desecration involving Nazi symbols at a Jewish cemetery in Hamilton.

Paul Moyer was given a suspended sentence in 1992 after being
convicted of three counts of causing indignities to human remains.

Evidence presented to the court then showed Mr. Moyer took photographs
at the cemetery of a skinhead teenager pinning a swastika to a dead
bird on a tombstone.

Another photo depicted the teen-ager simulating urination on a grave
while wearing only an obscene T-shirt.

The conviction was overturned last year by the Ontario Court of
Appeal. The appeal court agreed such acts are vicious, abhorrent and
repugnant, but quashed the original verdict on the grounds that Mr.
Moyer's actions did not actually offer any indignities to "human
remains" because the bodies in the graves were untouched.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court overtuned that ruling and restored the
original conviction, saying the appeal court took too narrow a view of
the issue.

The Supreme Court said Mr. Moyer's actions "constituted acts of
defilement and callous disrespect towards the remains of individuals
buried under the monuments that feature so prominently in his
photographs.

"Doing what he did with and to the monuments placed on the graves
constituted offering indignities to the remains buried below." - CP

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