Quebec man pleads guilty to spreading hate speech about Jews, trying to make 3D-printed guns

The RCMP seized a 3D-printed gun after the arrest of a 37-year-old man from Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Que. (Source: RCMP)

A Quebec man has pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture multiple firearms with a 3D printer, including an AR-15, and spreading hate speech about the Jewish community.

Pascal Tribout, who lives in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, a small municipality northwest of the Island of Montreal, was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on June 13, 2024.

He entered the guilty plea at the Saint-Jerome, Que. courthouse on Friday, avoiding the need to hold a trial. He is facing imprisonment for the crimes and is expected to apologize to the Jewish community before he is sentenced in 2025.

The 38-year-old man was first targeted by the authorities in November 2023 when Canada's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), tipped off the Mounties about possible firearms-related criminal activities, according to an agreed statement of facts filed in court.

The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) received a list of exports and imports linked to his address, including items like "Gun Metal" plastic refills for 3D printers, metal tubes, and trigger units.

As RCMP continued investigating, they learned that Tribout was an active member of a Telegram channel called GDL Chat 2.0 that promotes "antisemitism and white supremacist themes" online. Police said he posted 66 "racist, antisemitic, anti-government, conspiracy and alarmist" messages between March 14 and April 2 of 2024.

In some of the messages, he mentioned that his wife had suddenly passed away and blamed it on the COVID-19 vaccine, which he described as the "Jew Jab."

Two months later, he exchanged messages with another user on the Telegram channel who was actually an undercover RCMP officer. In those messages, he made multiple antisemitic remarks and shared files about how to manufacture firearms with a 3D printer.

Police executed a search warrant and found 78 items at his home, including firearms casings for several types of guns such as FGC-9, AR-15, Tec-22, and Derringer. They also found 13 3D printers, antisemitic propaganda, including a document titled "EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE COVID AGENDA IS JEWISH," and a 1947 style German military uniform.

The agreed statement of facts said the FGC-9, which stands for "Fuck Gun Control," was not functional. The same could be said about the other items, which meant they did not meet the definition of a firearm under the law.

Last Friday, he pleaded guilty to four charges: possession and distribution of computer data that pertain to firearms and that are capable of being used with a 3D printer for the purpose of manufacturing, wilful promotion of hatred, and attempting to manufacture prohibited firearms with a 3D printer.

Tribout does not have a firearms licence or a licence to manufacture firearms. He had a prior criminal record for impaired driving twice, in 2012 and 2013, and was fined $1,500 after each offence.

'Major victory against hate in Canada'

B'nai Brith, a Canada-based Jewish advocacy organization, celebrated the man's guilty plea on Tuesday as a "major victory against hate in Canada."

In a statement filed with the court last week, Henry Topas, B'nai Brith's director general for Quebec, said the charges against Tribout serve as a "double threat" of hatred and violent acts against Jewish people.

"Montreal is still home to some elderly [Holocaust] survivors and their descendants, who bear the scars of their parents and grandparents," Topas wrote.

"These scars, combined with the violence we now see on our streets and campuses, make it all the more necessary for the justice system, the community's last bastion of hope, to stand up and take action against these threats.

We believe that the sentence handed down must be strictly exemplary and send a clear message to both the accused and any potential accomplices: these types of actions and behaviour will not be tolerated in our country."

Tribout is scheduled to return to court for a sentencing hearing on April 7, 2025.