John Beattie, self-styled nee-Nazi leader, was acquitted of two charges of unlawful assembly and trying to create an unlawful assembly after cross-examining the Jewish mayor of Toronto and a Jewish alderman.
The charges had been brought against the neo-Nazi by Samuel Kaplan, who had previously been acquitted of charges of assaulting Beattie. The hearing in a magistrate’s court here was the last in a series arising from a near-riot in Toronto’s Allan Gardens last May, almost a year ago. Beattie had previously been found guilty and fined for creating a disturbance and for unlawful assembly in connection with the Allan Gardens disturbance, at which he had planned to speak.
Magistrate Opper, in acquitting Beattie, held that the prosecution had failed to establish that there was an intent on Beattie’s part to incite to riot and tumultous behavior, or that Beattie and his neo-Nazi associates were assembled in one place during the riot, when enraged anti-Nazis charged the neo-Nazis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
