Hulgaard wants guilty plea reversed

By JEREMY APPEL on March 5, 2020.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel

A man who pled guilty last week to wilfully promoting hatred has parted ways with his lawyer in an effort to vacate his pleas.

Defence lawyer Mike Gilchrist asked to be taken off the record as Loki Hulgaard’s counsel Tuesday in Medicine Hat Provincial Court after entering guilty pleas for his client Feb. 26 – the day his trial was set to begin.

Hulgaard, who was born Brendan Stanley Dell, was charged with publicly inciting hatred in August 2018, after attempting to spend currency defaced with anti-Semitic slogans, such as “ZOG” and “Jewish White Genocide,” at a local Safeway.

That charge was changed to wilfully promoting hatred in January 2019, an offence which carries the same maximum penalty of two years in prison as incitement, but for which the Crown doesn’t need to prove the act will “likely lead to a breach of peace,” as per the Criminal Code.

Upon his arrest, police executed a search warrant at his residence, where they found a .22 caliber rifle, shotgun, two SKS guns with their serial numbers removed, three over-capacity magazines and 1,200 rounds of ammunition, which resulted in 13 firearm-related criminal charges.

However, he pled guilty to contravening the conditions of his firearm licence, which is not a criminal offence, the result of his neglecting to inform a firearm officer about his 2013 name change.

On the online version of the Medicine Hat News story about his guilty pleas, a user with the screen name ‘loki’ weighed in.

“I have plead guilty predominantly because of death threats I have received that were used as a means to coercing me into accepting the plea bargain. If I were jailed I feared for my life,” they wrote, providing an email where they can be reached.

Hulgaard’s next appearance is scheduled for the day he was supposed to set a sentencing date, March 26, where he will instead set a hearing to strike his guilty pleas.

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