Hulgaard needs new lawyer as December trial looms

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on November 2, 2022.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

A Medicine Hat man accused of continuing to spread hatred against Jewish people while on probation has lost his lawyer just as preliminary proceedings were set to begin. But a December trial date remains in place while he seeks out new representation.

Loki Holger Hulgaard was serving out a sentence that included house arrest in the summer of 2021 after pleading guilty to spreading hate propaganda in 2018.

At that time probation officers say they discovered online essays attributed to him and anti-semitic material during a search of his home, contrary to the court-imposed conditions.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge of breaching a King’s Bench order in his probation order, and is slated to stand trial on Dec. 15-16.

The matter was added to docket court in Medicine Hat Provincial Court on Tuesday to present a potential resolution with special prosecutors on the case.

Instead, defence attorney Michael Gilchrist said the relationship with his client had broken down this week just as pre-trial applications were set to begin Thursday.

“For the reason of a breakdown in solicitor-client relationship, I am instead making the application to be removed as counsel of record,” said Gilchrist, a Calgary-based attorney, via video conference.

“I’ll close out the file with him right away as not to slow down the process of obtaining new counsel.”

Hulgaard, 39, appeared in person and spoke sparingly, but told Judge Dietrich Brandt his dealings with Gilchrist were finished.

“I believe so,” he said, adding he was attempting to find a new lawyer.

Brandt adjourned the matter so Alberta assistant chief Judge Sylvia Oishi, who is the assigned trial judge, could take up it in the afternoon.

She agreed Gilchrist would be removed, and said pretrial applications set for this week could be vacated, but the Dec. 15 and 16 trial is set.

“The trial is expected to go ahead on those dates,” she told him.

In late 2020, Hulgaard pleaded guilty to a charge of promoting hatred, specifically that he passed bills stamped with anti-semitic statements like “Immigration = White Genocide” to a cashier in Medicine Hat in 2018.

He was sentenced to four month’s house arrest, then eight months curfew with conditions, including he undergo counselling, then a further two years of probation.

He also pled guilty to several non-criminal weapons charges that he failed to register his new name (he was born Brendon Dell) on gun registrations. Four weapons with defaced serial numbers were surrendered along with high-capacity magazines.

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