Because of texts and photomontages published on his blog, Pierre was accused of voluntarily promoting hatred against an identifiable group, women, contrary to Article 319 of the Criminal Code. His posts called for celebrating a 'Saint-Marc-Lépine', showed the Polytechnique killer holding weapons, and included fake police images telling him to 'kill the bitches'.

Criminal lawyer Walid Ijazie, practising for almost 20 years, explains it must be a public message, not a private conversation. Disagreeable, insulting or offensive words are not enough; it must reach the threshold of hatred, encouraging or instigating violence or expressing extreme detestation toward an identifiable group.

Only since 2015, when the Criminal Code was amended to add sex to the identifiable groups. Before that, the few cases invoked were mostly racist speech against ethnic or religious groups such as Jews or Muslims. The hosts note 2015 is 26 years after the Polytechnique massacre.

Pierre testified in his own defence, repeating the same argument he had given the podcast hosts: misplaced jokes, apologising if anyone was offended, and claiming that since feminists turned Polytechnique into a religious ritual, he could make Marc Lépine a saint. He said he never thought anyone would act on his publications.

After nine days of hearings and deliberation, the judge found Pierre guilty in a decision of almost 40 pages. It held his speech was clearly criminal, not protected by freedom of expression, glorified Marc Lépine, who murdered 14 women, associated feminists with savages, and reached a very large audience.

Not yet: Pierre and his lawyer are appealing and the sentence is not yet known. The host says a court judgment alone will not make misogyny disappear, but it is a landmark affirming that such discourse about women is neither banal nor acceptable, since words can turn into violence.