A Quebec man has been found to be in contempt of court after he refused to remove signs showcasing swastikas outside his home in the municipality of Saint-Barnabé-Sud.
It’s the latest in a two-year-long legal battle between Yahia Meddah and the small municipality of roughly 1,000 people.
Last year, a Quebec Superior Court judge ordered Meddah to take down the signs, which accuse the municipality of Nazism and being “the most racist city in the world.”
“Mr. Meddah’s only argument regarding the clarity of the order is that it is not clear a cease and desist from posting means removing,” a court document published on March 14, 2025, states.
According to Linda Normandeau, director general of Saint-Barnabé-Sud, the Meddah family has lived in the municipality for years, but things went south in the fall of 2022 after the local government received complaints that they were operating a generator indoors.
The municipality ordered an emergency inspection that confirmed the presence of a generator, as well as a barbecue and propane tanks inside the home, which was unequipped with smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, according to Superior Court documents.
Normandeau said she believes 12 people live on the property, including four children.
When inspectors went back to the home in February 2023, court documents state Meddah did not let them in and instead told them to speak to his lawyer and come back with a warrant.
This has led to a prolonged legal battle between the two, with the municipality seeking the right to conduct a follow-up inspection and Meddah accusing Normandeau of harassment and discrimination.
In a decision on June 7, 2024, Justice J. Sebastien Vaillancourt ruled that Saint-Barnabé-Sud “clearly” had the right to inspect the premises, and the allegations of discrimination “are in no way supported by the evidence.”
“This case has taken on a scale that it never should have,” Vaillancourt wrote.
That’s when Normandeau says the swastikas first appeared on Meddah’s property, as well as a website outlining what Meddah claims is targeted intimidation.
He was ordered to remove them, but by the fall, there were reports to municipal officials that new posters, including imagery of Adolf Hitler and Kim Jong Un had appeared, according to the court documents.
“He [Meddah] affirmed that he was not responsible for these signs. He is only responsible for the signs that were put up in June,” the court documents note. “He affirms that it was his son, Oussama, who put up the signs [in November].”
Meddah has maintained that his family is a victim of discrimination, harassment, vandalism and intimidation by the municipality.
With files from The Canadian Press.
