The case of a Montreal man accused of threatening to kill women on his anti-feminist blog returns to court on Thursday.

A bail hearing will be held to decide if Jean-Claude Rochefort should be released from prison.

Rochefort, 60, has been behind bars since early December after being charged with uttering death threats to women from April to December 2009 in comments he made about them on his blog.

He has also been charged with possessing an illegal firearm.

Rochefort created a website where authorities say he posted hateful, aggressive and menacing comments about women.

He also referred to Marc Lepine, the gunman who killed 14 women at Montreal's École Polytechnique in 1989, as "Saint Marc."

One image on his blog shows the Montreal university with the caption "Where it all started."

Rochefort has maintained that his comments are meant to be "humorous," and that feminists made a hero out of the Polytechnique killer by constantly talking about the tragedy.

Rochefort's defence attorney Guillaume Langlois said his client did not target specific women.

The defence on Thursday will argue Rochefort should be released from jail because he has already served the equivalent of four months since his arrest and he wouldn't get much more than that, even if he were found guilty, Langlois said.

Langlois said authorities have printed about 100 pages of Rochefort's comments, which will be submitted to the judge in preparation for the hearing.

The prosecution is expected to argue Rochefort is a threat to public safety and so should remain behind bars pending his trial.