Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard and former premier Jacques Parizeau have finished testifying at the libel trial of a Montreal investment analyst who, the politicians says, compared them to Adolph Hitler.

Closing arguments in the case are set for Friday morning.

Bouchard and Parizeau are seeking $300,000 in damages, saying Richard Lafferty defamed them seven years ago in his investment newsletter.

In court Thursday, Lafferty testified his job is to provide information about the political situation in Quebec, to be the eyes and ears of the marketplace.

His private newsletter has about 275 subscribers who each pay $10,000 a year.

Lafferty's lawyer had a couple of questions for the reporter who made the newsletter public.

Pierre O'Neil said he doesn't speak English very well and can't remember which language he used while interviewing the unilingual anglophone Lafferty about the newsletter.

The lawsuit was launched after Montreal French-language newspaper Le Devoir reported that Lafferty's newsletter referred to sovereignist leaders as demagogues, and said their demagoguery was no different from Adolph Hitler's.