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Loading ...Anti-gay group fails to disrupt funeral
08.11.2008 9:29am EDT
(Winnipeg, Manitoba) Despite claims they had thwarted a government ban and had entered Canada, members of an anti-gay group that purports to be a church failed to show up for their threatened protest at the funeral of a man who was stabbed to death and beheaded aboard a Greyhound bus.
Members of Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., claimed they had successfully entered the country by removing material that referred to the “church” from their vehicles and shipped them by courier to Winnipeg after the material was used to blocked them from another crossing into Manitoba on Thursday.A directive was sent to border guards last week by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to bar the group under Canada’s hate crime law, after Pat Martin, a New Democratic Party member of Parliament from Winnipeg, said he had received hundreds of complaints about the planned protest.
The Phelps group said it would protest at the weekend funeral of Tim McLean to show Canadians that murder was God’s response to liberal Canadian policies toward homosexuality.
A large police contingent was on hand to prevent trouble at the funeral. Earlier in the day, more than 500 Winnipegers filled nearby streets determined to prevent any protest from being seen by mourners.
McLean, 22, was brutally attacked as he sat in his seat on a Greyhound bus traveling west of Winnipeg on July 30. A fellow passenger has been charged with murder.
The Phelps followers were no-shows at two other protests in Canada over the weekend. The group had threatened to demonstrate in Red Deer, Alberta where a local theater company was performing “The Laramie Project,” a play about the homophobic murder of college student Matthew Shepard.
The group also failed to make good on a threat to demonstrate in Toronto where a satirical play titled “The Pastor Phelps Project” is being performed.
Westboro Baptist members frequently demonstrate at funerals for American servicemembers killed in Iraq. The group claims the deaths are God’s punishment on America for being too pro-gay.
Westboro’s members are made up mostly of Phelps’ relatives. Although it professes to be Baptist, it is not affiliated with any national Baptist group.
Westboro operates Web sites including GodHatesFags and GodHatesAmerica and has been described as a cult.
Phelps and the church first came to national attention when he organized a protest by his followers outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepherd.
Do you think that if the one or more of the Phelps clan were murdered, it would be the same God’s revenge? Would they protest their own funeral(s)?
Great one, Quasi! The Phelps clan are a genetic cesspool. There have been rumors that they “keep it in the family.” I have driven by the Phelps church in Kansas and it is literally crumbling, much like the family.
Well they protested the fire trucks putting out the fire at their church… And they are not only known for protesting at service members funerals but for protesting at MANY gay funerals well before they protested at any service members funerals, but the media didn’t really notice that part of their history….
Is there any concrete proof that any of their members actually got into Canada, or is all we have their word that some of them made it? Considering some of the lies they tell, maybe they are trying to make us think that they outsmarted the Canadian Government.
Good point Julia!
Well, sigh of relief that they did not show up and make complete fools of themselves at something they had no business trying to disrupt in the first place. Let us hope that they have left our soil and returned to the United States, if not, they should be arrested immediately upon locating and charged with being in Canada illegally, and then escorted back to the United States Authorities.
I think they’re full of it. That or they were too cowardly to show up after they saw the 500 folks ready to come between them and the grieving family. And too cowardly to show because the Canadians take hate speech seriously. Cowards.
Ginelle, could you keep them in prison and throw away the key, please? If they did something illegal to get into your country, and it is not illegal to leave ours or preach such hate in ours, we cannot imprison them. Thanks.
They are an evil,wicked bunch,and have nothing to do with gods word
I still can’t believe people in the 21st century say such hateful things every step forward we make another moron does something that’s sets us back decades I would love to go online once and not hear this crap from yet another religious group
What I find the most amazing part of this story is not that the cult failed to show up, or that they even *considered* to protest at this funeral, but that over 500 complete strangers came together to ensure that nothing disrupted the family and friends of Tim McLean. Very much a small town kind of mentality. One of us is in trouble, so we’re all going out to help.
In all honesty, I think Phelps’ clan succeeded in one thing. They took attention away from Tim McLean and put it squarely on themseles. Free publicity.
I do hope that the family of McLean are finding peace now. It’s one thing to lose a loved one and mourn, it’s quite another to have to mourn with the entire country watching. Peace.
The Pastor Phelps Project … I’d pay money to see that!
“The Phelps Project: A Fundamentalist Cabaret” sounds like an interesting satire. Does anyone know if the play is available in script form or on video that we can purchase?
Now if we could just ban them from reentering the United States, we would have it made. These people have nothing better to do than to pick on dead people, gay or straight, who can not fight back. God will get them for this one day.
I wish Canada WOULD let them in and that they COULD protest so that they could be ARRESTED for breaking Canada’s hate laws…in essense, not letting them in is protecting them and avoiding the international crisis.