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Loading ...Anti-gay Phelps group sneaks into Canada
08.08.2008 3:39pm EDT
(Winnipeg, Manitoba) Members of an anti-gay group which describes itself as a church managed to enter Canada overnight despite a directive to border agents to bar them.
The Canwest News Service reports that the group, members of Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, removed all 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.The group announced earlier in the week it would picket the Winnipeg funeral of a man decapitated on a Greyhound bus. Another passenger is charged with the sensational killing.
The group says by protesting the funeral of Tim McLean it will show Canadians the murder was God’s response to liberal Canadian policies toward homosexuality.
Pat Martin a New Democratic Party member of Parliament from Winnipeg asked Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to send an alert to the border patrol to look out “for people with signs and pamphlets that fit the hateful messages that the church promotes and to keep them out of the country.”
Canadian hate laws give the government the power to deny entry to people likely to violate the law. The so-called church was listed as a hate group under the law following previous protests.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps’ daughter and a frequent spokesperson for the “church” confirmed to Canwest that a group of followers had successfully entered the country overnight.
Earlier she had warned that the group would “cross in another spot. They’ll have to strip search everyone who crosses that border or they won’t know who we are. They’ll have to see the WBC [Westboro Baptist Church] tattoo on our butts.”
In addition to the threatened protest at the McLean funeral the group had said it would demonstrate in Toronto where a satirical play titled “The Pastor Phelps Project.” is being performed. No members of the church showed up for the demonstration which had been planned for Thursday evening.
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, the gay college student who was beaten to death in Wyoming. The killing, Phelps’ protest, and the reaction of townsfolk led to the play “The Laramie Project.”
Church members routinely demonstrate at the funerals of people with AIDS and most recently at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Yes, let’s hope that Canada will round them up and DEPORT THEM. Although the best thing is to try ignore them, it can be difficult; last year my partner and I were scheduled to appear on BBC 5 Live, to promote a play we were doing at Manchester, England’s, It’sQueerUpNorth Arts Festival. Then we found out a phone link to the mad Topekans had been set up, and the increasingly sensationalistic BBC were hoping for a frisky confrontation. When we found out what was afoot, we declined to appear. The media get a hard-on for the Topekan human non-events; if that same media would desist, the mad “church” would dissolve into the slime from which it emerged.
I know this isn’t nice, and I have Phelps to thank for getting me involved in a new career, helping our gay citizens gain equality under the law, and exposing the worst of the worst of our christian taliban right wing maniacs.
And I pray every day that someone, perhaps knowing that they are dying of some terrible, incurable disease, will cure this scum family, lock stock and barrel from our nation and the world. They will all end up in hell for eternity, and even that is too good for them.
Dear Canada,
Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a perfectly matched, genetically homogeneous set of genuine American whackjobs. While at first you may be unhappy with your NON-RETURNABLE gift, you will soon find this brood of slavering freaks has many uses around your country. They can repel door-to-door salesmen, proselytizers and invading forces of up to 100,000 soldiers. Pack them closely together and the heat of their bottomless rage will power your country for years on end. And if you ever need to make a movie featuring mindless zombies, rampaging barbarians or screaming cretins, just stick them in front of a camera and shout “Action!” If you have any questions about the care and feeding of your whackjobs, call someone who gives a hang.
Sincerely yours,
America
These kinds of people or organizations thrive on the notoriety or publicity they get from those who attack them, for the attacks come from a position they themselves condemn. Such people are against democratic freedoms, they are against freedom of choice like freedom of religion. They are against the idea that all people are created equal, or are worthy of equal treatment. These sort of people are religious nazis, in that they are willing to work within the system of democratic freedoms, but once in a postion of power would certainly remove all such freedoms and impose a theocracy… a Christian version of Talibanic Afghanistan, or a 21st century Papal states.
In my opinion, the only effective weapon to use on them is the weapon they use on us – scripture. In this way not only do we fulfil for them what Jesus said – do unto others as you would have others do unto you – we show that their use of scripture is a distortion (as ours may also be, for what really was meant at the actual time it was written?).
In this current Canadian scenario, the ten commandments come into play. Thou shalt not bear false witness – are not these people being false in their reason for entering Canada, hiding their collective identity… false witness.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll keep them up there.
Maybe Canada can find a way to charge them as terrorists,too!
This hypocritical clan was already sued in the U.S. for demonstrating at funeral for a fallen soldier and the family was ordered millions in damages that this alleged church says they don’t have and I don’t know if they’ve been made to pay anything but I see now they still have enough money to go to Canada to demonstrate their hate mongering adgenda. I wish the Canadian Government had put them in jail or permanently suspended their passports to be able to enter their country. It’s just a pity they are still able to stay here in the U.S. since they are allegedly citizens of this country. If they’ve got the money to travel to Canada to spread their hate-filled mongering, then they should be made to pay that soldier’s family for their lawsuit. They are a disgrace to America and to God Himself, in my opinion. My only words to them would be STAY IN KANSAS.
mjhofer Said: August 8th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
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Can we just stop giving this group any new time? They thrive on the attention.
I do realize that many people, especially gay people are very tired of seeing these people being give time and recognition by the media. I would again say that by so doing, the media, is really providing the gay population a service by putting a human face to the hatred and bigotry which fuels such displays. In any media coverage of the events which they have protested and any time they are shown on television, I have noticed how UGLY these people have seemed. Not only are they UGLY in what they do, but their very countenance seems to display such an UGLY appearance that you just know the soul inside has to be just as UGLY. I hope that others, seeing such displays, will also notice and take heed of the visible hatred and vow to not become participants in such bigotry.
I think they should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of Canadian law. They are illegal aliens who have violated the laws of a sovereign nation and should be punished for so doing. I wonder if they have passports to get back into the country? I wonder what would be the situation if the Canadians were to arrest them and confiscate their passports. Would they be allowed back into the country with proper documentation? I wonder where they get all their money to travel about the country and to a foreign country to cause problems for others? Perhaps it is time they had some problems of their own to address. I suppose it is a good thing that they are so obnoxious. With them in the picture, real people can see just how ugly the face of real hatred happens to really be.
Can we just stop giving this group any new time? They thrive on the attention.
The more publicity that the mainstream media gives Phelps and his “church,” the better. It makes Phelps the spokesman for homophobia, giving all anti-gay organizations severe image problems. The more publicity he gets, the more they have to expend valuable resources to overcome the perception that they are obsessive inquisitors who persecute gays.
Imagine what would happen if the KKK endorsed the American Family Association and the ACLJ, and the media made it a prominent story. Those organizations would have to redirect their efforts to damage control. Phelps getting mainstream news coverage is almost as good. It’s a blessing to us.
I disagree. The more publicity that the mainstream media gives Phelps and his “church,” the better. It makes Phelps the spokesman for homophobia, giving all anti-gay organizations severe image problems. The more publicity he gets, the more they have to expend valuable resources to overcome the perception that they are obsessive inquisitors who persecute gays.
Imagine what would happen if the KKK endorsed the American Family Association and the ACLJ, and the media made it a prominent story. Those organizations would have to redirect their efforts to damage control. Phelps getting mainstream news coverage is almost as good. It’s a blessing to us.
Where are the crazed gun wielding psychopaths when you need one. Wouldn’t it be fun if one were to show up at the funeral and blow these scum away. I can’t believe the rednecks in the US haven’t done it yet when they come to soldiers funerals to protest. Maybe I’m just a little bitter.
This is absolutely one of the best things the WBC could have done; ignore the sovereignty of another nation, Canada. Let’s hope they do attempt to picket the funeral and are arrested by the RCMP. Then convicted of Canadian hate crimes, pay appropriate fines, serve jail time, then deported back to the U.S. and forever barred from entering Canada for any reason.
I agree. It’s high time that mainstream media stop giving this tragic excuse of a human being and his pathetic “church” any more indirect credibility. The fact is, they thrive on the negative attention and that’s why they continue. If people would merely laugh at them and dismiss them like the petulent children they are, they would have nothing to feed off of.