In June 2002, Canadian pastor Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the editor of an Alberta paper, opposing the "homosexual agenda" that (he said) has been targeting children and corrupting North American culture since the 1960's. Rev. Boissoin, who has a ministry to at-risk youth, was chairman of the Concerned Christian Coalition at that time.
An anti-Christian activist (a certain Darren E. Lund) complained to the province's human rights commission. Rev. Boissoin was investigated, and two weeks ago an Alberta "Human Rights Panel" issued its sentence against him.
Judge Lori Andreachuk ruled that both Rev. Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition are prohibited from "publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals," and furthermore, "all disparaging remarks versus homosexuals are directed to be removed from current web sites and publications of Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc."
Not only that, but they "are prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about Dr. Lund or Dr. Lund’s witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint," and are required to pay $5000 in damages to Lund and also $2000 in expenses to one of his witnesses. What is especially odd here is that the complainant (Lund) did not even claim that he had been harmed by Rev. Boissoin's remarks—only that he had experienced "pain and suffering" while filing and litigating his complaint!
If this ruling is allowed to stand, both religious freedom and freedom of speech are dead in Alberta. Chillingly, the judge's decision explicitly states that "the publication’s exposure of homosexuals to hatred and contempt trumps the freedom of speech afforded in the [Canadian] Charter." In other words, if a single "human rights" judge feels that your comments may expose homosexuals to hatred (no matter how compassionately those comments are expressed, and whatever "exposure...to hatred" might mean)...then to that degree, your freedom of speech no longer exists.
Sources: "The Corner" on National Review Online, Ezra Levant, Decision on Remedy in the Lund case, "Homosexual Agenda Wicked" (Rev. Boissoin's original letter to the editor). HT: Blog and Mablog
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Canada: Gay rights trump freedom (and truth)
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4 comments:
Jeff
I tried to read the letter but the first paragraph itself was so distasteful and patronizing that I had to stop.
I have very little sympathy for any kind of fundamentalism, and Boissoin fits that prototype irrespective of his nationality or faith.
My only question is has Boissoin been in the news recently? Otherwise why this sudden interest in something that occurred six years ago?
Please let me add some context for you. Just so people are aware, that letter was not just some baseless anti-homosexual rant. You may totally oppose my theological perspective, that's fine but this wasn't the main reason for my letter. The newspaper gave it the title and it was published in the middle of the heated gay marriage, hate crimes bill, mandatory biased gay curriculum pushed into schools, gay school books being added to the public school curriculum at the Kindergarten level etc etc. This issues were being debated all across Canada. In my own Province, the gay group Alberta-PFLAG had received funds from the AHRC, the same group of thugs that prosecuted me, to promote their agenda to young people that homosexuality was “normal, necessary, acceptable and productive and has been for thousands of years.” To top it off a pro-gay teacher in my city, same guy who filed the complaint against me, was inviting a gay minister to come into the public school to teach what he called “the pro-homosexual interpretation of the Bible” without presenting the majority traditional interpretation. Present one Biblical view then present the other...or leave them both out. Enough was enough….that letter was written to open the Pandora’s Box. To get people thinking and asking questions. It was against biased gay activist agendas directed at children and young people in schools. It has done what it was designed to do and I thank God that I had the opportunity to stand for truth and do my part.
Blessings,
Stephen Boissoin
Canada
http://www.stephenboissoin.com
Woodsmoke, it's in the news now because the sentence was just handed down within the last couple of weeks. Did Stephen's response help to answer your concerns? We can add this to the list of things we should discuss sometime. :-)
Stephen, thanks very much for your comments.
I have linked to your site as a reference from: Freedom of Speech - Pastor Stephen Boissoin - Hate Speech
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