LaBarbera allowed provisional entry into Canada for ‘Mischief’ trial Oct. 30 stemming from April protest at public university

Canada’s “Hate” Police: Above is an excerpt of the Border Services Agency  document issued against Peter LaBarbera when he was originally denied entry into Canada in April on the basis that he and AFTAH “incite hate” in violation of the nation’s Hate Propaganda” law. LaBarbera was subsequently allowed into the country, but later arrested at a peaceful pro-life/pro-family protest at the University of Regina. Click to enlarge.

By Peter LaBarbera

UPDATE from author: After a short meeting in Regina with a Border Services official this morning, I was allowed to travel and speak in Canada until the completion of my trial Thursday upon agreeing to these two provisions:

“While in Canada:

• “If I am on private property, and am asked to leave that property by the owner for any reason, I must leave the property immediately;
• “If I am issued a direction or command by a police officer or other person in authority, follow that direction immediately.”

REGINA, Saskatchewan, Canada–Customs agents detained this writer (AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera) and did an intense search of my phone, laptop and belongings–as I arrived at Calgary International Airport late last night on the first leg of a trip to Regina, Saskatchewan for my trial on “mischief” charges October 30.

The mischief charges were filed against me and Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott after Whatcott, and then me, refused on free speech grounds to abandon a peaceful protest April 12 against abortion and sodomy at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, a public university. [See AFTAH article HERE and LifeSiteNews article HERE on how I was almost refused entry into Canada on the basis of AFTAH’s alleged “hate.”]

The Calgary Border Services agents confiscated a DVD copy of a new Russian documentary called “Sodom” as potential “hate propaganda” in violation of Canadian law banning material or people who could potentially “incite hate” based on “sexual orientation.”

Ironically, “Sodom”–which I have yet to watch–is available and easily accessible in Canada (and worldwide) on YouTube. Whatcott told me that he had already shared the documentary with his network of Canadian supporters across the country. “Sodom” features an interview with American pro-family leader Scott Lively of Defend the Family International. Lively, who received AFTAH’s American Truth-Teller Award on 2011, is currently running for governor as an independent in Massachusetts.

If the Russian film is deemed “hate propaganda” by the government’s “Prohibited Importation Unit” in Ottawa, it will be destroyed, two border agents informed me. If “Sodom” does not meet that designation, it will be mailed back to my home in Illinois.

Either way, the seizure of the film would make it impossible for me to view and/or present it to others in Canada–were it not easily accessible to everybody with a web connection on YouTube. Such is the folly of state censorship in an Internet age.

Customs hearing today

Canadian pro-family activist Bill Whatcott and AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera.

Despite my two-and-a-half hour detainment in Calgary, agents ordered me to attend another hearing today (Tuesday) with Immigration officials in Regina at 11:00 A.M.–for “further examination” on my “admissibility” into Canada. Nevertheless, Border Services agents told me that I would be able to attend my “Mischief” trial in Regina on Thursday and that I am “innocent until proven guilty” under Canadian law.

A border agent named Shane Paul (I called him “Paul” because that was on his uniform and I presumed that was his first name) asked me questions about a small speaking engagement I was to have with Whatcott and others this (Tuesday) evening. I was unsure of the location of the meeting, as the venue has been changed three times already–because skittish Canadians pulled out from hosting the event fearing leftist protests. You can read about one cancellation in the Regina Leader-Post HERE (Note: not included in the story is Whatcott’s assertion that the prospective host, Greg Kulak, was not telling the truth when he claimed NOT to know the nature of the event.) By the way, Whatcott distributed thousands of fliers advertising the event–which Kulak’s cowardly pullout rendered meaningless by abandoning the listed location for it.

As an American, let me say that it is remarkable how far official political correctness – enforced and encouraged by sometimes fanatical left-wing activists and abetted by an anti-conservative media – has not only shut down conservative speech in Canada but succeeded in punishing people who run afoul of various liberal ideologies—not limited to pro-homosexualism. For example, the Canadian owners of a conservative website, “Free Dominion,” shut it down after 13 years of operation in January after losing a defamation lawsuit to “human rights” legal activist Richard Warman. They were fined a total of $107,000 and ordered not to print anything negative about the leftist Warman—effectively censoring them as a public forum [See LifeSite article HERE].

In the two years that I have worked closely with Bill Whatcott, I have seen the extraordinary harassment and soft (and hard) tyranny he has had to endure in his quest to get out biblical truth and facts about homosexuality and abortion. Whatcott, who distributes tens of thousands of fliers door-to-door every year, was found guilty of Canada’s “Hate Propaganda” law by Canada’s highest court. Earlier this year, he was denied service by Aaron Rubin, a computer shop in Weybourn because the owner did not like Bill’s views; Whatcott sued under the “human rights” laws and won and–in a demonstration of Christian grace–did not push for a big financial judgment but instead asked Rubin to do volunteer service for a local pro-life group. Rubin opted not to do the service and paid a mere $200 to have it done.

Recently, Whatcott tried to submit a simple ad for his event tonight (where I am to speak) to the Regina Leader-Post newspaper. The ad’s innocuous headline was “Bringing the Light of Christ to Our Culture”–but that did not matter; it was refused anyway. He could have another “human rights” victory in store if he sues the liberal paper for anti-religious discrimination. (Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms ostensibly protects religious freedom.) But even if the ad had run, Whatcott would have been chased out of the venue for the event.

With such relentless leftist pressure led by a few fanatics like Warman, it is only the rare, brave soul like Whatcott who fights on for Truth in Canada, while so many others fall away in fear. (Note that in the Chicago area, AFTAH, too, has been chased out of venues after the leftist activists with the Gay Liberation Network wielded their spurious “hate group” accusation against us.)

Searching my phone, laptop, books and papers–again

Anyway, I cooperated fully with the Border Services “investigation” of me at the Calgary airport, as I did in April at the Regina International Airport. Agent Paul and another Agent with the last name of Meehan went through—as in April—my:

• Phone
• Laptop
• Books (including Dr. Michael Brown’s “Can You Be Gay and Christian?”; his book, “Something Queer Happened to America”; Robert Reilly’s book, “Making Gay OK”; and Frank Turek’s “Correct, Not Politically Corrrect: How Same-Sex  Marriage Hurts Everyone”)
• Tracts: I brought a bunch of ex-“gay” Stephen Bennett’s tract “I WAS ‘Gay’”; and
• Papers

When Shane asked me about Westboro Baptist Church (with its “God Hates Fags” message), I told him that AFTAH has always condemned Westboro, as has every other pro-family group I have worked with. I told them that AFTAH has long condemned violence and genuine hatred against homosexuals or anyone, for that matter.

At one point in the search, Shane asked me if I had children and then I asked him if he had children. He asked me as if offended: “Why do you ask that?” and then said, “I’m gay.” I told him I meant nothing by it and that I ask a lot of people that question. I told him my five children are a tremendous blessing and he said he may want to adopt children some day.

Once Shane’s “gayness” was out in the open, it was almost easier to have a conversation about my work and the larger homosexual issue. I told him that disagreement with homosexuality does not equal “hate,” despite the best efforts of LGBT activists to conflate the two. He and Meehan laughed when I told them that I couldn’t be a “homophobe” because if I truly “feared” homosexuals, I could not do AFTAH’s work, which requires me to be around many homosexuals.

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, it helped this time, compared to my April airport search in Regina, that Shane and Meehan, the two fellows handling my entry at Calgary, were actually interested in my explanation of what I and AFTAH do. They appreciated my defense of civility in the “gay” debate and I think Shane was satisfied that I didn’t hate him or homosexuals in general. I thanked him for his professionalism.

Shane asked me if anything i would present on Wednesday could be construed as “hateful.” I told him no, but explained that they’re is a lively debate going on in the culture about what constitutes “hate” on this question. I explained, and he agreed, that we could have a civil discussion about homosexuality and yet agree to disagree.

Paul discovered in my belongings the Human Right Campaign report, “Exporting Hate,” with its highly unflattering graphics of me and Michael Brown, and Mat Staver. (Others are targeted in the “Hate” booklet, but I only taken copies of the pages with the shadowy images of myself, Brown and Staver.)

He asked me about this quotation accurately attributed to me by the HRC “Export of Hate” hit-piece:

“Kids would ‘be better off in a single-parent household [compared to a homosexual-led household]…because you’re not modeling homosexual behavior. When you have two men raising a young child, that child grows up learning, basically, dysfunction and a sexual perversion as normality.” (Alan Colmes Show, 1/7/14)

Shane seemed especially concerned about my use of the word “perversion” and suggested in so many words that there is no religious (biblical) case for that word. I explained that historically the word has been used in association with homosexuality and that we also make the case that Natural Law opposes homosexuality.

Stay tuned for updates. Please pray for my meeting with Immigration officials today, and for our meeting (if it happens) this evening—and lastly, for Bill’s and my trial Thursday in Regina on the ridiculous “Mischief” charge leveled against us for defending life and sexual morality at—of all places—a public university.

Vicious GLN exemplifies left-wing hatred; refused to condemn 2011 brick attack against AFTAH

The radical “Gay Liberation Network is again targeting AFTAH’s banquet this Saturday for one of its protests. GLN’s leaders are so hateful that they refused to condemn the 2011 “gay” activist brick attack against AFTAH.  The above notice is filled with misinformation. To view it on GLN’s site, go HERE. To view GLN’s Facebook entry about its protest, go HERE.

Special Note from AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera:

Folks, as you can see from the graphic above, copied off the website of the Chicago group Gay Liberation Network (GLN), we just received word that radical homosexual activists are again planning to protest our annual banquet (this Saturday, Nov. 16^th; see AFTAH banquet information page; get a printable PDF banquet flier HERE).  The GLN banquet protests have become sort of an annual tradition for AFTAH. But it appears that this year in their rush to publicize their protest, this motley crew of left-wing fanatics got their facts wrong. (Imagine that: the Left caught fibbing.) So I’ve taken the liberty to correct GLN’s mistakes below:

1) YES, Americans For Truth is holding its fund-raising dinner banquet this coming Saturday evening at Christian Liberty Academy (CLA), 502 W. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL. Doors open at 5:30; dinner is served at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $25 at the door or just $20 if you buy them online by midnight Thursday (tomorrow). And you can still sponsor a Table of 10 for $200.  AFTAH banquets are wonderful, informative celebrations of truth, so please come and support us, and bring your friends and family!

(Interesting fact: AFTAH holds our annual event at CLA because several years ago, when we used to hold banquets in hotels, the petty homo-fascists at GLN would harangue the hotel about hosting a “hate group.” Twice we were booted out of hotels based on these malicious misinformation campaigns. Now we hold our banquet at CLA – and even there we were targeted with a glass-shattering brick attack by homosexual militants in the early morning of our banquet in October 2011 [more on this below]. Nobody is more “intolerant” than homosexual activists.)

This poor fellow stood outside Christian Liberty Academy during one of GLN’s protests against Americans For Truth. The Chicago media pretty much give the GLN a free pass by not exposing its extremism.

2) NO, this is NOT a joint fund-raiser between AFTAH and Illinois Family Institute. As much as we love our good friends at IFI and applaud them for all the great work they do throughout the state, they just had a fund-raiser last month! But we understand: all “homophobes” look alike to “progressives” like the GLN. (Of course, I jest: “homophobe” is the smear-term of choice for “gay” activists and their elitist fellow travelers on the Left – meant to deride and demonize their (mostly Christian) opponents as irrational, fearful bigots. The jaundiced term homophobe itself is so discredited that even the liberal-leaning Associated Press has largely given up using it in AP news stories.)

3) YES, our keynote speaker, Sandy Rios, claimed that the (media-hyped) Matthew Shepard “story was a fraud,” but she did so only after interviewing this writer on her AFR Talk program, “Sandy Rios in the Morning.” We discussed the findings of an amazing book by openly homosexual author Stephen Jimenez, The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard. In the book Jimenez reveals that, YES, pretty much the entire, convenient “Matthew-Shepard-was-murdered-just-because-he-was-gay” story was fraudulent. And what a coincidence: this “hate crime” tale was cynically exploited to demonize religious conservatives and link defenders of traditional sexual morality with “hate” and even violence toward homosexuals.

The bogus Matt-Shepard-hate-crime story was also repackaged as a tendentious play (The Laramie Project) that has been used to propagandize hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren and young adults in the same false “gay”-activist narrative. In fact, exploiting the false Matthew Shepard story has become big business on the Left.

4) So, indeed, YES, Sandy and I have publicized Jimenez’s well-researched findings that Shepard’s tragic 1998 death was very much “drug-related” – and hence was not a “hate crime.” Jimenez reveals the following about Shepard and his killers, fellow Laramie, Wyoming residents Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, and the circumstances of the case:

• McKinney and Shepard knew each other (as opposed to McKinney meeting Matthew for the first time on the night of the murder);
• McKinney and Shepard were both involved in using and dealing drugs, especially methamphetamines (meth);
• The two had partied with each other and possibly even had sex with each other as part of the same Laramie drug and social scene; and
• Neither McKinney nor his accomplice and friend, Henderson (both are in jail for life for murdering Shepard), were known for hating homosexuals. (In fact, Henderson’s girlfriend’s mother was in a lesbian relationship and Russell lived with her for months and “there was no evidence whatsoever of Aaron or Russell expressing anti-gay feelings,” Aaron’s father, Bill McKinney, told Jimenez [p. 48].) Compare that to the liberal media/LGBT-promoted story line that McKinney and Henderson – somehow fueled by Religious Right homophobia, which fostered a “climate of anti-gay hate” – murdered Shepard “just because he was gay,” after the latter made a sexual pass at McKinney. [To order Jimenez’s fascinating book on Amazon, go HERE.]

5) Lastly, NO, Sandy Rios never asserted that there was some kind of “pro-gay” conspiracy – a “plan by liberals to kill Matt to use him as ‘propaganda’ for LGBT acceptance.” This is sheer GLN nuttiness. Nobody in his right mind (pardon the pun) would suggest that liberal activists are so diabolical that they would plot to kill the young homosexual Shepard to create a “gay” martyr and thus advance the LGBT agenda!  But within hours of the bloody assault, as the Wyoming college student was fighting for his life in a hospital bed, the crime was quickly seized upon – first by close friends of Shepard, then by homosexual advocates, then by the media – as an alleged crime of “anti-gay hate.” Thus it became a pivotal “moment” in America for the Left to advance the LGBT agenda while stigmatizing moral-minded Americans as dangerous bigots.  (Jimenez also reveals that even some Laramie police officials joined in promoting the “anti-gay hate crime” theme, perhaps as opportunists caught up in the gay-liberal media spin, or maybe to draw attention away from Laramie’s criminal drug culture.)

Folks, this is a stunning hoax perpetrated by Nebraska lesbian activist and former college sports star Charlie Rogers, who apparently lied about an alleged violent “hate crime” against her–for which she has now been arrested by police for making a false report. The Lincoln Journal-Star reports:

“On July 22, [Rogers] told police three masked men broke into her home, bound her, cut anti-gay slurs into her skin and tried to set the place on fire. Thousands of people denounced the attack. Hundreds rallied around the 33-year-old lesbian woman, giving money and holding vigils in Lincoln and Omaha. News of the attack got play on CNN, NBC, in Sports Illustrated and newspapers across the country.”

KETV (Omaha) has blocked embedding of its pre-arrest interview with Rogers [click HERE to view], where she cries and does an incredible acting job in a pathetic attempt to keep her “victim” story alive.

The following YouTube piece by “Bellicose Nation” does a pretty good job dissecting this homosexual hoax and the thinking that inspired it. AFTAH will have more on this and other phony “gay hate crimes” in the days ahead:

The nation’s most powerful “gay” lobby group, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), put out the graphic below about Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), after he was picked Sunday as VP running mate by Mitt Romney. Click HERE for the HRC page on Ryan. Click to enlarge:

Hear ‘gay’ activist’s phone-mail death threats against OK City pastor

This is Part Two of my interview with Oklahoma City pastor Paul Blair and Matt Barber, AFTAH Board Chairman and Director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel. This pre-recorded interview aired Dec. 17, 2011. Blair, a former NFL lineman, and his church, Fairview Baptist Church, were on the receiving end of some phoned-in death threats after he testified against an Oklahoma City “sexual orientation” ordinance. You can hear of a few of the death threats in this interview. (To listen to Part One of the interview, go  HERE.)

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file, supported in most operating systems by Windows Media Player, Quick Time and/or I-Tunes.  Real Player is not supported and there may be difficulty when attempting to listen with it.  Left click once on the link below to play. (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment or two to load.)  OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

12-17-11, Paul Blair & Matt Barber, Part Two

Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Gary Glenn, Executive Director or American Family Association of Michigan, wrote yesterday:

Friends,
 
I was disappointed to learn today that Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, in 2001 signed homosexual activists’ so-called “hate crimes” legislation into law in that state.
 
As with the federal law signed by President Obama, the Texas statute signed by Perry establishes special “protected class” status under law, including enhanced sentencing for crimes allegedly motivated by bias against it, expressly on the basis of so-called “sexual preference” (homosexual behavior).
 
As lead plaintiff in a federal civil rights lawsuit (http://bit.ly/ilz0mP) asking the courts to declare the Obama-signed law an unconstitutional and chilling violation of religious free speech rights, honesty requires that I be equally critical of Gov. Perry for signing into law the exact same type of legislation, which — it’s clear from the enforcement record of such laws in Europe and Canada — poses the greatest single threat to religious free speech rights in America today.
 

Pictured above is the 'hateful' and 'violence-prone' Matt Barber, Board Member of Americans For Truth, in his days as a professional boxer.

By J. Matt Barber

Though always left of center, the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) once had a reputation as a fairly objective civil rights group. Founded by direct-marketing millionaire Morris Dees and partner Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971, the SPLC made important and honorable contributions to many of the historic civil rights gains of the 20th Century. According to its own materials, the SPLC was “internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups.”

Alas, “power corrupts,” as it goes, and the SPLC, having amassed tremendous power and wealth over the years, has regrettably become corrupt to its core. By way of an ever-escalating wave of “us-versus-them” money-grubbing schemes, Today’s SPLC has morphed into a far-left political activist outfit, famous for promoting a panoply of extreme liberal causes.

Ken Silverstein, writing for Harper’s Magazine, addressed this untoward metamorphosis in 2000:

“Today’s SPLC spends most of its time – and money – on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate. ‘He’s the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement,’ renowned anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer says of Dees, his former associate, ‘though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye.’

“The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Center one of the worst ratings of any group it monitors,” continued Silverstein. “Morris Dees doesn’t need your financial support. The SPLC is already the wealthiest civil rights group in America, though [its fundraising literature] quite naturally omits that fact. … ‘Morris and I…shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,’ recalls Dees’ business partner, a lawyer named Millard Fuller (not to be confused with Millard Farmer). ‘We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich.’” (You say Fuller. I say Farmer. The two Millards say “call the whole thing off.”)

So, what happens when a dragon slayer – paid per dragon head – runs out of real dragons to slay? Well, he invents new ones, of course. Gotta keep those sprinklers-a-sprinklin.’ (According to Harper’s, “Dees bought a 200-acre estate appointed with tennis courts, a pool, and stables.” SPLC’s 2008 Form-990 shows net assets of over 219 million at the beginning of that year. Yup, there’s a spate to be made in the hate trade.)

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Homosexual activist Wayne Besen screams with a bullhorn into the window of Boston's Park Street Church, which was hosting an "ex-gay" seminar last April. Will the SPLC investigate virulent anti-Christian activists like Besen in its ostensible campaign against "hate"? How would the SPLC react if right-wing conservatives were to terrorize a homosexual church in the same way?

Well, now I think I’ve seen it all. A Chicago-based Marxist “direct action” group, the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) — which smears Chicago’s historic Moody Church as a “House of Hate,” attacks Catholic Cardinal Francis George as a “homophobe,” and compares the Boy Scouts to racist fringe groups  — has successfully lobbied the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to label AFTAH’s website a “hate site.” The GLN and its co-leader, Bob Schwartz, know a thing or two about hate: in 2005, Schwartz told me, as I was standing in opposition to a “gay youth” event in downtown Chicago, that he would have pushed me into the busy city street were it not for the presence nearby of my “friends,” the police. (Read my 2005 account as Executive Director for Illinois Family Institute HERE; imagine if I had made such a veiled, physical threat against Schwartz: I probably would have been arrested on “Hate Crime” charges right then and there.)

There are few things as sinister, and as cynical, as the Left’s manipulation of “hate” as a political weapon to malign Christians and patriotic, conservative Americans. Thankfully, it seems the only people taking the SPLC seriously anymore are the liberal media and hardened, ‘Move On’-types on the Left. The SPLC is a spent force when it comes to moral authority — and even some honest liberals are seeing through its disingenuous campaign to redefine morality as “hate” and “bigotry.” (Don’t look to the SPLC to investigate homosexual haters like Wayne Besen’s notoriously nasty “Truth Wins Out” anytime soon; Besen is shown at right screaming with a bullhorn into the window of Park Street Church in Boston; click here to read the MassResistance story on the shocking 2009 demonstration.)

GLN's Bob Schwartz knows about "hate" ....

The Left is so steeped in its own ideology and self-righteousness that it is oblivious to how out of step it is with everyday Americans. Sure, there are haters on the right like Fred (“God Hates Fags”) Phelps (who despicably pickets U.S. soldiers’ funerals, and whom AFTAH has repeatedly condemned). But there are far more haters on the Left, and they are much better organized and dangerous to American liberty than those on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

On behalf of Americans For Truth, I am gratified at the outpouring of support we have received from pro-family advocates across the country in response to the SPLC’s shenanigans. We’ll say it again: to defend historic Judeo-Christian moral norms is not “bigotry,” and to disagree with homosexual activists is not “hate.” You can contact the Southern Poverty Law Center HERE. God bless you. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org; e-mail us: americansfortruth@comcast.net>

Matt Barber’s statement on the SPLC follows the jump: