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LaBarbera Denied Entry into Canada for Pro-Family Speech – Appeals Decision Today – Responds to Letter to Catholics from Regina Archbishop Daniel Bohan
April 11th, 2014
Will ‘Intolerance’ Prevail in Canada? Chris Brookes of “Intolerance Free Weyburn” and his wife led a campaign to lobby Canadian government officials to block AFTAH president Peter LaBarbera’s entry into Canada. On Thursday evening, Canadian customs officials issued a preliminary denial of entry to LaBarbera, who is scheduled to give a speech at a pro-life conference in Weyburn, Saskatchewan Saturday. LaBarbera is appealing the decision today. Photo: Chris Brookes’ Twitter account.
[UPDATE FROM PETER LaBARBERA: Yesterday I wrote the reply below to Regina, Saskatchewan Archbishop Daniel Bohan’s statement about my scheduled presentation at a pro-life conference in Canada. That evening, I flew from Chicago to Regina. Upon deplaning, as I passed through Customs, I was delayed for further questioning by an official with the Canada Border Services Agency. Obviously, I had been flagged as a result of a campaign by the leftist group “Intolerance Free Weyburn,” which is specifically lobbying the Canadian government to deny my entry into Canada as the alleged purveyor of “hate'” [See this AFTAH report on their lobby effort to deny me entry into Canada, and this previous report on the group’s attempt to have me removed as a speaker at the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association (SPLA) conference April 11-12.]
After questioning me about the purpose of my scheduled presentation at the SPLA event; rifling through my luggage, which contained numerous books and literature related to homosexuality (pro and con); examining the contents of my laptop and my cell phone; playing a DVD of my speech Wednesday at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio; and critically viewing AFTAH’s website–a preliminary decision was made to deny my entrance into Canada on the basis that my speech at the SPLA would violate Canada’s “Hate Propaganda” law (essentially the potential for “public incitement of hatred” against a group of people based on their “sexual orientation”). The Orwellian experience at Customs dragged on for more than three hours as a formal document was issued outlining my denial of entry under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (citing the Hate Propaganda code). Finally, after 1:00 A.M., I was released pending my appeal of the decision today (Friday). My passport was seized until I arrive back at Customs today at noon for my appeal before a “Minister’s Delegate Review.”– Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH]
NOTE: We have posted letters supportive of LaBarbera speaking at the pro-life conference in Saskatchewan by American pro-life/pro-family advocates Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League [click HERE] and Mary Anne Hackett of Catholic Citizens of Illinois [click HERE]. We will try to post some of the other letters of support–including one from a homosexual man in the U.K.–as soon as possible.]
_________________________________
The following is the April 10 reply by Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), to a letter to Catholics by Archbishop Daniel Bohan, Archdiocese of Regina:
I believe that Archbishop Bohan felt the need to issue a letter that specifically mentions me due to the local controversy that has been instigated by a liberal group that, ironically, has spread much false and derogatory information about me. Many Catholic leaders in the United States, including pro-life hero Joe Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League, have come to my defense–and are deeply opposed to Intolerance Free Weyburn’s (intolerant) efforts to “ban” me from speaking in Canada. I have great respect for the full array of Catholic instuction on the issue of homosexuality, and quote from Catholic teachings all the time. I wish more Catholics knew and honored these teachings–including that no faithful Catholic can support same-sex “marriage” or laws and policies putting adoption by homosexual-led households on a par with adoption by mother-father households.
As an evangelical Christian, I believe that all people, including homosexuals, must be treated with respect and the grace of Christ. As a sinner myself, I am no “better” than the man or woman engaged in homosexual sin. We all need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. I adhere to the universal philosophy shared by so many who follow Christ: “Love the sinner. Hate the sin,” In fact, if I truly lacked compassion and hated homosexuals as my detractors falsely and maliciously claim, I would not have been invited to speak by the leaders of the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association. Lastly, it has become clear in recent years that OPPONENTS of the homosexual activist agenda have become frequent victims of “unjust discrimination.” In fact, in the lead up to the SPLA convention, one of Archbishop Bohan’s own parishioners, Bill Whatcott, was turned away from service by the owner of Southeastern Computer Solutions in Weyburn–because Whatcott adheres to the historic Judeo-Christian moral understanding of homosexual acts as sinful. Such anti-Christian bigotry and discrimination will be one of the topics of my talk Saturday.
Sincerely in Christ
Peter LaBarbera
President,
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org)
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The following is the letter sent out by Archbishop Daniel Bohan, Archdiocese of Regina:
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Leftists Cite SPLC in Campaign to Block Peter LaBarbera’s Entry into Canada
April 9th, 2014Crude effort to block pro-family speech in Canada not unlike GLAAD/SPLC crusade to censor pro-family voices opposed to homosexuality in media
“I would like for him to be turned away from our border….Peter LaBarbera should not be allowed to enter our country. His sole purpose of entering Canada is to spread his message of hate and intolerance.”–Bailey Ashton Brookes, Intolerance Free Weyburn, in a public letter to Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Steven Blaney
“Tolerance,” Canadian Style: Canadian pro-life and pro-family activist Bill Whatcott poses for photo with adversary and anti-“intolerance” activist Bailey Ashton Brookes, who is lobbying the State to keep AFTAH’s Peter LaBarbera out of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he is scheduled to give a talk Oct. 11-12.
By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
Folks, below is the verbatim copy of a Facebook letter by “Intolerance Free Weyburn” [Saskatchewan] activist Bailey Ashton Brookes. She is urging others to write Steven Blaney, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, to bar my entry into Canada, where I am scheduled as a speaker at the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association (SPLA) conference in Weyburn, October 11-12. [see original AFTAH story HERE; see letters by Joe Scheidler and Mary Anne Hackett defending me as a speaker].
“I would like for him to be turned away from our border,” Brookes writes.
Despite the Left’s history of censorship and totalitarianism, I am a bit taken aback to be the target of such an outrageous attempt to intimidate SPLA’s leaders into jettisoning me as a speaker–and then lobbying the State to ban me as a supposed purveyor of “hate.”
It’s one thing to write and poke fun at the “pro-Gay Thought Police,” and quite another to be in its crosshairs.
Here we have an object lesson on the inevitable end-result of political correctness–in the form of leftist “thought control” fused with State power. For years now, the far-left-biased Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has maliciously smeared my group, AFTAH, as well as dozens of other pro-family organizations like American Family Association and Family Research Council as “hate groups.” Then fellow travelers on the Left, led by LGBT activists, circulate the SPLC’s lie as if it is some kind of authoritative evidence that AFTAH and this writer are truly “hateful.”
In Canada, bereft of a First Amendment, mischievous “progressives” can cause more trouble faster than in the U.S., by citing legal bans on “hate speech” that have been upheld by the country’s highest court. Canadian Bill Whatcott, a brave pro-life and pro-family activist who will be speaking at the conference next week, has been victimized by such “hate speech” prosecutions. So have many good Canadians like Stephen Boissoin, who have been dragged through preposterous “human rights tribunals” merely because they voiced opposition to the Sin of Sodom.
SPLC smears go worldwide
SPLC’s One-Sided “Hate” Scam: Remember this leftist brick attack on AFTAH’s banquet in 2011? The Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network (GLN) publicly refused to condemn it–demonstrating actual hatred. Yet the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has never labelled GLN–or any homosexual organization–a “hate group,” while slandering dozens of pro-family organizations like AFTAH with that false smear. The words on the paver brick thrown through the glass doors of the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, IL, refer to AFTAH banquet speaker and honoree Scott Lively.
The SPLC’s corruption and radical pro-homosexual bias is illustrated by the fact that it has never designated an LGBT organization as a “hate group.” In fact, the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network (GLN), which took great pride in “reporting” AFTAH to the SPLC as a potential “hate group,” later publicly refused to condemn a brick attack against the school, Christian Liberty Academy, that hosted our 2011 banquet! [See AFTAH original story on the pro-homosexual brick attack.]
That’s real hate as opposed to ideologically-defined “hate.” Yet the SPLC has yet to designate GLN as a “hate group.” The good news is that many Americans and pundits finally are seeing through the SPLC’s “hate” scam.
Most activists on the Left are not as brazen as Ms. Brookes and her husband in pressing the censor card, but these two “morality-phobic” individuals are merely applying a more extreme and crass version of the pro-LGBT Left’s hardball tactics. Homosexual activist groups like GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)–working with others like the SPLC–continually and falsely equate opposition to homosexuality with “hate.” They also throw around the ominous-sounding charge of “homophobia”–implying that their opponents are filled with irrational fear as opposed to disagreeing with immoral and unhealthy sexual behavior.
Then this Coalition on the Left pressures the media not to give a voice to the haters, homophobes and bigots. In recent years, they have expanded their crusade to include the enemy of “religious-based bigotry.” In their pride, they possess little regard for the sincerity and motives of Christians and others who genuinely seek to defend God’s moral order (“righteousness” in the Bible)–while holding out the hope of healthy change as personified by the many men and women who have left homosexuality (“gayness”) behind.
Since these illogical arguments and self-serving tactics can easily be defeated by pro-family advocates, pro-LGBT militants would rather just shut groups like AFTAH down in the Public Square. Endlessly playing their “anti-hate” card, they plead with the media to stop including the “other side” in their stories–stoking the ridiculous notion that no legitimate opposition to homosexualism (“gay rights”) exists. I’m afraid this is how countless cowed and ill-informed Western journalists think about homosexuality today. The arrogance and injustice of deciding for everyone what supposedly constitutes “hate,” “intolerance” and appropriate arguments in this Culture War debate apparently is lost on these liberal Speech Police and their media accomplices.
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Video: ADF on Supreme Court Refusing to Hear of New Mexico Elane Photography Case – Christians Lose Religious Liberty
April 7th, 2014This video was just released by Alliance Defending Freedom., on the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case of the New Mexican Christian photographers Jon and Elaine Huguenin, who were were sued because they declined to take a job shooting photos at a lesbian “commitment ceremony.” ADF has a Fact Page on the case HERE, and also a press page on the case HERE. The decision lets stand a New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that effectively neutered Jon and Elaine Huguenin. Go HERE to read AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera’s in-depth report, “Gay Power vs. Religious Liberty,” for WND.com on other victims of the escalating pro-homosexual tyranny:
LaBarbera: Illinois Legislation HB 5569 Would Ban Healthy Heterosexual Change Therapy for Minors
April 7th, 2014Illinois HB 5569 proposes a ban on mental health providers offering counseling to minors with gender identification issues. Here is a video produced by Illinois Family Institute on HB 5569. Go HERE for the AFTAH Action-Alert piece on this freedom-destroying bill that denies self-determination for youth with unwanted homosexual attractions. TAKE ACTION: Illinois Residents: call your legislators (217-782-2000) and urge them to oppose HB 5569 (the so-called “Conversion Therapy Prohibition Act”)–which would deny healthy, pro-heterosexual change therapy to minors with unwanted same-sex desires. The bill, sponsored by lesbian St. Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), has passed out of committee and has been sent to the House floor. It is on the liberal fast-track so act now! Call Springfield at 217-782-2000. Find your state and federal legislators HERE.
VIDEO: Do You Fear God or Man on Homosexual ‘Marriage’?
April 7th, 2014On May 11, 2013, I spoke at a pro-family rally and posed the question, “Do you fear God or man?” on the issue of homosexual “marriage–which, of course, is not truly marriage in the eyes of our Creator. The rally was sponsored by Illinois Family Institute and was held outside of (Republican) State Rep. Jim Durkin’s district office in Western Springs, Illinois. At the time, Rep. Durkin was undecided on a pending homosexual “marriage” bill but he ended up voting “No.” The bill ultimately passed the Democrat-dominated Illinois General Assembly and was signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn (D). It goes into effect June 1, although unnatural “gay marriages” are already allowed in Chicago and surrounding Cook County due to legal action. –Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH [Watch this on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/Y4t3bzYkc0c]
Mary Anne Hackett of Catholic Citizens of Illinois Supports LaBarbera for Canadian Pro-Life Conference
April 5th, 2014
Thanks to my friend and stellar pro-life and pro-family advocate Mary Anne Hackett, president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, for this letter regarding my upcoming speech at the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association conference April 11-12 [see article HERE]. Leftists in Weyburn, Saskatchewan are seeking to dislodge me as a speaker at the event and have organized a counter-protest, using the bogus charge that I will be spreading “hate.” –– Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
I am writing to state my support for Peter LaBarbera as a speaker at your event. I have known Peter for almost twenty years and have worked with him on numerous pro-life, pro-family events and projects. He has been an outstanding defender of Life and Family, exposing the agenda of those who wish to undermine the family life in our society. I am past president of Illinois Right to Life and I am president and co-founder of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, a Catholic lay organization faithful to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Catholic Citizens was founded seventeen years ago and we have been active participants in the moral battles of our time.
Peter has been willing to stand in the forefront of these efforts, never wavering from his Christian commitment to present the mercy and love of Jesus Christ. There is nothing hateful in his presence or his presentations, but rather a genuine desire to call people out of a sinful and unhealthy lifestyle, by offering them something better. He has earned the gratitude and respect of many ex-homosexuals because his approach is filled with love and concern, not condemnation.
There has been a hate campaign against Peter from the homosexual activists whenever he has been invited to speak or lead public events in support of marriage. I have been a witness to some those attacks. The goal has been to conceal the truth about homosexually from the public. Those of us who have been involved in these efforts to defend Life and Family must not let hate prevent honest and open people from hearing the truth. I congratulate you on your choice of Peter as a speaker and I urge you not to waiver from that decision.
Mary Anne Hackett, President
Catholic Citizens of Illinois
106 Calendar Court, PMB #122
La Grange, IL 60525
Pro-Life Hero Joe Scheidler Defends LaBarbera as Speaker at Saskatchewan Pro-Life Conference
April 5th, 2014
Pro-life leader Joe Scheidler
Folks, I’ve taken the extraordinary step of asking some pro-life and pro-family leaders and friends to vouch for me in the face of a leftist attempt to dislodge me as a speaker at the upcoming Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association event April 11-12. [See AFTAH story HERE.] The following note is from Joe Scheidler, one of my personal heroes and the founder of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. Scheidler’s “Truth Tours” featuring placards with photos of unborn babies victimized by what the liberals call “choice” have educated countless tens of thousands of people across America as to the murderous reality of abortion-on-demand.
Thanks to Joe and all the wonderful leaders and advocates who have come to my defense regarding the Canada trip. The Left is whipping up hysteria in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and sadly more than a few pro-lifers are confused about the false charge of “hate” leveled against me. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH
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Joe Scheider writes:
I called the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Assn. and told Loraine what a great guy Peter is and that we have worked with him over the years and that being picketed by a bunch of homosexuals will bring publicity to his talk and to get word to the people in charge to greet him with open arms. She said she’d pass on my message of support. They have been getting lots of calls, letters, e-mails, etc. Best.-Joe
Yours for Life,
Joseph M. Scheidler
National Director
Pro-Life Action League
Phone: (773) 777-2900
Website: http://prolifeaction.org
Facebook: http://facebook.com/prolifeaction
Mozilla and the Reality of Homo-Fascist Bigotry: ‘Gay’ Activists Pressure CEO Brendan Eich to Resign
April 4th, 2014Another scalp for Big Gay Inc. means diminishing freedom of conscience for Americans
Ideology over Performance: Brendan Eich is extremely qualified to be Mozilla”s CEO. He just thinks the wrong way about the preservation of natural marriage–according to LGBT militants–igniting a homosexual activist campaign against him.
By Peter LaBarbera
In the type of story that has become all too common, the Los Angeles Times reports: “Just days after taking the job, Brendan Eich has resigned as chief executive of Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, after coming under fire for his 2008 support of Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that disallowed the marriage of same-sex couples in the state.” That prompted this comment by a smart reader (“brdcstr”):
So Mozilla promotes a lifelong employee based upon his skills and leadership qualities, presumably after an exhaustive search, only to fire him a week into his tenure based upon a donation he made to a cause they differed on?
What are they running over there, a business or a social club? Sounds like the type of company that only welcomes monolithic thinking.
I would be willing to bet that the cackling hyena who asked for his resignation voted for Obama in 2008… When he was opposed to gay marriage, before he was for it.
Gotta a love the liberals who falsely pride themselves as being tolerant, as long as you agree with them. If not, they would prefer to silence your voice instead of engage in debate to promote dialogue and better understanding.
Time to go uninstall my Firefox browser. Like the company, it keeps crashing, rendering it useless.
I’m afraid that my friend Matt Barber, founder of Barbwire.com and an AFTAH Board Member, is correct [see his piece below]: the rising tide of ‘homo-fascist’ bigotry–or call it ‘homo-Marxist’ cultural aggression if you choose–threatens to destroy freedom in this great nation. Note that it is no longer just disagreeing publicly with homosexuality that triggers the powerful forces of Homosexual Indignation and Hate, but merely standing up for natural marriage (one man, one woman), as EX-Mozilla CEO Eich did in supporting California’s Prop 8 in 2008.
Eich, who gave $1,000 to help pass Prop 8, was joined by over seven million “homophobic bigots” in 2008–if you believe pro-homosexual fanatics. Prop 8 passed by a margin of 52.24-47.76 percent, with a popular vote of 7,001,084 in favor and 6,401,482 against.
A troubling pattern of homosexual activist intimidation, corporate or individual capitulation, and then self-censorship or mandated ideological compliance seems to be the West’s New Normal–in defense of the abnormal.
Mozilla’s politically correct baloney
Reading Mozilla’s Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker’s statement on Eich’s resignation reminds me of the old Soviet propaganda: savvy citizens have to read through the obfuscatory lines (a fancy way of saying B.S.) to decipher the real meaning behind the DiversitySpeak. For example, there’s this:
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