Posted on 09/03/2005 10:54:47 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
Friday September 2, 2005
Alberta Christian Pastor Hauled Before Human Rights Tribunal For Letter to Editor on Homosexuality
Will not pay fines or write apology should decision go against him
RED DEER, Alberta, September 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Currently Reverend Stephen Boissoin, a young Albertan pastor who spearheads a youth ministry that makes hundreds of weekly contacts with at-risk youth, is in the process of learning Arabic so he can better minister to the many Muslim youth who he says come to his centers. And with a wife and two children of his own, in addition to his full-time ministry, he repeatedly remarked during an interview with LifeSiteNews.com that he just doesn’t have a lot of time on his hands.
But increasingly these days the young pastor’s thoughts are set on preparing for his Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC) hearing that he says will likely be heard in October.
Without the money to pay for legal representation, Stephen has no other alternative but to prepare his own defense. “I know nothing about human rights case law,” he says. “I’m trying to learn. Understand this, I work every single day, have two kids…and right in the middle of that I’m trying to learn human rights law. So, I’ll be very happy when it’s over.” The only problem with that, he points out, is that when it’s all over he may very well be in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesite.net ...
Boissoin is being hauled before the Human Rights Commission to answer to a complaint filed by Darren Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Lund made his complaint after Boissoin published a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate, in which he denounced homosexuality as immoral and dangerous, and called into question new gay-rights curriculums permeating the province’s educational system.
In that letter to the editor, Boisson lamented that “Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”
Boissoin, who is himself no stranger to the dangers of homosexual and bi-sexual activity, since many of the youth he works with fall into that category, repeatedly expressed his concern that behaviour that is dangerous, and sometimes fatal, is being presented as normative and even healthy to the most impressionable. “I was just writing a letter to the editor, to the heterosexual population,” he says, “saying this is something to be very, very concerned about.”
For expressing that view, however, Boissoin has been called a “bigot” and a “hate-mongerer”, and worse. Darren Lund has likened the young pastor to Terry Long of Aryan Nation, a local white supremacist, and James Keegstra, a holocaust denier.
Should Boissoin lose the hearing with the Human Rights Tribunal, he will be forced to pay $7000 in fines. $5000 will go to Darren Lund personally, and another $2000 will go to the rabidly pro-gay-rights group EGALE Canada, which has received large sums of money in the past from the federal government for its court challenges. In addition, Lund has requested that Boissoin be forced to apologize to his readers in another letter to be published in the Red Deer Advocate. Boissoin, however, says that he will not pay those fines, nor will he apologize, even should that mean prison.
He is not hopeful about the outcome. A few days ago, he says, he met with an officer of the Human Rights Commission, who indicated that in publishing his letter Boissoin had gone against the “position” of the Commission. “According to what they have decided is the law, I will probably be found guilty,” he admits.
Nevertheless, the pastor is carefully preparing for the hearing, asking a number of witnesses to come forward and speak on his behalf. “I feel almost too humble to say this, to be honest with you,” he says about those who are willing to come out in his defense, “but they say they’ve worked with me, and they’ve seen my devotion to teens, bi-sexual and homosexual alike, and they’re hurt that I can be fined, and potentially, if I don’t pay these fines, I can be imprisoned.”
“I’m ok with whatever the outcome is,” he concludes. “I’m just going to trust God. I’ve been through a lot in my life…I’m just going to trust Him. He may have me speaking just before the panel and judges and it may touch someone’s heart and minister to them. I’m just going to go in humble, and leave the outcome to God.”
Canada lost free speech a long time ago. Like a frog slowly boiling in water, nobody seemed to notice.
Unfortunately, the USA appears about to be next.
It's really getting bad in Canada, if this fellow goes to prison for telling the truth. I'm surprised that this is happening in Alberta. They've been conservative in the past, haven't they?
Is there a defense fund or some place to contribute for this guy?
Addressing important issues is a difficlut task these days. All manner of societal entities have decided to impose their lack of comrehension skills on others. For instance the internet was going to broaden our ability to discuss and correct all manner of societal ills. Now we find that a number of imporant issues are out of bounds due to sensitivities. The more things change...
Shocking. Can he kick this up to Canada's Supreme Court? Maybe the Santa Clauses will take pity on him.
This piece is breathtaking it its pathos. BREATHTAKING. And it fills me with crushing sadness for mankind.
Sadness??? I'm FURIOUS!
But that couldn't happen here, right? Nah........
/sarcasm
Absolutely right. At this point you cannot say anything against certain individuals regardless of any facts to support your position without being labeled a racist, antisemitic, homophobic (like anyone is phobic regarding the lavender crowd), etc. It is the next logical step for the government to outlaw saying anything that might offend regardless of the facts. They already have thought laws (get into your thoughts to determine your intention).
I was furious about a lot of things yesterday as I watched the evacuees and the heartbreak going on in that part of the country. I sit here, quite ill (literally) as my small church steps up to the plate to find homes, clothing, and basic medical care in our small community, and as I scramble as best I can to contribute as well.
Today I read this. And a good friend sends me a picture she shot in Destin this morning, on the beach, of a row of people starring into the still ocean outside her home. There is not one wave. The people are silent and still. It looks surreal.
Today I can only shake my head in disbelief at how our world is turning. And yes, I am sad.
Katrina was a natural disaster. That's sad. The Nawlins levees may not have been what they ought to have been, but it wasn't Nawlins that breached them, it was the storm water.
The shenanigans in Canada are a manmade disaster. That's enraging.
"Is there a defense fund or some place to contribute for this guy?"
I'm looking around, there must be, the story goes back a bit it looks like..
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/3248/CFI/cfreport/
http://concernedchristians.ca/pages/campaigns/hrCommision/
See "how can you help." It just says at the moment "coming soon!"
Love the sinner; hate the sin.
I don't know if Canada's Liberal government is too far gone to make distinctions like this, but it worked with the last Liberal I talked to. He accepted that view.
Since the pastor has worked with homosexuals and shown his love and compassion for them, can he not show that to the comission?
He could separate out the disease from the victim. All he's hating is the disease, not human beings. (I realize that there has to be a modicum of intelligence on the part of the Commission in order to grasp this fact)
I even love some Liberals, but I hate their disease.
Well, look what happened last time they tried to raise some money..
http://www.calgarychristian.com/articles/504-reviews.htm
Maybe they are keeping it quiet to avoid this....
Canada, like the U.K., has never had freedom of speech.
God willing, our Constitution will protect us from this dangerous idiocy.
Bless his heart.
Actually, Boissoin did not publish the letter, merely he wrote a letter to the editor. The paper is the one who published it. Should they not be the guilty party here?
Man at his worst. The Church at its finest.
That said, the First Amendment does NOT protect individuals from private civil lawsuits against their speech. This is the strategy of the left in the US -- financial indimidation of those who oppose them. Resist it.
"Should Boissoin lose the hearing with the Human Rights Tribunal, he will be forced to pay $7000 in fines. $5000 will go to Darren Lund personally, and another $2000 will go to the rabidly pro-gay-rights group EGALE Canada, which has received large sums of money in the past from the federal government for its court challenges."
It's all about the money.
Jesse Jackson should be proud.
Many blessing and prayers to him! He has a family, a youth ministry, he is learning Arabic! and has this thing happening in just a few weeks!!! May God protect him!
What a racket. Lund files a complaint, the government bears the expense of prosecuting the minister, Lund stands to make $5000; the minister stands to lose $7000 to a vicious person and an evil organization. At least he has the right to bankrupt himself with a professional defense, if he chooses.
"Will not pay fines or write apology should decision go against him.."
Sounds like he is not gonna pay if they rule against him out of principle. Will then be forced to go to jail.
So...maybe he is forcing THEIR hand... two can play at this game.
If your thoughts aren't government-approved, you're not allowed to think them or express them. If you do, you'll be fined or jailed.
It is amazing to me that the Canadians have allowed their country to come to this.
We have so much common history with the Canadians.
How do two apples fall so far from the same tree?
Canada and Australia seem much more alike than Canada and the US, but geography and history would seem to suggest otherwise.
My guess would be that because the US went to war with England to secure liberty and wrote a constitution to guarantee that liberty against encroachment by the government that we Americans are much more reluctant to surrender those hard won liberties to an invasive government.
We have much in common with Canada up as time goes by I wonder will grow together, become more alike or grow apart become more alien to one another.
I believe that we the Freepers of the US can not imagine becoming like Canada. To have a Human Rights Commission force to self-censor our letters to the editor is unimaginable.
The history of court judgments in the last fifty years is troubling. Two Supreme Court judges one way or the other is about all that stands between We The People of the United States and a new world order with the Thought Police of 1984 and the Firemen of Fahrenheit 451 telling us how to live our lives, what we can say and write and what we should think.
The roots of this New America are deeply imbedded in the colleges and universities to which we send our youth today. Will our future leaders be indoctrinated at these institutions to view the greater good is that we should all be made to hold our tongs so that none are offended and that liberty all should be sacrificed for sensibilities of a few.
I hope that at least a few on this noble forum will fight to ensure that if Canada and the United States do grow together that they grow toward a future of liberty.
It happens; the Israelis and Arabs trace their origins back to Abraham, with the Arabs calling him "Ibrahim."
YEC INTREP
BUMP for Monday.
Anyone, especially a conservative or libertarian, who argues that gay marriage is not a big deal, needs to tell me how we're going to avoid this crap here. After all, Canada has a written constitution.
A couple of things could happen. There could be a backlash by the sane members of the society or Islam could ascend to power. Either way the problem will be solved. Despite the way it may look here in the U S. The future does not bde well for homosexuals, worldwide. The degenerate european countries who embrace it are, even now, being slowly penetrated by Islam. It won't be pretty, but I hoestly wo't lose any sleep over it.
O, Canada...
How the mighty have fallen.
How the great have been laid in the dust.
And do you now follow after them?
See, your wound is fatal,
Your lifeblood pours into the Earth,
Your strength ebbs and the bonds of your spirit are loosed,
Yet, you say, "I have no need of a physician,
I am whole, full of life and in good health."
But you are blind,
You are naked,
You are filthy,
You are corrupt,
You are in the very throes of Death,
Oblivious of your perilous state
Bellowing out some lyrical inanity about your glory,
Like the tortured singing of a besotted drunk,
More's the shame the body corporate dies not alone.
O Canada,
O Canada,
Your passing shall we mourn,
Yet our distance we shall keep,
Lest your disease infect us, also,
And your fate become our own.
Farewell, our once-great and sometime friend.
As you tread now the dark'ning halls in this stilling hour,
Farewell.
Later pingout.
Esther, if you can ping me to relevant articles that would be appreciated, thanks.
ping :(
Whoever thought government-sanctioned persecution of Christians would occur so close to home?
This guy could be in deep trouble. If they don't get him for gay-bashing, they could get him for trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Are we moving toward a society where only the gays have free speech and only the non-Christians freedom of religion?
Well basicly yes.
I agree. Thank you ER.
Well, actually, NO. The idea behind these kinds of police state laws is to identify individuals with "incorrect" political views so they can be singled out for punishment, the better to strike fear into the rest of the population. If the newspaper bore the burden, it would defeat the hidden (de facto) purpose of the law.
Free speech should be all the way around, I agree.
Having said this, the pastor is not a Christian I would want to be associated with as a Christian. His letter is not how I view Christian compassion and love.
Before you go flaming away...please don't tell me how YOU have the definitive style of Christianity. i sure can't imagine Mother Theresa ever writing a letter like that....but then she was just too busy showing others the love of Christ.
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