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!
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.
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