Speaking of gay magazines

Here's another story in Xtra, about Rev. Stephen Boissoin. It's four years old, which tells you how slowly these human rights commissions work.

It was written by Stephen Lock, a director of EGALE, the gay rights lobby, and it was in particular response to a group of vigilantes who stormed a fundraising dinner to help pay for Rev. Boissoin's legal bills:

Some eight to 11 people crashed an Apr 17 fundraiser being held by the Concerned Christians Coalition Inc. (CCC) in Calgary’s Coast Plaza Hotel’s ballroom. Before being removed by security staff, and before police arrived, the individuals—some wearing bandanas over their faces and camouflage gear—chanted “Rightwing bigots go away, Gay Militia here to stay” and pounded drumsticks together as some members of the CCC held hands and prayed while others gaped in amazement and fear...

If the “Gay Militia” had remained outside chanting and pounding their drumsticks I would have no problem with that and, in fact, would have supported that as their right to express opposition to the policies and statements of the CCC.

Freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of beliefs are valued rights in Canada.

Gate-crashing a private function, terrorizing people, and disrupting their event are an abuse of those freedoms, and an abuse of another group’s freedoms. It is this tactic that I, and Egale, have criticized.

Make no mistake: I have no sympathy for the views of the CCC or the Rev Boissoin, believing them to be poisonous. I want people like him to go away and allow us all to live in peace and harmony. However, to those involved in this action, and to those who would defend it, one must ask: If the situations were reversed and some masked radical Christian group dressed in army fatigues burst into a private function within our community, would that be okay? Would that be simply a matter of exercising their right to freedom of speech?

This “Gay Militia” action was juvenile and, in a post-9/11 world, potentially dangerous.

Looking at the video it is clear that several CCC members were terrified. All they knew is that a group of shouting, masked individuals in army fatigues had just burst into their function and taken over the podium. The CCC leadership makes a great deal of noise itself about how Christians are under attack by “Christophobes” and how Bill C-250 will criminalize even the mere criticism of the “homosexual lifestyle.” While those claims are in error, imagine the terror of ordinary members sitting at a fundraising dinner experiencing a situation like this.

What a fascinating article. Lock asks us to imagine if the roles were reversed -- if a Christian "militia" had burst into a gay rights meeting. I think the police SWAT team would have responded, really I do. Do the same mental exercise regarding Rev. Boissoin's order: imagine if an anti-gay bureaucrat had ordered a gay activist to apologize to a Catholic priest, and then to write a public renunciation of his gay lifestyle in a newspaper. It's unthinkable.

I'm impressed with EGALE's approach to freedom of speech -- and, in this article, their belief in property rights and the right to be left alone. What a contrast with Richard Warman -- who claims to be an EGALE member -- the human rights complainer-of-fortune whose guiding philosophy is called "maximum disruption" and who counsels and conspires in the kind of petty violence that the "gay militia" did in Calgary. Watch this video clip to see Warman in action.

So Canada's leading gay lobby is against censorship of Christians. Canada's gay newspapers, like Xtra, seem to share that view -- and even republished Rev. Boissoin's article.

Is there any more proof needed to show that Canada's kangaroo courts are nothing but a self-perpetuating grievance machine, stirring up dischord and rewarding complainers-of-fortune?