Westboro Church stopped at border
Earlier this week, the Westboro Baptist Church – an organization branded as a hate group and infamous for protesting the funerals of slain U.S. soldiers – announced they would picket Mr. McLean’s funeral to let Canadians know that his decapitation was God’s response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery.
But Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church’s founder, Fred Phelps, said a small group of protesters was stopped at the Canada-U.S. border on Thursday afternoon.
… “These people are callous, vicious and shouldn’t be let into our country,” [Ottawa resident Rodney Taylor] said. “We have freedom of speech, but they are inciting hate.”Mr. Taylor’s plan worked. Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls yesterday from angry Winnipeggers.
“These people [from Westboro] are almost as crazy as the murderer,” he said. “If they are here to disrupt the social order, that constitutes grounds to deny them entry. There is no redeeming virtue in the message they are bringing.”
According to Mr. Martin, Mr. Day’s office sent an alert to border patrol to “look out” for people with signs and pamphlets that fit the hateful messages that the church promotes and to keep them out of the country.
“In the opinion of his office, coming up here with the message they’re articulating constitutes hate speech,” said Mr. Martin.
I don’t agree with what Taylor says – “We have freedom of speech, but they are inciting hate”. I’ve explained this enough times and I’m not going to repeat it all here. But let’s just say I don’t think Taylor understands what free speech means.
That said, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with keeping foreign hate mongers out. We have more than enough skinheads, Neo Nazis and assorted Islamicist goons for 10 countries – we sure as hell don’t need to import them.
I believe that every person on Canadian soil shares the same fundamental right to free speech – but I also believe that no one but Canadians have the right to actually set foot on Canadian soil. It’s not exactly a controversial opinion.
For example – as long as they’ve done their time, we let Canadian child rapists freely walk our streets. We obviously wouldn’t let a foreign ex-con do the same. We don’t gain anything from letting ex-cons in, and we don’t gain anything for letting these hate-mongers in.
But my god do I ever hate those Westboro people – I almost wish they could get in so they could face the beating they have coming to them outside that church. Another scene like this would warm my heart:
I was working in downtown Ottawa when Phelps and his crew arrived a few years ago for a well publicized visit. Their stated intent was to burn a Canadian flag on the steps of the Supreme Court Building to express God’s displeasure at Canada’s reluctance to ban same sex marriage.
Phelps had done everything he could to turn this into a major media event. He had told American media for weeks prior to the visit that his life was in danger from Canadian “fags and commies”, that the RCMP had told him they couldn’t guarantee his safety, and similar theatrical nonsense.
The day arrived and I wandered over to the Supreme Court to see the show. There was a very small crowd of uncomfortable looking demonstrators there to support Phelps, and an equally small, equally uncomfortable looking crowd of gays, lesbians, and same-sex marriage supporters gathered.
Phelps arrived at the Supreme Court and swept up to the steps with his entourage, trying hard to look like an avenging Biblical Prophet. He was actually more reminiscent of particularly unpleasant vice-principle I once knew. He delivered his message of God’s Damnation with high drama that was hilariously overpitched to the tiny, quiet crowd – imagine Hitler in full Nuremburg mode addressing a University Women’s Club Social.
He had very hard time getting the flag lit. He’d get a corner started, try to brandish it triumphantly, and it would go out. Finally he managed to get it smoldering and held it aloft. His coterie of followers cheered – oddly, his Canadian supporters didn’t.
That was it. No-one got very excited, except him. He was clearly appalled at the crowd’s lack of response, and the crowd…all of it, including “his” demonstrators, were clearly embarassed by him.
I enjoyed the spectacle hugely. Canadians are kind of like the flag he tried to burn – we don’t catch fire easily.
balbulican
August 8, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Did either of you notice that is was fundamentalist Christian, Stockwell Day, who issued to order to Canada’s border guards to not let these idiots into the country? Hmmmm.
Louise
August 8, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Well put, Robert. Our right to sovereignty includes the right to determine who can and cannot enter the country. It’s not the free speech issue that some are making it out to be because it’s NOT the Westboro Baptist Church’s ideas, per se, that preclude them from entering the country. We’ve undoubtedly had hundreds of thousands, maybe milions, of visitors from around the world who are of the opinion that abortion, homosexuality and adultery are sins; what’s keeping the Westboro Church group out is their loudly-announced plan to cross the border to desecrate the memory of an innocent murder victim *at his funeral*, in front of his family.
It’s instructive to consider the U.S. here: Americans almost certainly have more of a constitutional right to free speech then anyone else in the world. When you travel to the US you’re typically asked by border officials “What is the purpose of your visit?” If you say “I’m giving a speech at a Marxist conference” or “I’m attending a 9-11 Truthers Conference” you will in all likelihood be waved through with a “have a nice day.” If you say, “Well, me and my entourage intend to disrupt the funeral of the victim of a random decapitation murder by screaming at his family that he deserved his death because of his filthy way of life,” odds are you’re not going to get in. Your being turned away would not be a sign of the lack of free speech in America, but of simple *sovereignty* and common sense.
It seems to me that people are — in some cases intentionally — conflating ideas with actions, even though they’re clearly not always the same thing the same thing, and also they conflate free speech with entirely open borders.
EBD
August 8, 2008 at 7:40 pm
[...] ALL-PURPOSE HATERS of the Westboro Church stopped at border. Mind you, if they were Islamist whack-jobs off to some [...]
Steynian 218 « Free Mark Steyn!
August 8, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Interesting events and interesting article. As a Jesus-follower, the hate-mongering of these so-called Christians fires me up as much as anyone. Still, I find ironic that after denouncing their hate, you proceeded to justify your own–even endorsing violence against them. Hate and violence are always flat wrong — even when directed at those who are flat wrong themselves.
chrisbjames
August 9, 2008 at 1:51 am
sad thing is they have not been kept out of the country, it has been reported that a group of them has made it in because they fed-exed their signs and were not travelling with any so they went undetected.
Apparently police here in Winnipeg will be patrolling so that these idiots can not get near the funeral, I also heard that people will be forming a barrier, because really, should the family have to deal with this too? I don’t think so.
I hope it does not get too out of hand for a couple of reasons, first the family does not need that added on to their grieving and second by turning it into a circus and/or acting violently towards these hate mongers, only gives them what they want. They think that if people hate them that is good because God will reward them, because they are suffering for him. They probably even look forward to the day that someone kills one of them when they protest so that they can be considered martyrs.
I wonder how people can screw up something so simple….like love and redemption.
jackie4joy
August 9, 2008 at 4:36 am
I’m glad they were stopped. I wish my university would do the same when they come by. They’re more of a nuisance if anything, but I think some students enjoy arguing with them, and making them look dumb. It’s not that hard.
The video? They bring that crap on to themselves, and I think they deserve it.
Adam
August 9, 2008 at 5:18 am
you who hide behind…”inciting hate”…as a reason to shut up people are the most weak bunch of nazi’s going…
phelps and his crew have more descency than you…if words make you hate, then it is your own weakness….phelps is just exploiting it and working you like a puppet just as the homo’s andbabiy killers have done for decades and you are so blind all you can do is jerk around with each pull of the string, stomping saying you want to creat a police state to keep anyone from feeling…hate or hated…
sickening…and stupid….
replay
August 9, 2008 at 6:50 pm