After an hours-long search through the laptop, cell phone and luggage belonging to a pro-family Christian from the United States – and after drawing up the papers that would deny him entrance _ officials in Canada have relented and allowed Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality to visit.
LaBarbera, who had been invited to Canada to speak at a pro-life event, told WND that an adjudicator at a Canadian Customs hearing on Friday confirmed officials had reviewed the accusations and conclusions.
“They let us in,” LaBarbera told WND. “She gave me my passport. They will verify that I’ve left the country [later], but I get to speak.”
“This is a victory for real tolerance, over leftist agendas,” he said.”
He reportedly had been targeted by a group called Intolerance Free Weyburn, which apparently complained to the government that LaBarbera carried an agenda of “hate” with him.
In fact, the Customs paperwork prepared for LaBarbera when his flight landed late Thursday said LaBarbera, “Is a person who is: a foreign national who has not been authorized to enter Canada and who, in my opinion, is inadmissible pursuant to: Paragraph 37(2)(c) … on grounds of criminality for committing an act outside Canada that is an offence in the place where it was committed and that, if committed in Canada, would constitute an indictable offence under an act of parliament.”
Specifically, the paperwork cited the crime of “public incitement of hatred.”
The entire issue rests on the fact that homosexual activists are unwilling to tolerate those with a different perspective, such as LaBarbera’s pro-family and pro-traditional marriage perspective that he pursues through his nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
LaBarbara said he will speak now at the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association over the weekend, and he has plans to visit, but not speak at, several other locations next week.
A report posted earlier on the blog Barbwire.com explained that LaBarbera had been was released – temporarily – to the custody of Bill Whatcott, a prominent activist in Canada, when he arrived at Regina International Airport late Thursday.
And he was ordered to appear at a hearing Friday with the Canadian Border Services Agency.
LaBarbera operates the Americans for Truth organization, a non-partisan, non-profit group that explains it is “dedicated to exposing the homosexual-bisexual-transgender activist agendas.”
On his site, he updated that he was delayed for “questioning” by customs. “I had been flagged as a result of a campaign by the leftist group ‘Intolerance Free Weyburn,’ … as the alleged purveyer of ‘hate,'” he wrote.
“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 homosexual (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 AFTA’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.”
LaBarbera’s work in recent years largely has involved the defense of traditional marriage in the United States. His topic scheduled at the pro-life conference was the link between the pro-abortion and the homosexual activism.
BarbWire identified Canadian border agent Darren Bannick as the one who told him evidence was found online, on AmericansforTruth.com, about LaBarbera “targeting” a group of people based on their sexual orientation.
Whatcott said, “Peter hasn’t done anything illegal. All the illegal activity is from the homosexual activists. It’s illegal to call people names in Canada, and they’ve violated the law a thousand times.”
A statement that LaBarbera earlier had posted online explains his perspective.
“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.
“It has become clear in recent years that OPPONENTS of the homosexual activist agenda have become frequent victims of ‘unjust discrimination,” he wrote.
See the Canadian Customs paperwork:
