|
Free Speech Warrior Bill Whatcott Ceases His Ministry & Heads to the Philippines
By Paul Fromm
April 26, 2015
|
Bill Whatcott—Truth Revealer, Social Activist, & Defender of the Faith
|
|
It is sad to see a really selfless champion of free speech and a loving and committed Christian, Bill Whatcott withdraw from the field of battle. As he explains in his message below, after a 25-year battle against abortion and the homosexual agenda, he believes it is time to suspend his Christian ministry in Canada. He is moving to the Philippines.
Needless to say, Bill and I wouldn’t see eye-to-eye on all issues, but he has been a tireless and principled champion of free speech. Canada and his fellow Christians, through ignorance, indifference or cowardice, have served him badly. Along the way, he has exposed for any Christian with eyes to see or any traditionalist of whatever religious stripe, that Canada’s senior judiciary is pathologically anti-Christian and has been captured by hard core cultural communists, dedicated to imposing their anti-Christian and radical egalitarian ideology on Canada.
Just a week ago, the Supremos who blather on about “reasonable accommodation” of foreign religions (Sikh kids being allowed to pack their daggers to school when White kids are hampered by a zero-tolerance for weapons policy) have banned Christian prayer at civic meetings, in deference to the feelings of the miniscule number of atheists who, of course, were never forced to recite or even stand for such prayers.
Bill was prepared, on numerous occasions, to go to jail to defy the large bubble zone imposed by pro-abortion legislators around abortuaries. It was forbidden to protest or even leaflet within these 100-200 yard zones. So much for free speech in Canada.
Agree with him or not, Bill felt homosexuals could be converted and drawn away from their lifestyle choices which he saw as both spiritually sinful and physically and psychologically harmful. As most Christians believe, Bill felt he was called upon to witness publicly or testify to his faith. Thus, in 2001, he handed out a variety to leaflets in Saskatchewan highlighting traditional Christian teachings about homosexuality and warning about the homosexual agenda in Canadian schools, advanced, needless to say, with taxpayers’ money. For that, he was dragged before the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission in a 11 year battle that culminated in 2012 with the Supreme Court nuking Christian belief and, against all evidence and reason, elevating homosexuals (who now have same sex marriage, same sex adoption, and their agenda ensconced in many educational curricula and blared in public service ads in the mass media) to a “vulnerable minority.”
The Court ruled that in human rights civil law, as opposed to criminal law, truth, sincere religious belief, intent or even political argument were no defence if one’s words were likely to expose a privileged minority, in this case, homosexuals, to hatred or contempt. A dying Doug Christie two weeks before his death, in March 2013, read the decision and proclaimed “the death of free speech in Canada.” [I would still like to think Doug’s words were overly pessimistic.]
While Bill won a few minor points in this decision, our new cultural Marxist elite sent a stinging message to a mere Christian peasant who had the temerity to challenge the new Christian-hating aristocracy of imposed equality. Mr. Whatcott, virtually penniless, was saddled with the “costs” of the taxpayer supported Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, a bill well in excess of $100,000. As Mr. Whatcott had raised important constitutional matters and as this appeal was anything but frivolous, the more normal course would have been not to award costs, but the Supremos could not resist a final boot to a poor, committed Christian.
Crushing as this defeat was, Bill was not discouraged but soldiered on. He held numerous meetings across Canada and reached out to political prisoners like Brad Love, visiting the latter in jail in May, 2014. Along the way, he published his engaging autobiography Born In A Graveyard (available for $25 from C-FAR Books, P.O. Box 332, Rexdale, ON.,M9W 5L3, Canada). Expelled form the nursing profession for his religious beliefs, Mr. Whatcott supported himself by running a carpet cleaning business in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
Last summer, he infiltrated the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade wearing a pink wig and shorts and styling himself as the Church of the Flying Squirrel and handing out hundreds of tracts along the way. Bill always brought humour and good spirits to his protest. Needless, to say the homosexual lobby was not amused and looked into ways to charge him. [Yes, fines, prison and legal punishment are the price of dissent from political correctness in Canada today.) He and U.S. campaigner Peter LaBarbera were arrested on the orders of the University of Regina for “mischief;” that is, setting up an information table with signs and literature in a public quad seeking to engage students in dialogue. The university felt it must protect its ADULT students from, politically incorrect ideas that might upset them and shake their faith in the cultural Marxist ideology being jammed into their heads. Mr. Whatcott was acquitted in court.
Last fall, he sought to organize a seminar on Christian morality, especially in terms of sexuality. The Regina Leader-Post, no fan of free speech except for itself, refused a paid ad for the event. The intrepid Mr. Whatcott and a few allies then set about handing out several thousand leaflets to advertize the event. Then, the Leader-Post sprang into action and approached the owner of the funeral home which was providing meeting space for the event and asked what his response would be to possible protests., The frightened man, who apparently shared many of Mr. Whatcott’s beliefs, said he’d been misled and promptly cancelled. A booking with the Delta lasted no more than a few hours. So, chalk up the Delta as another corporate entity with no commitment to free speech. Mr. Whatcott then approached a local Ukrainian Catholic Church whose views would be entirely in sinc with Mr. Whatcott’s traditional social conservatism. That booking held for a few days until the pastor decided he just didn’t want any controversy.
In the end, the speakers and a few supporters met quietly in a restaurant, in a sense, the “Last Supper” of Mr. Whatcott’s ministry in Saskatchewan. Mr. Whatcott was palpably hurt, not by the hostility of the homosexual lobby or the smug, swinish endless hypocrisy of the press, who, short months later would bray loudly “je suis Charlie” in favour of free speech in France (but not in Canada, of course)! No, Mr. Whatcott was broken by the cowardice, apathy, indifference and conformity of supposed fellow Christians. Standing up for free speech was, well, just too much trouble as was witnessing, or permitting another to witness, to the morality they claim to support.
Doug Christie always warned: “It’s not what’s in Charters of Rights and Freedoms or constitutions. You only have the freedom you’re prepared to fight for.” Sadly, the fighting spirit of Vimy Ridge has faded in far too many Canadians. Far too many Canadians are weak wimps and politically correct whipped wankers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Whatcott had lost many of his customers, frightened off by a homosexual lobby boycott and controversy.
Unable to make a living in his second profession, Mr. Whatcott has given up and moved abroad.
Someday, I hope sheepish Christians will repent and honour the man they helped the cultural communists in the judicial elite to martyr. Hopefully, a new generation will come to appreciate a loving, witty, dedicated Christian curmudgeon.
Bill, your colleagues still battling for free speech in this Christian-hating land wish you all the best.
Paul Fromm
Director, Canadian Association for Free Expression
The following article is an excerpt from a longer posting of Bill Whatcott’s on March 10th, 2015 which is titled, “Whatcott ministry to Canada comes to an end.” Bill has been one Canadian who has displayed the intestinal fortitude that so many Canadians today lack when it comes to standing up for Canada rather than tossing their principles and their integrity into the Zionist ring and only standing up for Israel instead.
Dear Friends,
My ministry to Canada has come to an end, at least for the foreseeable future. My ministry wrapped up about the way I would have wanted it to. Two days before leaving for Philippines my friend Rev. Gerhard Wilch and I had coffee with a reporter for a large homosexual publication. The reporter prefers to remain unidentified. I shared the Gospel and some apologetics with the reporter, but he was not particularly open to mine and Gerhard’s worldview. Anyways, I gave the reporter my book Born in a Graveyardand requested that he share it with other folks who work at his media outlet.
My Dad and I spent some quality time together and I visited a few family members. My Dad and I also had coffee with one of my faithful ex-gay friends, who is also a loyal supporter of my ministry. Me and my ex-gay friend who was redeemed from the transgender and lesbian lifestyle many years ago certainly had an interesting conversation. My dad who is a little more mainstream Canadian than us just sat quietly and listened as we covered our favourite topics about Jesus and the destructive aspects of the homosexual agenda. It is possible as my Dad sat there and listened to us that he just figured me and my choice of friends is nuts.
I spent my final day in Canada putting out the last of my flyers “Imagine Defunding the CBC”around the east end of Vancouver. I was not particularly surprised that most of the responses were negative, however Vancouver’s recipients of my truthful message have been far less vitriolic than the recipients in Kamloops a few days earlier.
After my final truth assault my Dad and I went to Gerhard’s church for a Lenten supper and service. From there my Dad drove me to the airport. Now, I am in the Philippines with my wife.
I have pretty much given the last quarter century of my life to fighting for a Christian vision for Canada, especially in the areas of life, sexuality and family. I also fought very hard for free speech and religious freedom for social conservative Christians.
While the path I chose was somewhat controversial, devastating to my secular career prospects in Canada, and indeed a path that rendered me a pariah in the eyes of many, I am quite happy with some of what I accomplished. On the abortion front I am very happy there are a number of children alive as a direct result of my graphic abortion sign and sidewalk counseling ministries.
My efforts in defending Canada against the homosexual onslaught has been less successful in my view, perhaps more costly on a personal level, though these efforts have not been completely in vain.
My fights with the various university campuses that have tried to have me arrested and banned for preaching against homosexuality and abortion have been very successful. I won multiple court cases against the University of Regina and University of Calgary and made my presence known on many other campuses across the country, challenging attempts at censorship on the University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan, Carlton University and University of British Columbia campuses. As far as I can tell, the courts have affirmed the right to preach, protest and hand out literature on politically incorrect topics such as abortion and homosexuality on university campuses, even if the university administrations are hostile to the message.
On a nationwide level I have certainly had an impact on the course of free speech in Canada, though I can’t really trumpet my contribution as the success I wanted it to be. In October 2011 I appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on charges that I was guilty of “hate speech” for distributing four pamphlets criticizing the promotion of sodomy in our public schools and for criticizing an ad advertising “man seeking boys” for friendship, exchanging video and pics and more. Age, race, nationality not so relevant.
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal imposed a $17,500 fine and lifetime speech ban on me for distributing flyers criticizing the homosexual agenda and the potential pedophile ad. I broke the ruling right away with a new flyer entitled “Sodomites and the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission” and appealed to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench for relief.
My lawyer Tom Schuck and I were hoping to have the hate speech provisions of the human rights tribunals ruled unconstitutional. The Court of Queen’s Bench ruled against us, and the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled in our favour. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and a record number of intervenors, 22 in total, applied to make submissions before the Court. One of the intervenors, my favourite one, Association for Reformed Political Action was rejected.
My lawyer Tom was quite confident we were going to win but in the end the loss was appalling. The ruling from Canada’s Supreme Court was 6-0 in favour of upholding Canada’s hate speech code, and also my conviction for so-called hate speech on two of the four counts. What was most distressing to me was the logic used to uphold my conviction for so-called hate speech. Justice Rothstein wrote for the unanimous court that defendants in hate speech cases could not use intent or truth as a defense. While accurate medical and social statistics on homosexuality were not enough to get me the defendant acquitted, Rothstein and the court decided they didn’t even need truth on their side to render a guilty verdict. Rothstein wrote a “reasonable person” should be able to conclude my speech would prevent sodomites from expressing themselves, prevent them from participating in society, and my speech if not censored would ultimately lead to discrimination and even genocide. Rothstein also falsely asserted that I called all homosexuals pedophiles.
Of course in Rothstein’s world I would not be a reasonable person, but from my vantage point it seemed in the more than 10 years that I delivered my flyers, sodomites did nothing else but express themselves, whether it was marching naked on parade routes, demonizing and destroying the careers and businesses of Christians who disagreed with them, advocating for a lower age of consent, successfully advocating for same sex marriage, or through mostly unchallenged homosexual propaganda in our children’s classrooms and on our televisions.
From 2002 to 2013, I put out more than 500,000 flyers and as far as I could tell I failed spectacularly in preventing sodomites from expressing themselves. As for Rothstein’s worries about my flyers leading to genocide? Aside from the fact I never called for genocide in any of my flyers, the reality is most of secular Canada never heeded my warnings on homosexuality. The reactions to my flyers were (with a few exceptions where I found supporters) mostly indifference or hostility towards me. In my view Rothstein’s fantasies of anti-gay pogroms and genocides starting as a result of my flyers were delusional and it appalls me this reasoning formed the basis of Canada’s law on what Canadians are allowed and not allowed to say.
The Supreme Court attached my flyers to the bottom of their judgment. You can read my flyers (and the entire ruling if you wish) to see that I never called all homosexuals pedophiles, you can see I never called for the genocide of anyone, and you can see for yourself Rothstein’s reasoning that my (and your) speech could be silenced even if there is no evidence of harm, simply because he and his cronies believe they are “reasonable” and they can discern (even without evidence) my speech might lead to harm.
My lawyer Tom pointed out the errors of fact to the Supreme Court (that I called homosexuals pedophiles) after they released their judgment. However, while truth is no defense for defendants like me in hate speech cases, making statements that are demonstrably untrue is no hindrance for Supreme Court judges.
In my view rulings like this one should be grounds for removal from the bench.
In any event, given the Whatcott ruling was based on blatant falsehoods and politically correct fantasies, I did what a “reasonable” Canadian should do. For two years I ignored the ruling, refused to pay the malicious penalties imposed on me and continued to put out truthful flyers on homosexuality just as I did before the ruling.
The Supreme Court made me liable for all the costs incurred by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission even though I had a partial victory. This was a departure from the judicial norm in partial victories where both parties are generally liable for their own costs. A lawyer writing for the National Post commented that the imposition of costs on me was malicious and said had I not appealed the human rights ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada would not have had the opportunity to review the “man seeking boys ads” flyer and find me innocent of so-called hate speech for my flyer exposing those ads.
Having two years of hindsight, I don’t think I would have done anything different in picking my fight with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. I do believe the truth was on my side and way back in 2001 I was correctly concerned the church was losing its ability to express its moral teachings on the homosexual lifestyle in the public square. My flyers were deliberately provocative and in some cases graphic and disturbing. This approach while not overly pastoral was a legitimate approach in my view to challenge increasing censorship and apathy that I perceived was gripping my beloved Canada.
My flyers did succeed in starting debate. Over the years I have even been blessed with developing a few relationships with homosexual activists and their allies. While the flyers were not pastoral and were not intended to be pastoral, I was able to have a number of pastoral conversations with lost souls over the years as a result of my flyers and was even blessed to play a role in leading a few folks to the risen Christ. None of the above was in vain. However, I have to concede defeat in my primary objectives of securing a robust level of free speech for my social conservative brethren and in activating large numbers of Christians to take a public stand against the homosexual agenda.
Anyways, I did the best I could with what I had. As a legacy I have a book published,Born in a Graveyardthough I am not making any money off it in Canada, it might take off in Poland thanks to the efforts of my friend Pastor Art Pawlowski. The book is a good history of my life and activism, and in my view is a good educational resource on the effects of the culture of death and homosexual activism on true freedom in the west.
It is nice to be in the Philippines with my wife. I really have no idea what I will be doing here. I am heading to a trade school right now to see if I can learn some mechanics. My wife and I are poor as I left Canada with very little. However we have family and God.
In Christ’s Service
Bill Whatcott
|
