Ed Brayton: Boissoin Case Ends in Unjust Result

[bjorkfan]

As it was obviously going to a long time ago. Stephen Boissoin is a Canadian minister who says the kinds of things most fundamentalist preachers say about homosexuality. But in Canada, that's enough to get you brought up on charges with the inaptly named "human rights commissions." The one in Alberta just fined Boissoin $5000 and issued the following order (see full ruling here):

That Mr. Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. shall cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.
They also ordered him to write an apology to those who brought the charges against him. This case is profoundly disturbing, and even more so when you read the obvious legal doubletalk in the ruling itself. The commission wants you to believe that the order is "remedial, not punitive." Right. As if having the government fine someone for the content of their speech is going to convince them that they were wrong. I'd love to see some actual evidence for that ridiculous notion.

The commission even admits that there is "no specific individual who can be compensated as there is no direct victim" in the case, but they nonetheless required Boission to pay $5000 to Darren Lund, who brought the action against him, because he "suffered ridicule and harassment as a result of his complaint."

In other words, he brought the complaint against Boissoin, a complaint many (correctly) believe to be a violation of free speech rights, and he was criticized for doing so - and because he was criticized for doing so, Boissoin has to pay him money. And to make things even worse, the order forbids Boissoin from ever criticizing Lund in the future for having brought the complaint. Not only can he not say anything Lund doesn't want to hear, he can't even speak publicly against his having filed this action against him. Absolutely appalling.

Stephen Boissoin is an idiot, an ignoramus and a bigot. But so what? Being an idiot is not against the law and expressing idiotic opinions should not be either. We have far more to fear from governments with the power to censor speech they don't like than from all the hateful speech ever uttered.

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/06/boissoin_case_ends_in_unjust_r.php

[tuvor]

1. Here's the original letter. Also, a suggestion to you, bjorkfan.

It might make more sense to also post this in the GLBT forum. After all, the original letter was directed at their community, not Canadians.

Anyway, you didn't link to the epistle smacking of what Jesus himself surely would have written, so I hunted it down for everyone's edification.

The Following is the actual letter written by Rev. Stephen Boissoin who was at the time National Chairman of the Concerned Christian Coalition (now Concerned Christians Canada Inc.) It is this letter that has the Rev. Stephen Boissoin and Concerned Christians Canada Inc., (CCC) appearing before The Alberta Human Rights Commission.

The letter is hard hitting and direct, but is written in love and needed to be said in this time of homosexual activism. What is interesting is that when this letter is read in context is not hateful or untrue like the Chief Commissioner of the Alberta Human Rights Commission says they are.

Homosexual Agenda Wicked

June 17, 2002

The following is not intended for those who are suffering from an unwanted sexual identity crisis. For you, I have understanding, care, compassion and tolerance. I sympathize with you and offer you my love and fellowship. I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied. Many outspoken, former homosexuals are free today.

Instead, this is aimed precisely at every individual that in any way supports the homosexual machine that has been mercilessly gaining ground in our society since the 1960s. I cannot pity you any longer and remain inactive. You have caused far too much damage.

My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume. With me stand the greatest weapons that you have encountered to date - God and the "Moral Majority." Know this, we will defeat you, then heal the damage that you have caused. Modern society has become dispassionate to the cause of righteousness. Many people are so apathetic and desensitized today that they cannot even accurately define the term "morality."

The masses have dug in and continue to excuse their failure to stand against horrendous atrocities such as the aggressive propagation of homo- and bisexuality. Inexcusable justifications such as, "I'm just not sure where the truth lies," or "If they don't affect me then I don't care what they do," abound from the lips of the quantifiable majority.

Face the facts, it is affecting you. Like it or not, every professing heterosexual is have their future aggressively chopped at the roots.

Edmund Burke's observation that, "All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," has been confirmed time and time again. From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators.

Our children are being victimized by repugnant and premeditated strategies, aimed at desensitizing and eventually recruiting our young into their camps. Think about it, 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.

Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that men kissing men is appropriate.

Your teenagers are being instructed on how to perform so-called safe same gender oral and anal sex and at the same time being told that it is normal, natural and even productive. Will your child be the next victim that tests homosexuality positive?

Come on people, wake up! It's time to stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness that our lethargy has authorized to spawn. Where homosexuality flourishes, all manner of wickedness abounds.

Regardless of what you hear, the militant homosexual agenda isn't rooted in protecting homosexuals from "gay bashing." The agenda is clearly about homosexual activists that include, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Supreme Court judges, and God forbid, even so-called ministers, who are all determined to gain complete equality in our nation and even worse, our world.

Don't allow yourself to be deceived any longer. These activists are not morally upright citizens, concerned about the best interests of our society. They are perverse, self-centered and morally deprived individuals who are spreading their psychological disease into every area of our lives. Homosexual rights activists and those that defend them, are just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities.

The homosexual agenda is not gaining ground because it is morally backed. It is gaining ground simply because you, Mr. and Mrs. Heterosexual, do nothing to stop it. It is only a matter of time before some of these morally bankrupt individuals such as those involved with NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Lovers Association, will achieve their goal to have sexual relations with children and assert that it is a matter of free choice and claim that we are intolerant bigots not to accept it.

If you are reading this and think that this is alarmist, then I simply ask you this: how bad do things have to become before you will get involved? It's time to start taking back what the enemy has taken from you. The safety and future of our children is at stake.

Rev Stephen Boissoin

http://canadianpastor.blogspot.com/

[bjorkfan]

2. It doesn't smack of what Jesus would have wrote....

but a nation either has freedom of speech or it doesn't.

[tuvor]

3. Are you implying that, in the USA, you can say absolutely anything?

You're free to say whatever you want, without restriction? Really?

I'm not buying it.

[CHIMO]

4. Pursuit of an Ideal: Peace, Order and Good Government

The meaning of the phrase “peace, order and good government” goes well beyond the first line of section 91 of The Constitution Act, 1867, which along with section 92 prescribes federal and provincial responsibilities. It was included by the Fathers of Confederation to define the scope of legislative jurisdiction of Parliament, yet the phrase has evolved, sometimes controversially, to mean much more.

Indeed, the phrase “peace, order and good government” has become meaningful to Canadians and defines Canadian values in a way that is comparable to “liberté, égalité, fraternité” in France or “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the United States. It is a phrase that truly articulates the journey toward peaceful accommodation throughout Canada's evolution as a nation. This process, in itself, is reason enough to feel proud of Canada's accomplishments since before Confederation.

Today, Canada is a world leader in peacekeeping and conflict resolution and is a model for democracy. Upon accepting the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize, Canada's future Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson, summed up these concepts:

There can be no enduring and creative peace if people are unfree. The instinct for personal and national freedom cannot be destroyed, and the attempt to do so by totalitarian and despotic governments will ultimately make not only for internal trouble but for international conflict. Authority under law must, I know, be respected as the foundation of society and as the protection of peace. The extension of state power, however, into every phase of man's life and thought is the abuse of authority, the destroyer of freedom, and the enemy of real peace. In the end, the whole problem always returns to people; yes, to one person and his own individual response to the challenges that confront him. In his response to the situations he has to meet as a person, the individual accepts the fact that his own single will cannot prevail against that of his group or his society. If he tries to make it prevail against the general will, he will be in trouble. So he compromises and agrees and tolerates. As a result, men normally live together in their own national society without war or chaos. So it must be one day in international society. If there is to be peace, there must be compromise, tolerance, agreement

http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/special/gouv-gov/section1/infobox1_e.cfm

You are in the wrong forum with the the wrong catch phrase.

Try another!