April 17, 2014
Bill and Pete's Not So Excellent Adventure: Hate Group Leader Back on American Soil
EDGE READ TIME: 3 MIN.
The saga of "Porno Pete" continues.
After a whirlwind tour of Saskatchewan that started with a prolonged detention at the Canadian border and ended in a jail cell, Peter LaBarbera, head of the Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) is back on American soil looking for cash to pay his legal bills.
With apologies to Longfellow. Listen my children and you shall hear. Of a religious nut job who'd call you a "queer."
In a Dickensian-length 2,011-word email to his followers, that begins with "Just a quick note," the self-styled Thoreau of the religious right recounts his five-day ordeal in the Great White North with his Canadian doppelg�nger, the anti-gay and anti-abortion activist Bill Whatcott.
Excerpts below:
The "Pro-Gay Thought Police" seemed to follow me wherever I went in Canada. When I entered the country through Regina [Saskatchewan] Airport last Thursday around 10:00 PM, I was detained for more than three hours �as Border Security agents rifled through my luggage, laptop--and even my cell phone--searching for material that would violate Canada's "Hate Propaganda" law.
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After the long wait and further questions (including reviewing the AFTAH website),�I was formally denied entry into Canada, but elected to appeal the decision with the help of a Canadian attorney. The next day, as Whatcott and I went to the Border Security office at the airport prepared to make our appeal, we quickly discovered that the decision to overturn my�entry ban was a done deal.
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On Monday, I ventured out with Bill Whatcott to be part of his�peaceful pro-life and anti-homosexual-agenda protest at the University of Regina.�I brought along�an AFTAH flier titled,' "Is All Love 'Equal'?" to�educate�students on the disproportionate health risks of LGBT behaviors (e.g., "The incidence of anal cancer is approximately 80 times that of the general population."--HIV Essentials).
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Immediately upon entering the campus, we were informed by a U.-Regina�official that we were not welcome and ordered to leave.
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Two hours later, police arrived to inform Whatcott that if he did vacate the premises, he would be arrested. Ten minutes after that, Bill and I were being led away by police in hand-cuffs.
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Bill was released�after a couple of hours, but I was kept in jail because now the Border Security agency wanted to take over my case. I was told that since I had been arrested by Canadian police, I had allegedly violated the sole condition of my entry into Canada.
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Because of Customs' involvement, I had to spend the night in the holding cell. Thank God�Bill had graciously given me his cot cushion or I would have been sleeping on cement.�The next day, I was informed that there would be another hearing about whether I could stay in the country. Since I had planned�to leave Thursday morning anyway.
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I now face a preliminary hearing May 26 in Canada. Hopefully, Whatcott or our�lawyer, Tom Schuck,�will�be able to plead "not guilty"�for me so I won't have to go to Canada for that. Then, if the "mischief" charges are not dropped--and Schuck�says there is a good chance�that�they could be--I will face a trial on the Mischief charge in Canada.
Here is an address to send gifts for our defense--led by Canadian attorney Tom Schuck (phone:�306-842-4654):
Bill Whatcott and Peter LaBarbera Defence Fund
NSWB Law Firm
Box 8
319 Souris Ave.
Weyburn, Saskatchewan�
Canada S4H2J8
LaBarbera's Canadian drama began due to an appearance in Wayburn, Saskatchewan at a pro-life convention where he was scheduled to deliver an address titled "the interconnections between the pro-abortion and the gay agendas."
LaBarbera is slated as a guest today on the conservative Christian radio "Janet Mefferd Show," where he will undoubtably defy the impossible by going into further detail about his Canadian adventure.
