Freedom of Speech

The issue of "hate crimes" is in the news again with the United States attempting to pass federal hate crimes legislation. Canada's hate crimes legislation has been in place since 1970, preventing hate propaganda, the promotion of hatred against identifiable groups. Since then it has evolved into a situation where we are now not just talking about anti-discrimination in employment and housing, we are now talking about serious limitations on what we are able to say and do.

Mon, August 21, 2006 Calgary Sun- Praying aloud gets man jailed Something's wrong with police priorities By Licia Corbella
Maybe if Artur Pawlowski had been holding a flag of the outlawed terrorist organization Hezbollah, Calgary Police would have left him alone. Perhaps had they seen him on a street corner smoking crack cocaine -- or selling it -- they would have turned the other cheek, as is so often the case. But Pawlowski was clearly doing something much more provocative. Wednesday afternoon on the corner of 17 Ave. and 8 St. S.W. He -- along with about six other people -- were praying and reading the Bible. Pawlowski, 33, who has been helping the homeless for years, gave up his lucrative home-building business last year to start up The Street Church full-time. With the support of area churches, he spends most of his time feeding, clothing, housing and loving members of Calgary's homeless population. He starts by taking his church to them -- in front of the Drop-In Centre mostly, but for the past four years, he has often preached to the drug dealers and street kids who congregate in the block-long park in front of Mount Royal Village shopping centre. Because Pawlowski has been threatened so often by drug dealers angry their clients often turn away from drugs as a result of his message of hope and help, he started videotaping every outing. Wednesday's was no different. Pawlowski and his friends, including his younger brother, David, stood in the far southeast corner of the park praying and reading the Bible. Shawn Pierson, 25, once a street person himself who is "one of the fruits" of Pawlowski's ministry can be seen and heard on the videotape reading from Psalm 140: "'O Lord, I say to you, 'You are my God.' Hear, O Lord, my cry for mercy.' "Such activity was clearly too fringe for the Fringe Festival underway in tents further west (and out of earshot) in the park. On Monday, Pawlowski and his brother went to the park, talked with tarot card readers and other practisers of "sorcery" to tell them the Bible condemns such practices. Video shows they remained calm but the vendors became agitated. Event organizers called police and Pawlowski and his brother David were asked not to talk to the vendors again. They agreed and left. On Wednesday, when they returned to pray, they stayed far away from the vendors. Organizers called police anyway. The video shows Pawlowski standing on the public sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He asks a burly police officer in a calm voice, "Why are you harassing me? What did I do wrong?" The police officer responds with: "I'm going to arrest you for obstruction." At that, Pawlowski is handcuffed and made to walk backwards to the police cruiser where he was frisked. Pawlowski is then heard telling the police officer about his Charter rights to freedom of speech, assembly and religion, pointing out his family immigrated to Canada from communist Poland so they could be free from oppression. He was also charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace. He spent one night in jail and is to appear in court on Sept. 7. Insp. Ed Yeomans confirmed Pawlowski's story, saying Wednesday's arrest was the police's second dealing with Pawlowski. "One vendor closed up her booth and others left the park because that man and his group were causing a disturbance to other users of the festival," said Yeomans. But the video shows clearly Pawlowski and his group did not approach vendors. Do people have a right to read the Bible in a public place? Obviously, some don't think so. Many Calgarians will likely read this and shrug. But consider this: The video clearly shows six police officers attending to the calm Pawlowski. Your tax dollars at work, folks! What's ironic, said Pawlowski, was he saw a couple of known drug dealers watching as he got arrested. Something's not right with that picture.((Source: http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Corbella_Licia/2006/08/21/1767214.html

in another related story:

Posted: September 10, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
A Canadian pastor who works with at-risk youth is preparing to face his province's Human Rights Tribunal because of a letter to the editor he wrote calling homosexuality immoral and dangerous.
The letter by the Rev. Stephen Boissoin of Alberta also called into question the province's new homosexual-rights curriculum, reported LifeSiteNews.com.
The complaint was filed by Darren Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, after Boissoin's letter was published in the Red Deer Advocate.
If Boissoin loses, he could be forced to pay $7,000 in fines – $5,000 to Lund personally and another $2,000 to the homosexual-rights group EGALE Canada.
In addition, Lund requests that Boissoin, married with two children, be forced to apologize to his readers in another letter in the Red Deer Advocate.
Boissoin says, however, he will not apologize or pay the fines, even if it means prison.
He told LifeSiteNews.com he has no money to represent himself before the Alberta Human Rights Commission, which likely will hear his case in October.
"I know nothing about human rights case law," he says. "I'm trying to learn. Understand this, I work every single day, have two kids … and right in the middle of that I'm trying to learn human rights law. So, I'll be very happy when it's over."
In his letter, Boissoin wrote, "Children as young as 5 and 6 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."
Boissoin said he's concerned behavior that is dangerous, and sometimes fatal, is being presented as normative and even healthy to the most impressionable.
"I was just writing a letter to the editor, to the heterosexual population," he said, "saying this is something to be very, very concerned about."
But his accuser, Lund, has likened him to a local white supremacist, Terry Long of Aryan Nation, and a holocaust denier, James Keegstra.
Boissoin told LifeSiteNews.com he expects to be found guilty, noting he met with an officer of the Human Rights Commission who said the letter went against the panel's "position."
The pastor is preparing carefully for the hearing, however, asking a number of witnesses to speak on his behalf.
"I feel almost too humble to say this, to be honest with you," he says, referring to the witnesses, "but they say they've worked with me, and they've seen my devotion to teens, bi-sexual and homosexual alike, and they're hurt that I can be fined, and potentially, if I don't pay these fines, I can be imprisoned."
Boissoin said he will be OK, regardless of the outcome.
"I'm just going to trust God. I've been through a lot in my life … ," he said. "[God] may have me speaking just before the panel and judges and it may touch someone's heart and minister to them. I'm just going to go in humble, and leave the outcome to God."
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Freedom of speech is being eroded at an alarming rate. Whatever has happened to the sentiment commonly attributed to Voltaire "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."