CANADA: Human Rights Complaint Filed After Magazine Publishes Letter From Hate Group Leader Matt Barber
Western Pride NL member Kyle Curlew, who initiated filing the complaint, said his "jaw dropped" when he first saw the two-page letter. "I couldn't even believe that it was published in the Herald. It was a rallying call for people to stand against LGBT rights. Essentially, hate propaganda," Curlew told CBC. Curlew said after reading the letter, he decided to take the matter to police. "We filed a human rights complaint under C-46, Section 19, which is 'propaganda and the incitement of hate towards an identifiable group.' So we are hoping to press charges." Curlew said he feels the long-time publication stepped a little too far outside its role in local media. "Letters to the Editor in a Newfoundland and Labrador magazine should, for one, include letters from our community here on this island. Not someone who is completely removed from our politics in the [United] States. The other thing, The Newfoundland Herald is a television guide, not a political magazine or a religious magazine. I don't think that kind of discourse belongs in a television guide."The magazine says that Barber's letter spawned more responses that any others in the title's history. The managing editor has promised to publish some of those reactions in its next issue. Here's how Barber's piece begins:
From behind a smoking sniper rifle high atop his ivory tower peers the secular “progressive.” He surveys his many victims, strewn across the American landscape below and mockingly sneers, “War on Christianity? What war on Christianity?” He then resumes shooting, all the while insisting that those uncooperative Christians who scatter for cover behind the word of God and the U.S. Constitution somehow suffer from a “persecution complex” (the baker, the photographer, the florist, the innkeeper, the Christian school administrator, etc.). Let’s see if we can make this abundantly clear. Christians, true Christians – regenerate, Bible-believing Christians who strive their level best to maintain fidelity to the word of God and honor His commands – will not, indeed cannot, participate in, approve of, facilitate or encourage certain behaviors deemed by the Holy Scriptures to be immoral or sinful. This is both our constitutionally affirmed human right and our Christian duty.(Tipped by JMG reader David)
Labels: Canada, Christianists, hate groups, hate speech, Liberty Counsel, magazines, Matt Barber, Newfoundland, religion
