Calgary police have charged a pastor with a “hate-motivated” crime for protesting a drag queen story time at the Calgary Public Library.
Pastor Derek Reimer, 36, of Mission 7 is also charged with causing a disturbance and one count of mischief following the Feb. 25 event. He is set to appear in court on March 3.
Several other protesters also entered the library classroom where the event was taking place, though Reimer is the only one who has been charged, police
said in a March 3 release.
“We’re tired of these grooming, pervert story time hours. ... Why the obsession with indoctrinating the kids?” Reimer
said in a Rebel News interview March 2 before he was arrested. “We wanted to expose the evil and the darkness,” he said. “We’ve got to shout it from the rooftops.”
A video taken by an attendee and
posted on Twitter shows two men pulling Reimer out of the classroom forcefully. Police say that inside the classroom, Reimer and others shouted “homophobic and transphobic slurs” and refused to leave.
Police declined to elaborate on what exactly Reimer said. “As this is now before the courts we don’t have anything further to say about the investigation,” Calgary Police spokesperson Brittany Klassen told The Epoch Times via email. The Calgary Public Library did not reply to The Epoch Times request for comment by publication.
The video shows Reimer talking outside of the classroom after being removed, saying “We are not supposed to be homosexuals and transgenders. Those who do this will not inherit the kingdom.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek recently
said she will use a street harassment bylaw and other existing bylaws to crack down on a spate of protests against drag shows in the city.
The street harassment bylaw carries a fine of $500. The city’s website
defines “harassment” under this bylaw as “Communicating with a person in a manner that could reasonably cause offence or humiliation” as related to a person’s race, religious beliefs, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other similar factors.
“We have performers being targeted for weeks & now vitriol in front of children at the library. These are not peaceful protests. This is hate,” Gondek
said on Twitter Feb. 26.
The Calgary police
defined hate-motivated crimes in their release about Reimer’s arrest: “Hate-motivated crimes are recognizable crimes, like assault, theft, vandalism or any other crime, where the offender was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate that is based on the personal characteristics of the victim.”
“If the judge decides during sentencing that hate was a motivation for the offence, it is an aggravating factor that can add to the convicted person’s sentence.”
Drag story times have popped up across Canada and the United States in recent years and are often met with protest. On March 2, Tennessee became the first state to sign into law a
ban on drag shows for minors. The same law prohibits gender transition treatments for minors.
“The concern is … children that are potentially exposed to sexualized entertainment, to obscenity, and we need to make sure that they’re not,” Governor Lee told reporters near Dr. William Burris Elementary School in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
