Just wanted to give you a heads up. The Phelps clan is coming to your neck of the woods Oct 13-14. At least they say they are, they have been no shows up there a lot, or so I hear.
http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/oct2001/Calgary_Alberta_Canada_10-12-2001.pdf
Isn’t that nice of them*(shudder)* to let you know their schedule ahead of time? If anyone up there hears if they actually show up, could you let me know?
Yep Baker, there are dopers here in Calgary. And yes, Herr Phelps has threatened to appear before (most recently at the Gay Pride parade… co-incidently marshalled by the leader of the Federal Conservative party tee hee). He was, as usual, a no-show.
With the improved security even if he does try to come up, he will probably get turned back.
We have anti-hate speech legislation to deal with the likes of him. Even if that isn’t employed, disrupting a religious service (and the link you posted listed all the sites he would be attacking as churches) is a Criminal Code offence. Let him come, we would be ready for him.
I’d heard about how Fred & Co. had said they would picket that Gay Pride parade, with Joe Clark as Grand Marshal. Margie Phelps, spokesperson for the group(his second oldest daughter and fourth child) went on record as saying they changed their minds because they were afraid they would be arrested as soon as they got off the plane. Actually it was because the Canadian police, being sensible people, would not agree to give them a special protection deal.
I just heard this evening that the bastards actually showed up. I serve on an NDP committe with someone involved with the Anglican church, and when we met this evening, she informed me that the goat felching bastards turned up (my terminology, not hers).
What she wants to know is why they weren’t arrested at the border. I dug up information from the criminal code, and she is going to contact her bishop and the local police to see if charges can be laid under 176(2) of the Canadian Criminal Code (which has to do with disruption of religious services). With any luck, criminal charges will be place against these hate-mongering perverted fanatics.
bagkitty, I am so sorry to hear that they actually showed. Please don’t think that they are typical Topekans. If you want, I could send you a pile of photos of their worst signs here in Topeka, and of counter-demonstrators. Concerning your Anglican contact, I have a great photo of the (Episcopalian)bishop of the diocese of Kansas, William Smalley, holding a counter-sign. It was taken on a very windy day, and sign holders had to really brace themselves. Great image.
Oh me, me!!!
I live in calgary!!!
reads OP
Well, that’s just fantabulous!!!..
ok, actually maybe i’ve been living in a cave in the middle of nowhere with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears, but uh, who exactly are the “Phelps clan”?
i can’t say i’ve ever heard of them…
I didn’t hear they were coming either, Wump.
dcnewsman, however, is. Nov 3rd mini-dopefest. Calgary.
Wump, the Phelps are a group from Topeka, Kansas (not representative of the community, I hasten to add) who go around picketing with the most nasty, homophobic signs you can imagine. You probably heard about them picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard a few years ago - the young gay man who was beaten and left to die tied to a fence.
I don’t like talking about them anymore than needed. If you want a very comprehensive article, go to the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and click on the link for the “Intelligence Report,” then the “Archive,” then the Spring 2001 issue - the article entitled “A City Held Hostage” is a very good account of them. (Sorry I can’t give a direct link to the article - they’ve set it up so that you have to click through - anti-hacking device, maybe?)
p.s. Wump[ - if they saw your sig line, they’d probably picket you!
Here’s a thread about the last time the Phelpses threatened to come to Calgary.
That’s right Ginger, hold it on a day I can’t go “growl, snarl, pout”
Blame the American, my dear.
Isn’t that a song from a movie? No, wait, something’s different…
It’s “Blame Canada”. You know, they have it all wrong. We don’t “Blame America”, we “Blame THE American”. So much better for scapegoating, you know? 
Thank you all for the information.
I guess I can hijack my own thread, didn’t want to start a whole new one. This was just in today’s Capital-Journal, our daily in Topeka, Kansas.
http://cjonline.com/stories/101801/com_britishfilm.shtml
Wish I could get a look at what the crew produces. Also, something does seem to be wrong with a good portion of the Phelps website. I have their pickets and fliers section bookmarked, and it hasn’t worked in several days. All I get is a “not found” Part of the site is functioning though, just can’t get through to anything like “press releases”, “news stories”, or their schedule for their “upcoming Love crusades”(aka pickets.)