Canadian pastor arrested, jailed for peaceful protest

A Canadian pastor was arrested and imprisoned for peacefully protesting a drag story time event, charged with alleged hate speech.

The Rev. Derek Reimer, 36, pastor of street church ministry Mission 7 faces eight new charges, including criminal harassment, causing a disturbance, and breaching his release conditions. CBC reports that the Calgary police confirmed the charges are investigated as “hate-motivated.” This is Reimer’s third arrest in five weeks, his most recent one coming on Easter weekend, where he remained behind bars for the weekend. Each arrest outside of libraries during drag queen story hours, cites disturbances, offensive words, “shouting things with a microphone,” and offending the drag queen participants.

After Reimer’s first arrest for protesting, the Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw was passed by the Calgary City Council, prohibiting protests or “intimidation” within 100 meters of a library or rec center. Arrest video footage shows at least eight officers responding to Reimer’s protest.

Franklin Graham spoke up on social media in defense of Reimers writing,

“Canadian pastor Derek Reimer spent Easter in jail! He was arrested for protesting at drag queen story events for children. Pastor Reimer feels that God was calling him to expose and stand up against these events that endanger and seek to indoctrinate children. It’s just wrong to expose children to sexualized, agenda-driven programs like this. Another Canadian pastor, Artur Pawlowski, who was jailed for refusing to go along with what he felt was government overreach in his church related to Covid-19 restrictions and closings during the pandemic, said something we should pay heed to:

“I’ve warned Canadians for a very long time—and I’m warning Americans as well—that you will be ruled by what you tolerate. If you tolerate corruption, you will be ruled by corruption. If you tolerate perversion, you will eventually be ruled by perversion.” These are true and wise words of warning for all of us.”