The Interim co-sponsors the Culture Watch program on HWWN Radio Maria (available online at hmwn.net, just click on the large “LISTEN ONLINE” icon in the centre of the homepage). The program streams live the second and fourth Thursday of every month from 6:05 – 7:05 p.m., with repeats on the first, third and fifth (if there is one) Tuesday of every month from 11 a.m. – 12 noon. The audio archive, where past programs can be searched by keyword and category, can be found here.
Here’s the release about tonight’s program:
Seven thousand dollars in fines and orders to apologize and cease expressing views on homosexuality. All because of one letter to the editor, which was also curiously blamed for motivating a subsequent gay bashing incident. That’s the Kafkaesque scenario Stephen Boissoin, an Alberta youth minister, found himself in after he wrote the letter to the Red Deer Advocate newspaper in 2002. Boissoin was hauled before a human rights commission and convicted of hate speech over the letter. However, the matter is now before the Alberta Court of the Queen’s Bench, which is considering Boissoin’s appeal that the ruling violated his right to free expression as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Boissoin has been maintaining a media boycott in the recent past, on account of his continually being misquoted and vilified in those forums. However, he decided to end that boycott recently and made an appearance before a meeting of the Niagara branch of the Association for Reformed Political Action, an organization associated with Reformed churches in Canada. The address, at Covenant Canadian Reformed Church in Grassie just outside Hamilton, was recorded by Culture Watch and on this edition, we present part one of Stephen Boissoin’s account of his tangle with human rights commissions and the legal system in this country. Listen for part two on the next edition.
