A Canadian pastor was arrested for the second time in weeks after protesting drag queen story time for children at public libraries.
Pastor Derek Reimer, 36, was arrested and charged Wednesday with one count of breaching a release order that prohibited him from being within 200 meters of events involving the LGBTQ community, a spokesperson for Calgary Police Service told Fox News Digital.
Reimer had been previously arrested on March 2 following a Feb. 25 incident during which three men physically tossed him out of Seton Library for protesting a Reading with Royalty event that was put on by the Calgary Public Library and featured local drag performers reading to children.
Reimer was charged with one count of causing a disturbance and one count of mischief, and also faces six counts of harassment under the city’s bylaw governing public behavior. Each charge carries a penalty of up to $10,000 and up to six months imprisonment if payment cannot be made, according to Livewire Calgary.
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Pastor Derek Reimer, 36, was arrested and charged Wednesday with one count of breaching a release order that prohibited him from being within 200 meters of events involving the LGBTQ community. (Courtesy Nathaniel Pawlowski)
Footage of Reimer’s most recent arrest in a parking lot outside the Signal Hill Library in Calgary shows police cuffing him and dragging him across the asphalt before hauling him away in a police vehicle. Bystanders protested his treatment and questioned whether he had gotten within 200 meters of the event. He remains in prison and awaits a court appearance Friday.
The Calgary City Council on Tuesday revised a bylaw and introduced a new one in response to increased protests at drag events, according to the CBC.
The Calgary City Council passed a bylaw Tuesday prohibiting protests within 100 meters of a recreation facility or library entrance. (miroslav_1 via Getty Images)
The modifications included adding the term “intimidation” to the current public behavior bylaw, and the new Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw prohibits protests within 100 meters of a recreation facility or library entrance. Some councilors reportedly raised concerns about the speed with which the new bylaw was passed.
Earlier this week, Reimer was also issued a 30-day trespass notice following a silent prayer session in the Municipal Building in protest of the new bylaw.
“Mr. Reimer was warned on a previous occasion that he could not hold a religious event inside the Municipal Building unless he has a permit,” a city spokesperson told the CBC.
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Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who knows Reimer and made international headlines himself when he was repeatedly arrested for keeping his Calgary church open during the pandemic, said Reimer’s arrests indicate the government’s “open hatred toward Christianity.”
“Everyone who is visible, everyone in Canada who is boldly proclaiming Christianity, has become an open target,” he said.
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“Calgary was immune for a little bit from the drag queen perversion — because that’s what it is: it’s a sick, twisted perversion, and you can quote me on that,” he said. “An adult man who dresses as a woman in a sexual manner and has the urge to do that in front of little children is a pervert, end of story.”
Pastor Artur Pawlowski, who is friends with Pastor Derek Reimer, faced multiple dramatic arrests for keeping his church open during the pandemic. (Artur Pawlowski)
Since drag events involving children have begun proliferating in Calgary, Pawlowski said that Reimer “decided he felt that God is calling him to expose that, to stand against that.” He noted that Reimer has communicated with him from prison, and that he is calling on Christians to rise up and vocally oppose what he described as perversion while they still can.
“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,” Pawlowski said, noting how the way authorities enforced COVID-19 protocols in Canada is now being used to enforce ideology.
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“If you tolerate corruption, you will be ruled by corruption. If you tolerate perversion, you will eventually be ruled by perversion,” he added.
