An alert that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day reportedly sent to Canadian borders guards to bar a controversial U.S. church group from entering Canada didn't block some members from getting in, the group's lawyer claimed Friday.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the founding member of the Westboro Baptist Church, told CTV.ca a group of seven members was turned away when they tried to cross the U.S. border into Canada Thursday night. But she said other members managed to get through at another border crossing, although she would not say how many.
Phelps-Roper and her church have outraged Canadians by planning to protest Tim McLean's funeral. Members of the ultra-conservative Christian church claim McLean, who was decapitated by a fellow-passenger on a Greyhound bus last month, deserved his fate. Although no member of the group ever met McLean, they claim he lived an immoral and godless life, just like all other Canadians.
On Friday, Phelps-Roper said her group will not be stopped from getting its message out, even if only one member makes it to McLean's funeral.
"Don't worry. It won't matter how many people there are. When they get the signs up, they'll (get) the same raging, screaming response," Phelps-Roper said.
NDP MP Pat Martin told the Winnipeg Free Press that Day's office sent an alert to border guards on Thursday in an effort to keep the group out of the country.
Phelps-Roper said the church's first group of protesters was refused entry into Canada. Members of the second group, however, carried no signs or leaflets indicating they belonged to the Westboro Baptist Church. That group got through and is now in Canada, Phelps-Roper said.
Phelps-Roper -- who will be at another protest in Chicago this weekend -- said the church is now trying to courier protest signs to Winnipeg, where McLean's funeral will be held on Saturday. However, she said she will tell her members not to hold signs stating "God hates Canada" because she's concerned police will arrest them.
Everyone in Winnipeg, get out there and do your part: protect the mourners and harass the interlopers. Everyone in Winnipeg probably knows about this already, but if you have friends or readers there, an extra email or phone call can't hurt.
As far as the wacko "protesters," what can be said that we haven't all said so many times? There are people in the world with zero compassion, without a drop of humanity. The poor soul with the knife on the bus was obviously severely mentally ill. But what can be said about these people, apparently in their right minds?
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