Pastor Steve Boissoin Appealing HRC Ruling

July 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Alberta Pastor Steve Boissoin has filed an appeal to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ruling that convicted him of hate speech. The pastor was found guilty last November of having written a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate that was "likely" to expose homosexuals to hatred.

The appeal was filed on June 26 with the Queen's Bench of Alberta.

A hearing has preliminarily been set for September 9, although that date could change during negotiations between the involved parties.

LifeSiteNews spoke with Boissoin's attorney, Gerald Chipeur, who said that he is confident that the court will grant the appeal and overturn the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal's decision.

"We are very optimistic, because the Constitution is so clear," said Chipeur. "We were surprised to have lost before the Tribunal, but we believe that the courts will conclude that there has been a violation of the constitutional rights of our client. We feel very confident in our arguments, and we do expect the courts to intervene and reverse the decision."

Chipeur said his confidence was based on the fact that, "the courts have always seen themselves as the defenders of the oppressed. The context and the experience of the courts will lead them to accept our arguments."

Good. Now the whole shoddy matter will be dealt with by a real court, with due process, presumption of innocence, real rules of evidence, and 1,000 years or so of jurisprudence since Magna Carta. The santimonious, bureacratic, ideological zealots in the Alberta Human Rights Commission are about to see what happens when the law is properly adjudicated. That is God willing and the creek dont rise. (I would put in the apostraphe, but for reasons unknown when I type an apostrophe this strange looking creature appears. (è)