Calgary Pastor back in court over protesting at all-ages drag queen storytime

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Pastor Derek Reimer was back in court yesterday on March 22 for a bail hearing regarding his recent arrest that occurred as a result of breaching his bail conditions on March 15.

Derek Reimer is known for protesting at a children's “Reading with Royalty,” or “drag queen story hour” at Seton Public Library on February 26 after a video that went viral showed parents physically and forcefully kicking him out of the room after he attempted to speak to them about his concerns from a biblical perspective.

After the Mayor of Calgary Jyoti Gondek took to Twitter to advocate for a police crackdown on such protesters, Derek was charged with causing a disturbance, mischief, and six other counts of harassment for heckling a drag queen.

He was then arrested near his home during a prayer walk on March 2. Meanwhile, those that assaulted him faced no legal discipline. Furthermore, on March 14th, City Council passed The Safe and Inclusive Access bylaw in which protesters of drag story times may face up to one year in prison and/or a 10K fine if found within 100m of the event. We can see an active push from the city to protect drag queen interactions with minors.

Derek's initial bail conditions restrain him from communicating with someone from the LGBTQ community, even for spiritual counseling. He must also not attend or be within 200 meters of anything described as any LGBTQ+ community event.

On March 15, Pastor Derek was swarmed by police and re-arrested in breach of his conditions after he was spotted a distance across the road from another 'reading with royalty' event at the Signal Hill public library. From what we learned in court today, he was standing at 160m, just shy 40m of the 200m requirement.

Rebel News has been helping Derek fight this legal battle by hiring a lawyer through the registered charity, The Democracy Fund. If you want to help with the legal fees and stay updated with this case you can head to SavePastorDerek.com.

After three no-shows, the Crown prosecutor was finally present for these matters. During the hearing, she made some eyebrow raising comments. Initially, our chief reporter Sheila Gunn Reid, who was in the court room live-tweeting, overheard the crown telling a colleague that “his entourage is here” and that she “wasn't going back to her office” for the fear of being “ambushed with tomatoes.”

Well, I spoke with a few protesters that were there, and none of them seemed to have intention of throwing tomatoes at her and were quite confused about that assumption. For the most part, they were joyfully dancing along to music they were playing, while the rest were in the court room.

The judge asked the Crown for examples of the transphobic comments that Derek had allegedly made when at the initial scene at seton library. The crown then used examples such as “With Jesus, today is the day of salvation in Christ” and “ perversion of drag queens of perverting our children”

Apart from speaking his biblical knowledge, Derek made no threats or assaults. The crown then proceeded to talk down upon other statements Derek had made. Some of those were comments such as “ What's more important: my freedom or doing God’s will” and “We don't hate people, we hate the sin.”

Sheila Gunn Reid joins me to bring you some more details from what went on inside the court room today.

Derek is being released on bail today as long as he signs his bail conditions. I will be heading up to the Calgary Remand Centre to get comments from thought criminal Derek Reimer when he makes his appearance outside.

Pastor Derek Reimer is being represented by lawyer Ben Allison, through a partnership with the registered Canadian charity, the Democracy Fund. To make a tax deductible donation, please visit SavePastorDerek.com.