Pastor Derek Reimer found guilty of criminal harassment and breach of bail

Pastor Derek Reimer made national and international headlines when he was arrested for protesting drag queen story hours, events dubbed “Reading with Royalty” in which men garishly disguised as women inexplicably feel the need to read to small children, at public libraries across Calgary.

For daring to oppose these events, the embattled pastor has faced a litany of charges, many of which are finally being addressed by the courts.

Pastor Derek has already secured victories on dropped charges of trespassing and causing a disturbance, stemming from praying in City Hall and reading the Bible publicly respectively.

He also secured a minor victory this week when he was acquitted of an additional causing a disturbance charge, but during the same proceedings he was found guilty on charges of criminal harassment and breach of bail extending from opposing drag queen story hour events at Saddletowne and Country Hills libraries in late March and early April.

Pastor Derek is now awaiting sentencing on these new guilty findings, in addition to expecting a ruling on his initial protest charges in the coming weeks as those court proceedings also concluded recently.

I was joined by Pastor Derek’s legal counsel Andrew MacKenzie for an update on the court’s ruling this week.

Mackenzie filled us in on some of the troubling details surrounding this week’s guilty findings on the counts of criminal harassment and breach of bail for Pastor Derek Reimer, and relayed how the evidence presented in court quite clearly does not depict Reimer repeatedly harassing anyone or intentionally breeching the terms of his bail.

Given that the ruling here is connected to Pastor Derek’s previous charges, Mackenzie shared his concern as to whether these finding may impact the rulings or set a precedent in terms of the decisions being rendered on his client’s other matters before the courts.

We also asked Mackenzie if given the evidence he expects to appeal the charges and about what sort of sentencing Pastor Derek can expect from these charges, and if Alberta will once again see a pastor behind bars.