Ontario Court of Appeal
Summary:
The accused participated in a pride parade under false pretenses, distributing flyers that condemned aspects of homosexuality. The flyer contained graphic images. It also contained a few Bible references. The Crown charged the accused with wilfully promoting hatred under the Criminal Code. The trial judge acquitted the accused, reasoning that while the flyer was offensive, it did not meet the high threshold for wilfully promoting hatred because it did not call for violence or call for the segregation of gay persons as dangerous. The Crown appealed the acquittal, arguing that Whatcott, by urging men to abstain entirely from homosexual sex, was calling for the abolition of gay men, and that this was inherently hateful. ARPA intervened, arguing that morally condemning someone’s conduct is not the same as advocating hatred or harm against that group. Thankfully, the Court of Appeal did not endorse the Crown’s line of argument mentioned above. The Crown did succeed in obtaining a re-trial, however, because the Court of Appeal found that the lower court had wrongly excluded certain evidence.
ARPA Canada’s submissions to the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Articles:
Ontario Court Of Appeal Orders New Trial on Criminal Hate Speech Charges
