A Canadian pastor from Calgary was physically thrown out of an “all ages”drag queen story hour because he was protesting the event.
Pastor Derek Reimer wanted to expose the public library for hosting a drag event for young, vulnerable children to attend and exploiting them. Reimer and a group of protestors from a group called “Exposing Darkness” showed up to the event in protest.
In a video taken by a bystander, Reimer is aggressively pushed out of the room and thrown to the floor as an event worker yells that the police have been called to the scene, urging the protesters to leave.
One of the library workers asks Reimer to take his protest outside, which the pastor refuses to do.
“No, we’re not going to take this outside,” he said. “We’re gonna stay right here. I can speak as I please and I can speak my religion.”
Another library worker then told Reimer that he is “scaring the children.”
A protester at the scene can also be heard saying that the children in attendance at the drag event “are being indoctrinated with evil.”
Pastor Derek Reimer of Calgary, Canada is physically thrown out of an all ages drag queen story hour being hosted by @calgarylibrary pic.twitter.com/585qoCV9tT
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A few days later, on March 1, a Calgary police officer showed up at Reimer’s home and asked him to “talk about what happened” before revealing that he had been charged with mischief and causing a disturbance.
Pastor Derek Reimer was arrested and charged with mischief earlier today. Reimer was kicked out of a public library for protesting an all-ages drag event in Calgary this past weekend.
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The mayor of Calgary is now insisting that anti-drag protestors should be punished because they’re “spewing hate and vitriol.”
As Calgary's mayor tries to continue criminalizing protests she disagrees with, police have apparently opened a hate crime investigation into Pastor Derek Reimer after he was kicked out of a public library for protesting an all-ages drag event.
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Since this incident, Reimer’s ministry, Mission 7 Ministries, has been slapped with fines for not having a permit to hand out food and supplies to homeless and poor people. The suspicious timing of the state’s actions against the ministry suggests that this group that selflessly helps the community’s needy population is being punished for its religious beliefs.
When asked about the major fines handed to the ministry, Reimer stated that he doesn’t think it is a coincidence that his ministry is being targeted by law enforcement right after his drag event protest.
Pastor Derek Reimer with Mission 7 Ministries in Calgary, Alberta, says it's "no coincidence" he was detained by police during a protest against an all-ages drag event in the city's northeast.
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