Cellphone video caught the moment a Canadian pastor was shoved out the door and knocked flat on his back after protesting a library’s drag queen event last weekend — for which children were in attendance — and now police in Calgary, Alberta, have charged the pastor with a hate crime. According to TheBlaze, Officers said they responded to protestors during the Seton Library’s “Reading with Royalty” event at 11:15 a.m. Saturday, Calgary News reported.
“We were subsequently called to the location for reports that several individuals aggressively entered a library classroom, shouting homophobic and transphobic slurs at the children and parents in attendance, scaring the children while causing a disturbance and subsequently refusing to leave,” police said in a statement, the outlet reported.
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
— Without Papers Pizza (@wopizza) February 26, 2023
Two people in attendance “helped library staff throw the people out while waiting for police to arrive,” the News added. Calgary police arrested and charged 36-year-old Derek Scott Reimer with a hate crime, the outlet said, adding the Reimer faces one count of causing a disturbance and one count of mischief.
“CPS reminds people that hate-motivated crimes are things like assault, theft, vandalism, or any other crime where the offender was ‘motivated by bias, prejudice or hate’ that is based on nine characteristics of the victim,” the News reported.
