The Passion of the Converted

Ted Jacob/Postmedia News  A passerby, right, pauses as William Whatcott (facing at left) protests homosexuality and abortion in 2009.

Canada's Supreme Court has ruled. William Whatcott is guilty of violating Canada's hate speech law. He has notoriously strong views on his version of public and social morality. And he is entitled to his opinion. It's just that he refuses to keep his opinion to himself. Or to discuss his opinions discreetly with others who will agree with him. He prefers to proselytize, loudly, emphatically.

And while so doing, engraving the presumed sins of others on the minds of the public. Who mostly don't really care to hear him or to observe him in action. But this man is no shrinking violet; he appears in public venues with the full intention of being seen and heard, his message stentorian and accusatory; values not his own are reprehensible and that is his unalloyed view of reality.

Like most converts his passions are unbridled by reason. He is a Christian fundamentalist and that righteously sanctimonious mental state informs him in all he does. To be true to his beliefs he must shout out and accuse, damn the consequences. The consequences have been costly to him in time and money and no doubt aggravation. On the other hand, perhaps it's all been worth it to him for the attention it garners.

He claims to love homosexuals since the Christian church exhorts its faithful to do just that. On the other hand, he abhors, in the most vigorous manner conceivable, his view of the conduct of homosexuality, denouncing it as filthy and corrupt. He might know what others might not. Since he claims to have been a dangerous person in his youth, abusing drugs, prostituting himself with men to feed his drug habit.

He was involved in violent crime and hostage-taking, and ended up in prison. And it was there that he found his salvation in religion. Religious activism has since become his cause and his reason for existence. And in the process of his fanatical activism he has engaged in defamatory declarations, in making an utter nuisance of himself, in becoming a public spectacle of outraged morality.

He is a nurse by profession, has stood for political election, has dissented against films, abortion, politicians he doesn't like, Gay Pride Days, and anything else that offends his sense of religious proportionality. He has been charged with obstructing a police officer, causing a disturbance, and fought a finding of misconduct by the Saskatchewan Association of Licensed Practical Nurses, which he appealed and won at the Court of Appeal.

This latest finding of the Supreme Court of Canada cannot be appealed. But it will not halt his dedication to offending the sensibilities of those whose skin is thin, and who find his activities beyond distasteful and demeaning to themselves. They have the option of charging him with a human rights offense, or of simply ignoring him.

He deserves no less.