Westboro Baptist Church – prepare for some Northern hospitality

The hate group (Westboro Baptist Church) led by Fred Phelps is barred from Canada.
There is an amendment in Canadian law nicknamed the Phelps law. (C-250)

The family has recently lost lawsuits in the US. The Phelp compound experienced a fire in their garage/garbage cans/fence in their family compound last weekend (blamed on others of course) and are looking for new people to provoke.
They’ve not gotten what they want in Canada (provocation) so they have made noise about trying again.

They decided Tim McLean’s Winnipeg funeral would be just the place to aggravate and agitate grieving emotionally fragile mourners. Because of the Phelps law, most of the family didn’t make it past the border according to a Phelps.

Despite that, a few members of the Westboro Baptist Church, made up of the Phelp clan are said to have gotten across the border into Canada by one of the Phelps family. The whole idea is to gain attention, flame anger and cause reaction.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, said a group of church members was turned away from a border crossing at Niagara Falls, but a small group did manage to get into Manitoba overnight.

“They were looking for picket signs and they were looking for leaflets. Well, we don’t do leaflets, and the picket signs, you know, Fed Ex ships them overnight,” she said.

However, Phelps-Roper said the reaction the group has raised from some police and public officials has her questioning whether the planned protest will go ahead.

“The question to my mind [is] whether or not we ought to get them the heck out of that country, because that’s some crazy stuff when you’ve got your officials talking like they are in a back-alley brawl and not government officials who took an oath to obey the law and so forth.”

Phelps-Roper said she would advise church members not to go ahead with the protest if there is a concern they might be arrested or harmed.

Westboro (the Phelps family) aren’t Baptist, the Phelps aren’t what is often called primitive Baptist either – they are an abused, damaged family dominated by an abusive man, their father.
They have rightfully been labelled a hate group and a cult. The Phelps can’t function without attention.
They don’t deserve to be harmed, they don’t deserve to get what they want.
If Winnipeg city police can arrest them on a by-law or minor infraction, great. Let the supposed members that supposedly slipped across the border cool their heels in jail for awhile, fine them and ship them back to Kansas.
If the supposed arrivees show up and don’t break any laws where police can intervene; there are peaceful ways to shut them out and protect the McLean family. The Phelps are masters of provocation. It is what they do.
Canadians have formed a Facebook group and plan to be a human shield at the McLean funeral.

If they do make it across the border, angry Winnipeggers are ready to confront them. Several Winnipeggers outraged by news the funeral for McLean, who was beheaded and partially eaten on a Greyhound bus west of Portage la Prairie last week, are planning to block the group from getting anywhere close to funeral-goers.

By early last night, a Facebook group devoted to the idea had swelled to almost 200 people.

“Everything they say is bizarre and off the wall and it’s totally disrespectful to invade a funeral,” said Winnipeg student Amalia Slobogian, 26, who joined the group after reading about the church’s plans.

“When I first heard this, I was very angry. Freedom of speech is one thing, but imposing this at a funeral is totally inappropriate.”

The reasons for Westboro picketing are so off the wall and so irrelevant to Tim McLean’s death, that setting anger and grief aside for a moment, they are buffoonish and Winnipeggers can treat them as such without disrupting the families mourning. The Phelps have nothing to do with God, any trigger symbol would work for their agenda. Nationalism. Religion. Ethic and cultural differences. Anything.
If people succumb to their expert tactics, it could get ugly.

Westboro Baptist Church: wiki

Of all the Phelps children, it is said Shirley was the one most afraid of her brutish father and the one who appeased him to prevent beatings and fear. Appeasement didn’t work.
Her words makes no sense, she craves attention, and her nonsense can be seen for what it is. Throwing out hate and seeing where it sticks.

The daughter of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Ka., told CTV.ca she and several other church members will go to Winnipeg on Saturday to demonstrate against what she described as McLean’s “filthy way of life.” Shirley Phelps-Roper said his life was emblematic of Canada’s moral decay.

“God handed us a gift,” Phelps-Roper said in a phone interview on Thursday.

She said McLean deserved his death by beheading on a Greyhound Bus last week.

“(His death was) supremely unemotional. You got God shaking in rage. There is no emotional component … He was a rebel against God. He was taught to be a rebel by his parents. He came from a rebel country … They brought this wrath upon his head. And it sucks to be him and it sucks to be them,” Phelps-Roper said.

She said his brutal murder was a sign from God.

“You gotta connect the dots, people … from your idols to your filthy way of life,” she said.

“Here’s what I know. He is dead and God does not do that to people that serve in his truth.”

Phelps-Roper described McLean — who she had never met — in an insulting, insensitive and graphic manner. Her crudest descriptions of the 22-year-old are not printed.

“I haven’t met him personally, but he has nothing going on,” she said dismissively.

“(His life) was all about him. Blah, blah, blah … He was a rebel … I don’t need to know anything else … I don’t need to know the minutia. Everything you need to know is right there.”

Addicted to Hate is an book on the Phelps family available free online. It is a window into the insanity of domestic abuse, terror, brainwashing and pain; about a few of the Phelps kids that got away, and about the ones who didn’t.

God Hates Canada, God Hates America, God Hates Sweden are all Phelp sites
God Hates Shrimp is a great Phelps parody site.

Update: Apparently Westboro Baptist Church was a no show. (Globe and Mail)
Dr. Dawg cites other Canadian law that can be applied to organized hate organizations such as the Phelp clan.