Canada Kicks Self-Righteous Ass

The Westboro Baptist Church, apparently bored with picketing American servicemembers' funerals, decided to head north for a Canadian jaunt. One of the planned stops on their grand tour was the funeral of Tim McLean, the victim of a horrific attack that left him beheaded on a bus.

According to the raving fuckwits of the WBC, McLean was murdered because God's pissed at Canada for allowing gays and abortion. How the murder of a straight man by a mentally ill man sends God's message was left unexplained. Most lunatics I know can come up with at least a pseudo-rational explanation for their beliefs and behavior, but members of this "church" are no ordinary nutcases.

Perhaps if they'd been just a tad saner, they would have realized that what they regularly get away with in the U.S. is a fuck of a lot less welcome in Canada.

Not only does Canada have laws that allows it to reject hate-filled frothers at its borders, it's full of rational, kind people who don't take well to obnoxious assholes waving around florescent signage at innocent victims' funerals.

A counter-protest against the church's picket plans was launched on the social networking site Facebook on Thursday.

More than 700 people have since joined the group; postings indicate they plan to form a "human wall" around the family to shield them from the church protest, if it takes place.

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said the group should be "sent packing," and should not try to show up in Winnipeg "for their own safety."

"We're not going to allow these people to compound the tragedy of the McLean family loss, and Canadians simply won't tolerate these lunatics disrupting what should be a respectful service," he told CBC News on Friday.

When the day came, border guards turned back one group of frothing fundies, and the handful who slipped through faced a cordon of outraged Canucks. Having God on their side apparently wasn't enough for the WBC crusaders. They slunk away into the shadows, leaving counter-protesters with little to do.

Kimberly Lemay handed leaflets throughout the crowd, which began forming 21/2 hours before the 4 p.m. service, to urge those on hand to remain calm should Westboro members arrive.

She suggested the U.S. group wouldn't have had a chance to protest outside the funeral.

"We've got the whole place covered," said Lemay. "Winnipeg and Canada won. Canada is too tough for them."

You bet it is. Good on yer, Canada.

And that, my darlings, is how you handle the appalling antics of a bunch of crazed fanatics. We don't even need laws to shut down fucktards like this. All we need is a cordon of good people, sheltering the grieving and standing up for common human decency.