Peter LaBarbera, founder of the Naperville-based anti-LGBT group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality ( AFTAH ), was detained April 10 when trying to enter Canada for a speaking engagement, but was ultimately allowed to enter the country.
His detention followed complaints, and an online petition, from Intolerance Free Weyburn, a newly-formed Weyburn, Saskatchewan, rights group that objected to LaBarbera's appearance at a pro-life convention there.
The group began on Facebook in March, founder Chris Brookes told discoveryweyburn.com April 8, as a reaction to LaBarbera's planned talk. Brookes added, "If you have a hateful message or you're looking to spread intolerance we're not a community that's just going to sit back and let it happen," says Brookes.
LaBarbera tweeted April 11 that he had been thoroughly searched when he tried to enter Canada in Regina, Saskatchewan. His cell phone and laptop were among the items searched, he said, and his passport was confiscated.
In a follow-up tweet, LaBarbera wrote, "Never experiencd anythng as Orwellian as wait'g for Canadian border agents to write up paperwork for my alleged viol of 'hate propagnda' law."
LaBarbera was released, pending an appeal hearing the following day, which he won, and made his public appearance at a conference as scheduled. LaBarbara claimed on his website April 12 that, "According to several attendees at the conference, conservative Members of Parliament used their influence to have the entry ban against me lifted."
AFTAH was named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group in 2010 for spreading false claims about LGBT people.