American citizen and Christian speaker Peter LaBarbera was detained at the Canadian border and denied entry to the country as a result of his work opposing homosexuality, according to reports.

LaBarbera, who is director of the United States-based group Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and was scheduled to speak at the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association this weekend, stated that he spent hours responding to questions from authorities with the Canada Border Services Agency after his flight landed Thursday night in Regina, Saskatchewan.

The agency was allegedly responding to a campaign initiated by a homosexual rights group set to stop LaBarbera from entering the country. LaBarbera’s passport was seized and he was released temporarily to the custody of Bill Whatcott, a prominent activist in Canada who has challenged free speech issues in the country.

LaBarbera, was set to speak on the link between pro-abortion and homosexual activism during the pro-life conference, was then ordered to return today to appear before a board of the Canada Border Services Agency at Regina International Airport for an appeal on whether his message violates Canada’s hate propaganda law.

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality defines itself as a non-partisan, non-profit group “dedicated to exposing the homosexual-bisexual-transgender activist agendas,” and according to his site, LaBarbera believes he “had been flagged as a result of a campaign by the leftist group Intolerance Free Weyburn” as an “alleged purveyer of ‘hate.’”

“After questioning me about the purpose of my scheduled presentation at the SPLA event; rifling through my luggage, which contained numerous books and literature related to homosexuality (pro and con); examining the contents of my laptop and my cell phone; playing a DVD of my speech Wednesday at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio; and critically viewing AFTA’s website – a preliminary decision was made to deny my entrance into Canada on the basis that my speech at the SPLA would violate Canada’s ‘Hate Propaganda’ law (essentially the potential for ‘public incitement of hatred’ against a group of people based on their ‘sexual orientation’),” he stated.

LaBarbera said the “Orwellian experience at customs dragged on for more than three hours as a formal document was issued outlining my denial of entry under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.”

Matt Barber of BarbWire.com, a friend of LaBarbera’s, also outlined in a blog post on Friday that Canadian border agent Darren Bannick told LaBarbera that evidence was found on his website that he was “targeting” a group of people based on their sexual orientation.

LaBarbera has stated that he hates no one, but rather only desires for men to be freed from sin.

“As an evangelical Christian, I believe that all people, including homosexuals, must be treated with respect and the grace of Christ. As a sinner myself, I am no ‘better’ than the man or woman engaged in homosexual sin. We all need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ,” he wrote in a previous blog post.

“I adhere to the universal philosophy shared by so many who follow Christ: ‘Love the sinner. Hate the sin,’” he continued. “In fact, if I truly lacked compassion and hated homosexuals as my detractors falsely and maliciously claim, I would not have been invited to speak by the leaders of the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association.”

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