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Conservative Party Candidate Loses Nomination over Connections with Christian Group

Pastor who lost human rights case over criticizing homosexual practices was associated with candidate's group

By Hilary White

CALGARY, Alberta, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Immediately following a decision by the Alberta Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party dumped candidate Craig Chandler from its roster for his involvement in a Christian activist group.

Friday's AHRC decision, that is being called a government-sponsored attack on freedom of expression, ruled against a Christian pastor who had published letters in the local papers criticizing homosexual practices as immoral and dangerous.

Chandler's Tory nomination in the Calgary-Egmont riding has been nixed by the party due to his connections as the founder of the Concerned Christian Coalition (CCC) that was specifically cited in the AHRC ruling. Stephen Boissoin's letters, published in the Red Deer Advocate, protested the indoctrination of school children "as young as five and six years" into the homosexual subculture in classrooms.

AHRC chairman, Lori Andreachuk, wrote in her decision, "I find that there is a circumstantial connection between the hate speech of Mr. Boissoin and the CCC and the beating of a gay teenager in Red Deer less than two weeks following the publication of Mr. Boissoin's letter."

Premier Ed Stelmach, leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, told reporters Saturday that Chandler's nomination in Calgary-Egmont was "not in the best interests of the party".

Stelmach declined to give details saying the party's constitution prohibits him from discussing the matter or divulging the vote results.

But Chandler is not taking the news quietly. He told journalists, "I'm not going to belong to a party that doesn't want me."

"I would consider running as an independent. I would consider other options as well," he said.

The CCC has been a favourite target of the homosexual activist movement which disrupted a meeting of the group in 2002. When the CCC was campaigning against former NDP MP Svend Robinson's federal hate crimes bill, C-250, a group calling itself the "Gay Militia" stormed the national convention dinner of the Coalition, brandishing clubs, screaming angry chants, and verbally assaulting the delegates.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Christian Meeting Discussing Bill C-250 Disrupted by Gay Militia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04042002.html  

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