(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian court ruled that calling a drag queen a “groomer” does not fall within a province’s current protected speech laws in a ruling that could potentially lead to a larger decision that possibly makes it illegal to call men who dress as women, or vice versa, any term deemed offensive.
The court ruling, dated December 14, is in response to a case between Rainbow Alliance Dryden et al v. Webster.
Ontario Superior Court of Justice Tracey J. Nieckarz ruled, “It is reasonable to conclude that the suggestion that … drag performers are ‘groomers,’ merely because of their sexual or performance identity, is defamatory.”
Nieckarz in essence ruled that calling drag performers “groomers” or other names is not protected under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) laws.
The case in question is between a man named Brian Webster, who is a Thunder Bay, Ontario, Facebook blogger, and a local “drag king” who filed a defamation suit against him with the help of the town’s Pride organization, Rainbow Alliance Dryden (RAD). Also involved in the case is Egale Canada, an LGBT group funded by the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The plaintiffs went after Webster via a court battle regarding his Facebook post in which he accused RAD of sexualizing children to recruit them into the LGBT community. In September 2022, Webster posted screenshots on his Facebook page of a CBC news report about RAD drag performance events being planned in Dryden, Ontario, and the surrounding area.
Webster wrote, “ASK YOURSELF WHY THESE PEOPLE NEED TO PERFORM FOR CHILDREN? GROOMERS. That’s the agenda. Just look at the face of the one child in the photo. Tells you all you need to know.”
The plaintiffs argued that Webster’s post resulted in a rash of “hateful” public comments directed at the group.
Webster filed an anti-SLAPP motion to try and have the case dismissed. Ontario’s anti-SLAP rules offer a recourse for defendants to use in lawsuits by bringing forth to have a judge dismiss the case if the case is determined to be a SLAPP, which is a case “intended to silence critics who speak out on matters of public interest by burdening them with the cost of a legal proceeding.”
Nieckarz outright rejected Webster’s anti-SLAPP motion and said his expression against the “drag king” was not in the public interest.
“The Defendant’s comments went well beyond that, perpetuating hurtful myths and stereotypes about vulnerable members in our society,” the judge wrote. “Webster’s argument that he was accusing the CBC of grooming has no merit based on a plain reading of the post.”
The court found that Webster’s comments were defamatory and that calling drag performers “groomers” could cause harm to their reputation.
After Webster’s anti-SLAPP motion was dismissed, the plaintiffs are now able to proceed with legal action that could eventually result in a ruling that could ban calling drag kings or queens “groomers” in Canada.
Drag queen/king story hours in public places have been on the rise in recent years. Indeed, the drag queen story hour phenomenon traces its 2015 origins to a collaboration between LGBT activist group RADAR Productions and radical feminist author Michelle Tea in San Francisco, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
South of the border, American lawmakers have introduced legislation to protect children from drag performers. This is not the case in Canada, where children remain vulnerable to attacks from LGBT activists, relying only on parents and concerned citizens to safeguard their innocence.
There has been public pushback to exposing children to LGBT ideology. Pastor Derek Reimer of Calgary, Alberta, was recently charged for protesting a children’s drag queen story hour at a public library. While he was in jail, his van was vandalized with anti-Christian and Satanic messages.
Reimer is currently fighting his trespassing charges for silently praying in a municipal building in protest of drag queen story times.
Protests against drag queen story times in Calgary led to city officials adopting bylaws banning protests of such events.
According to “Gays against Groomers” in a posting from June 1, “there is NO PRIDE in the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children.”