CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian pastor says his trust in the Lord is keeping him strong after being sentenced to one year of “house arrest” along with a long probation sentence for protesting “drag queen story hours” targeting children at a public library last year.
As reported by LifeSiteNews last month, Pastor Derek Reimer of Mission 7 Ministries was in Alberta Court of King’s Bench in December of 2024 for sentencing regarding a guilty verdict issued in October 2024.
Right before Christmas, on December 23, 2024, he was notified of his sentence.
“I was sentenced to a year on house arrest and two years’ probation for opposing drag queen story hour to a librarian manager determined to host the event. After 22 months on bail and 43 days in jail, when it’s all over will be nearly five years for this disagreement,” Reimer told LifeSiteNews.
Government lawyers wanted a one-year jail sentence and probation for Reimer, who was hit with criminal harassment and breaching bail condition charges for protesting “drag queen story hours” targeting children at the Saddletown Library in the spring of 2023.
Reimer’s lawyer, Andrew MacKenzie, said that the library manager had used the words “upset,” which he claimed do not constitute a type of reaction to one getting harassed.
‘The Lord is at work,’ ‘I trust Him’ says Reimer, who vows appeal of ‘house arrest’
In speaking with LifeSiteNews, Reimer noted how he was prepared for “incarceration but expected a conditional sentence.”
“The Lord definitely gave me peace through the hearing,” he said, adding that he and others prayed “in a packed courtroom full of supporters, some crown prosecutors, sheriffs, and the clerk.”
“I’m thankful there wasn’t a condition prohibiting me from using application in public anymore.”
Reimer noted how he was “thankful” he was able to be at “home with my wife and newborn son for Christmas.”
“Despite this unjust verdict and disproportionate sentence, the Lord is at work here, and I trust Him in the progress, as we move towards filing an appeal,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Reimer noted to LifeSiteNews that he is only allowed to leave his house on the approval of his probation officer, but noted that when it comes to preaching, “God comes first.”
He has been arrested many times for protesting “drag queen story time” and other pro-LGBT events.
In October 2024, he was hit with a criminal conviction and a $500 fine after a judge found him guilty of breaching his bail conditions because he spoke out against a “drag queen story time” event for children at another public library.
In late October 2024 as well, Reimer was visited by Calgary Police at his home after he was served a notice of appeal for a judge’s recent acquittal of his charges for protesting pro-transgender events at public libraries, LifeSiteNews learned. This case has been pushed into the spring of 2025.
The notice of appeal concerns a different incident, as reported by LifeSiteNews in September, in which Judge Allan Fradsham ruled that Reimer is not guilty of a criminal offense for protesting a pro-LGBT “drag” event marketed to kids called “Reading with Royalty” that took place at the Seton Public Library in Calgary in February 2023.
He has also been the target of harassment for protesting these events. Last April, his van was vandalized with an anti-Christian message as well as a satanic symbol while he was in jail after yet another arrest related to his pro-family activism.
Last year, Calgary passed a new so-called “Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw” that disallows “specified protests” both inside and outside all city-owned and affiliated public buildings.
The bylaw means that anyone protesting pro-LGBT events at public buildings will be barred from getting within 100 meters of any such location.