A former MP is fundraising for an Alberta activist who could face jail for distributing pamphlets at a Toronto Pride Parade.Derek Sloan came to Bill Whatcott's defence on the former's Rumble channel Funding the Fight. In an interview, Whatcott said he tried to enter the Toronto Pride Parade in 2016 as an "openly Christian man" but was refused. He was later accepted under a pretense Sloan found "downright funny.""I applied to march under the name the Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association," Whatcott explained."They stuck me in with the leathermen. So it was a surreal sight. We had guys on all fours with naked bums being paddled by these, I don't what you call them, BDSM men, and they're howling like dogs." Dressed in a zombie outfit with a rainbow tutu, Whatcott handed out literature disguised as condom packages."Within an hour we got out 3,000 Zombie safe sex packages. They had the word zombie safe sex so people would not throw them out. I put a price tag we didn't charge anyone. We handed it out for free. But people thought that was the most expensive condom in the world. They wanted it," Whatcott explained."Some of them opened it up with their boyfriends at one in the morning. I know because I was getting the hate messages as they got accurate medical Information and testimonies of changed lives along with legitimate criticisms of the homosexual lifestyle and the Liberal Party of Canada which was also marching in the parade."Whatcott put his phone number on the literature so he could talk to anyone who wanted to know more. Sloan asked how many "good conversations happened. "At least 10 or 15, which may not sound like a lot out of 3,000 but for me it was worth it," Whatcott said."To be honest, 90% were nasty. I would actually say 50% were pictures of genitalia. Some of those were when they opened it up, and they took pictures of themselves and somehow thought that would that would upset me."Whatcott also said one person came to his church for seven months when he lived in Vancouver "as a result of a similar stunt." Whatcott soon faced a class action lawsuit on behalf of the pamphlet recipients. The suit led by Christopher Hudspeth and George Smitherman advanced claims of civil conspiracy to injure and defamation."They launched a $104 million lawsuit, which Prime Minister Blackface and Kathleen Wynne themselves signed on to as litigants. And they said they're going to sue everyone, whoever gave me 20 bucks, ever gave me a cup of coffee."Whatcott said a few volunteers helped heat seal the packages and he received some small donations. He spent only $4,000 on his pride parade activities, most of which he says he earned doing a security gig for a gay movie shot in Vancouver. His litigants thought he was better backed."They probably wasted a couple years and a half million dollars doing discovery on it, discovered I really did just live in a one-bedroom apartment and at current, no assets and no bank account to speak of and I was quite prepared to sit in jail rather than give up the names of my friends," he said.The case was dropped in favour of criminal hate speech charges. Whatcott said the Wynne government had only three days left when the attorney general signed off on a hate crime to put out a nationwide arrest warrant for Whatcott."I don't know how the police knew so much, but they were showing up at my ex-landlords' homes. And of course, some of these people were calling me saying the cops are there looking for me."Whatcott, who had been driving a bus up in the oil sands, drove to Calgary to turn himself in."I won the first trial. I don't believe to this day that there's any hate speech in my flyer. I'm not allowed to share it. But anyone who sees it can see it's pretty straightforward Christianity with some facts."Whatcott said an infectious disease specialist confirmed some of his tracts' claims, although she tried to testify that higher rates of tuberculosis, hepatitis and HIV weren't a problem."She was denying all this and then he (Whatcott's lawyer) presented her own papers," Whatcott recalled."The judge rebuked her for being an advocate and not being fully honest."Whatcott said the expert witnesses against him fell short, prompting a new trial. He said the new case against him will be based around "claims I did micro aggressions, stress which led to bad health outcomes, which is complete sophistry and nonsense."The accused will have to leave his home and job in Alberta and find lodging in Ontario to stand trial in March.On an email blast, Sloan said anyone wanting to cover Whatcott's legal and other expenses could etransfer funds to fundingthefight@proton.me with the password "Freedom" and "Bill" in the memo.
