Juno News - March 18, 2023


Arrested for protesting drag queen story hour (Ft. Pastor Derek Reimer)


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

200.56061

Word Count

3,983

Sentence Count

269


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. I hope that you
00:00:13.880 guys are having a great week so far. We are going to do something a little bit different on today's
00:00:18.400 episode. We're having our first ever guest on the Alberta Roundup. We will be speaking with
00:00:23.980 Pastor Derek Reimer. For those of you who've been following the news or have listened to some of my
00:00:28.600 previous podcasts, Derek Reimer was arrested in Calgary after protesting at a drag queen story
00:00:35.160 hour. He's facing multiple charges from Calgary police and he's now out on bail. So we caught up
00:00:41.280 to him and we spoke with him about what led to his arrest and the conditions of his bail and what
00:00:45.360 this means for Alberta and Calgary moving forward. I'm joined now by Pastor Derek Reimer. Hey, Pastor
00:00:51.760 Reimer. Thank you so much for joining us today. You're actually the very first guest ever on the
00:00:56.100 Alberta Roundup. So we're very excited to have you on the show today. So many people are aware of your
00:01:01.380 story. You were arrested a couple of weeks ago after sort of protesting a drag queen story hour at a
00:01:06.720 public library in Calgary. I'm wondering if you can walk us through the process. What led you to go to
00:01:11.860 that event? What happened while you were there? And then what followed that led to your arrest?
00:01:17.660 Yeah, absolutely. I went to my first drag protest in December. I just felt compelled by the Holy Spirit,
00:01:25.740 moving into January. I started doing my homework and researching and finding out how frequent these
00:01:31.380 events were. And I was disturbed of how many adult events were taking place, but then how many are
00:01:37.120 involving children? So I thought, okay, let's focus on the ones where it's not just consenting adults,
00:01:42.880 which still the Bible would forbid that. But when it's involving the innocent, not just myself,
00:01:48.760 but there was a team of us that felt really compelled to move in this direction, to take action.
00:01:52.860 I formed a ministry called, like separate from Mission 7 Ministries that I'm the founder of.
00:01:58.540 This one is called Exposing Darkness. It's inspired by Ephesians 5.11 and have no fellowship with the
00:02:03.400 unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. So I take the approach also of 2 Timothy 4.2,
00:02:09.700 where it says to convince, rebuke, and exhort, which in the Greek, it means to tell a fault,
00:02:16.060 to warn, and to invite. To tell a fault of the sin, to warn of God's judgment on that sin,
00:02:20.760 and to invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. So sort of organizing protests
00:02:26.720 with Seton in particular, we just decided and strategized that we will go in there and just
00:02:32.540 one at a time, we'll go in and rebuke and just speak truth and preach Jesus. And then when one
00:02:37.940 gets removed, then the other one will take their place. So I went last and I just had it in my head
00:02:43.620 that, hey, I'm going to preach and expose as much as I can. And even if I get removed,
00:02:48.780 I still want to preach and just exercise my freedom of speech. So when cops get there,
00:02:54.640 you can see in the video that they asked me to leave. And I thought, okay, that jegs it up.
00:02:58.920 Noah needs to be arrested needlessly. He's already here. So I just peacefully left. We went outside
00:03:03.880 and we continued our church service, which we do with counter protesters and anybody who's
00:03:07.680 watching us, you know, singing songs, parodies and preaching, invite them into a relationship
00:03:12.140 with Christ, but exposing also darkness and wickedness, saying that a holy God is not okay
00:03:16.560 with this type of behavior. So moving forward, cops came to my residence, you know, about a half week
00:03:24.320 later, they wanted me to go to a cop shop with them. I couldn't get legal counsel on the phone
00:03:30.620 that morning. So I just said, you know, I'm not comfortable with that. I'm not going to go. He
00:03:33.640 said he'll issue some warrants. And yeah, he held up to that promise. The next day I called and he
00:03:39.260 confirmed that. So I was just kind of hanging out, waiting to be arrested. I went for a prayer walk
00:03:44.680 and Rebel News is just kind of hanging out with me the last day or two. And sure enough, early on in my
00:03:50.920 prayer walk, they scooped me up and they took me into a cop shop at Spy Hill, right by the Remax Center.
00:03:56.880 Saw justice of the peace. And I, I, it was a long bail hearing. It's about an hour and a half at the
00:04:04.700 recess. It was very contested. It was very interesting for the guards there. One guy,
00:04:11.520 he didn't even want to take his break because he wanted to see what was going to take place.
00:04:14.880 Another guard called it a nail biter that a lot of people knew of why I was in there.
00:04:20.160 Obviously, because of the media, I was granted bail. But you know, the Lord said to me before those
00:04:25.080 papers got made up, what's more important to you, your freedom or preaching my word.
00:04:30.020 So getting to those bail papers, I didn't sign because I knew that I'd be right back in there.
00:04:34.520 That weekend, I, we had three protests that weekend alone. I knew going out, I'll just be at
00:04:39.960 these protests. I'll be right back at jail. Why sit this initial process? I already sat 12 hours.
00:04:45.040 I said, just take me to the Remax Center. Sat there the weekend. And, you know, just due to some
00:04:51.400 urgent health matters that I, they, the jail couldn't care for me. They had to take me to an
00:04:58.240 outside hospital. So they couldn't assure me when they could do that. So I just made the tough
00:05:02.260 decision. I signed those bail papers. Didn't want to. And now just working on getting those conditions
00:05:08.640 loosened. I know people are wondering what those conditions are. I have in front of me, it says that
00:05:13.580 you must have no contact with by means of text, email, social media, or through a third party
00:05:17.960 with the identified gay community member. You must not attend or within 200 meters of any gay
00:05:25.900 community event, drag event. So my lawyer is bothered with the word indirectly, there directly
00:05:33.680 or indirectly. To me, these conditions is like saying, don't do your ministry. Don't do what God
00:05:39.720 has called you to do. And it's just, it's just not feasible. So today I had a bail hearing to loosen
00:05:49.660 these conditions and it got adjourned to another week or two. So I'm going to have a meeting with
00:05:54.880 my lawyer tomorrow. And it's just kind of taken a day by day. You know, there's still protests. We
00:05:59.980 still have the conviction and we're just letting God lead us through this. And he's our defender. He goes
00:06:05.960 before us. And we're just believing that we're going to have a mighty victory. We don't know how
00:06:09.620 it's all going to look though. So I just want to back it up a little bit. One of the things that
00:06:15.060 the Calgary police is saying is they're saying that when you actually entered that protest at the
00:06:20.240 library was a sort of a drag queen story hour that you made, you know, homophobic and transphobic
00:06:26.680 slurs. You've yourself just said now that you were speaking truth and you were speaking wisdom to the
00:06:31.820 audience there. What exactly did you say? And can you see how any of that would be, you know,
00:06:36.680 transferred as a sort of a hate crime or are they completely taking your words out of context?
00:06:41.620 Right. I can see that with a secular world where they hate me. And it's a light versus darkness.
00:06:47.060 It's a spiritual battle. And, you know, people that are of the darkness that don't believe in Jesus,
00:06:52.140 they hate Jesus and they hate truth. They hate everything about the Bible. So I just came in there
00:06:56.620 saying, don't pervert the children, don't expose them to the sexualization. And I just continued
00:07:03.100 to preach Bible verses like homosexuality is a sin. You know, 1 Corinthians 6, those that want to live
00:07:07.820 this lifestyle won't inherit the kingdom, but God is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our
00:07:11.760 sins, cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And just that kind of rhetoric preaching where it's,
00:07:17.200 hey, this isn't okay to a holy God. We love you guys and we want you guys to inherit our life,
00:07:22.040 but you've got to turn away from this perversion. And it's not just me. There's a team of us where
00:07:26.420 we felt again, compelled to expose and rebuke and approve and to invite them into the gospel
00:07:31.900 of Christ. And we're going to continue to do that. Something else that I'm sure many of my viewers
00:07:37.220 are aware of. This is a video that went viral online. It was a video of a man being dragged out
00:07:42.180 of a drag queen story hour and being tackled to the ground by one of the attendees. That video was
00:07:46.920 circulating online and people were saying that that was actually you in the video who was being
00:07:50.800 tackled to the ground. I'm wondering if that's correct. Were you tackled to the ground at any point
00:07:54.760 during the protest or was it, as you mentioned, you sort of just left when the police asked you to
00:07:59.060 leave? Right. So the drag queen story hour was in like a little glass room. So I went in there and
00:08:06.980 just started preaching on Jesus and saying, you know, turn away from this perversion. Don't expose
00:08:10.820 your kids to this. The parents came at me very aggressively and even violently. And they started
00:08:17.260 grabbing at me, two or three of them and just hauling me out. I was clutching on the walls,
00:08:21.640 just trying to hold myself up, regain my balance. And then you guys kind of catch it at the tail end
00:08:26.360 there where I'm gripping that glass door and they just violently throw me out on my back.
00:08:31.400 And you know what? I thought good when that happened in terms of that. I want everybody to
00:08:37.240 see that they're hateful, they're violent. And as you know, a Christian, I want to really display
00:08:44.140 that we are set apart, that we are holy people of the Lord, that we're not coming in violence.
00:08:48.400 We don't need to come in threats. We just come preaching the truth. And again, I can see how
00:08:53.060 people take that as hate speech. We don't hate people, but we're hating the sin that's contaminating
00:08:59.840 people. And we're not afraid to speak that truth. My understanding that despite you being violently
00:09:07.240 thrown to the ground, as you just mentioned, you were not violent yourself. Those people,
00:09:12.080 those attendees, those parents are not going to face any charges. The Calgary police saw no reason
00:09:17.260 to charge them or to arrest them. Does that surprise you? Do you feel that is an unfair
00:09:22.300 sort of portrayal and application of the law? Or is this pretty much what you expect in today's
00:09:27.940 secular society? As you mentioned, as a Christian going into that room, you are hated and you're
00:09:32.220 treated differently as a result.
00:09:34.840 A hundred percent. That is the double standard. Everybody can see, like you said, the video goes
00:09:39.840 viral. The only person that was abused and assaulted was me. And I even chose, you know,
00:09:47.280 just as a Christian man, you know, I'm not going to pursue as of now any charges towards them and I
00:09:52.940 forgive them. And I just want to rise above that. I was on a mission to expose and to invite into the
00:09:58.380 gospel. And this is how people react. And I also, I want the world to see that and how we're going to
00:10:05.980 continue at our peaceful disposition. But, you know, Mayor Gondek and the city, they're coming
00:10:11.080 against us and they're trying to pin us with a brush that we're full of hate and hate motivated,
00:10:15.920 hate crimes and transphobic and all of these terms and slurs and definitions. It's like, you know what?
00:10:23.240 I'm not surprised at all. And that's going to keep coming. But you know what the Bible talks about
00:10:28.240 too, when they slander you, when they defame you. So those that desire to live godly in Christ Jesus,
00:10:33.720 we will suffer persecution. And I just rejoice that I'm kind of worthy to suffer for Jesus' name's
00:10:38.260 sake. And I'm just going to continue on this path.
00:10:41.040 I just wanted to touch a little bit on some of the charges that you're facing. So it's my
00:10:45.060 understanding that you're facing eight charges, which the Calgary police are calling hate motivated
00:10:49.780 crimes. And six of those charges actually fall under the city's harassment bylaws.
00:10:55.000 And those could each carry up to six months in jail per charge and an additional $10,000 charge.
00:11:01.380 Let me know if any of that's changed since you've been released on bail or if those are in fact still
00:11:05.480 the charges that you're facing. I'm also wondering, you know, is this something that you're fearful of?
00:11:10.140 Are you fearful that you're going to have to spend time in jail over preaching on your convictions?
00:11:15.160 And are you worried about also the monetary fines that are potentially coming along with this
00:11:19.060 incident? You know, an incident of you, as I just mentioned, really just preaching your convictions,
00:11:23.180 something that should be protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:11:27.660 You know what, even with Mission 7, as we're getting attacked and we have a plethora of fines
00:11:32.560 that the bylaw officers throw at us, and I'm just pleading not guilty. And it was either like $50
00:11:37.620 to plead guilty or to go to trial and found guilty $2,500. You know, the Lord just said to me,
00:11:45.080 you know, can you plead guilty? I was like, no, like I'm not guilty of this. And
00:11:48.640 he just said, give me an opportunity to show up. So that's why I want, it's applied to me,
00:11:53.740 but it's applied to every Christian believer too. We just got to be obedient to what the
00:11:57.380 Lord is calling us to. And we just got to give him an opportunity to show up. And what's more
00:12:01.300 important to us, our freedom or preaching God's word, being obedient to him. So yeah,
00:12:06.760 the numbers can be scary. You know, the giants, the mountains can be scary with the wind and the
00:12:11.880 waves, you know, spiritually speaking at the jail time. But I'm not looking at that. I'm looking at my
00:12:16.820 God and how he's taken me through this. He's going to carry me through it. And just like he showed up
00:12:21.460 with the Hebrew boys in the fire, he's going to show up for me too in the fire. And he's delivered
00:12:25.260 me throughout the COVID era and the pandemic and, and, you know, Rebel News has supported us and
00:12:30.740 supplied a lawyer. And God's just working through many different entities and people to support
00:12:34.860 and just to help take care of us. So no, I'm not, not really worried about that. And I'm just
00:12:39.580 excited to see how he's going to show up in this battle as well.
00:12:41.780 You mentioned before this interview, and this is something perhaps you're not comfortable
00:12:47.340 chatting about now, in which case I totally understand that we wanted to get this interview
00:12:51.320 done a little bit earlier. It's actually Tuesday when we're filming, this interview won't be aired
00:12:55.080 until Saturday. And one of the reasons we wanted to get it done early is because you mentioned that
00:12:59.360 you're fearful you were going to be arrested again. I'm wondering if that's because you haven't
00:13:03.400 been able to loosen up some of the charges that you're facing or sorry, your bail restrictions
00:13:07.780 rather, and your conditions about not being able to attend these protests. Are you still planning
00:13:12.360 on attending protests in the coming weeks or even abide by the conditions of your bail restrictions
00:13:16.860 until you're able to get them loosened, if not removed?
00:13:20.300 Right. Like, like I mentioned, I feel compelled to sign for health reasons that the jail can provide
00:13:27.400 for me. The conviction is still there. The love of the Lord and being obedient to him is still
00:13:34.240 there. There's still drag events. There's still homosexual events that are taking place in this
00:13:41.120 city. Exposing darkness is still here. We're still a team. We're still strategizing. We're still
00:13:46.380 planning. And I'll just say that we're trying to get a little bit more clever and strategic moving
00:13:53.280 forward. But yes, we do plan to attend. We do plan to carry out God's will as he's called us to do it.
00:14:02.140 Yeah. Something else that's going on today is that Calgary City Council is currently discussing
00:14:08.360 two proposals from the city's administration that would essentially make it harder for people like
00:14:12.960 yourself to protest, drag, green story hour, and other, you know, trans and gay events. One of the
00:14:18.460 proposals seeks to amend the city's harassment bylaws to include intimidation, which is rather vague
00:14:24.120 and, you know, concerning as to what that would exactly look like in practice. And then the city also
00:14:28.580 wants to add an additional bylaw, which would keep what they're calling specified protesters,
00:14:33.080 a hundred meters from public spaces during these types of events. And so protesters would have to
00:14:38.640 be a hundred meters removed from say a public library or a public pool when they're protesting
00:14:43.260 drag queen story hour. Now the city is moving very quickly on getting this passed. They want to have
00:14:48.800 these events passed quickly and in places quickly as soon as possible, even as early as Tuesday.
00:14:53.140 What do you make of this happening so quickly after the incident with you? Do you think that
00:14:57.400 it's a direct fallout to your arrest and your protests at the drag queen story hour? And also
00:15:02.620 how will this impact your work in exposing darkness? One of the ministries that you've started.
00:15:07.780 Yeah, well, this is definitely linked to our protests and I would call this an infringement on the
00:15:17.180 charter of rights and freedoms that we have under the constitution. And that is already arising in
00:15:22.000 the city council meeting. I was just listening to it before we started this interview and I'm going to
00:15:26.800 finish it afterwards. And then myself and the team, we're going to have a call tonight. We want to talk
00:15:32.640 about and discuss what's taking place, what has transpired and what we want to do moving forward.
00:15:38.140 But by no means, means are we going to back off and just, you know, close down the ministry because,
00:15:44.780 you know, the government here and they're, they're acting like dictators. It seems like we're,
00:15:51.160 it doesn't matter about the constitution, doesn't matter about our rights. And that's for all Calgarians
00:15:55.960 that now they want to keep people a hundred meters away from a venue. And that's, there's all kinds of
00:16:00.760 implications and problems with this, which is arising now. So like I said, we're going to
00:16:05.500 review our options and continue on following the Lord's will.
00:16:11.140 Great. Just the last question I wanted to ask you here before I let you go. You mentioned that
00:16:14.700 Rebel News is supplying a lawyer for you, for my viewers who are listening today and want to get
00:16:19.140 in touch with you or want to show their support. Is there any way that they can do that?
00:16:23.660 Absolutely. And I would direct people towards Rebel News as they are supplying a lawyer and they are
00:16:27.880 very costly. If you feel just on your heart that you want to support me in the ministry,
00:16:34.520 Mission 7 Ministries is my website. My email is on there, derridge at mission7ministries.com.
00:16:41.460 I would appreciate any support, but you know, prayers is massive. And that's like even today,
00:16:46.480 getting attacked with several just things in my personal life and just out of nowhere.
00:16:51.340 But yeah, prayers and donations. But also I just want to finish off too, and this is what I do,
00:16:55.340 give us all the interviews, just a call to action where we can all do something. You can call your
00:17:00.060 counselors, you can sign petitions, you can peacefully protest. Like there's many options
00:17:04.460 that we can do here. And just, I think even just making people aware of this pervert rooming hour
00:17:09.400 that's taking place in our cities and not just Calgary, but all over the world. Guys, let people
00:17:13.880 know what's going on and let's make a change. Let's push back against perversion and darkness. You don't
00:17:19.200 have to just be a Christian to have a conviction about this. Anybody with any morality or decency knows that
00:17:24.840 this is just wrong and wicked. So let's unite and let's, let's push back against this together.
00:17:30.120 Eric, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. And I know my viewers
00:17:33.680 will as well, and we will all be following this story with interest in the coming weeks.
00:17:38.120 Thank you. God bless.
00:17:39.400 Hey guys. So shortly after that interview was filmed on Tuesday,
00:17:42.640 Pastor Reimer was actually arrested again on Wednesday. Rebel News has a video. We'll play that
00:17:47.860 for you now.
00:17:49.140 Mr. Reimer, you are currently under arrest for breaching your 200-meter no-go condition.
00:17:55.500 200 meters? Yep.
00:17:56.920 It's 100 meters, Peter.
00:17:58.300 No, unfortunately.
00:17:59.060 Excuse me.
00:18:00.080 Oh, no, no, no.
00:18:01.200 You didn't want 200 meters.
00:18:02.360 How do you calculate?
00:18:03.140 How do you calculate these 200 meters?
00:18:05.020 You stand, sir.
00:18:05.520 Yeah.
00:18:06.020 He is nowhere near 200 meters.
00:18:08.140 Where is the measuring tape?
00:18:10.780 Excuse me, where the parking lot is so far away is not lawful.
00:18:15.260 Listen, we don't have a memory tape. We're down here.
00:18:19.860 You have to say anything? Anything you say if you give any evidence against you?
00:18:25.400 What are the exact meters from that library?
00:18:28.740 What are the exact meters, the distance, the library is where we are right now.
00:18:35.440 What's your work?
00:18:36.660 You have to walk out here.
00:18:37.580 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:18:45.260 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:18:48.140 And as he's being arrested there, you can hear one Calgary police officer tell Reimer
00:18:52.120 he's being arrested for breaching his 200-meter no-go condition, assuming that's a condition
00:18:57.340 of his bail release there.
00:18:58.940 And moving back to Calgary City Hall, the council did end up approving an amendment
00:19:02.780 to an existing bylaw.
00:19:04.260 That amendment was to add intimidation to the harassment.
00:19:07.100 So you can now be ticketed if you're found guilty of intimidation while protesting outside
00:19:11.660 an event. And of course the other bylaw is that specified protesters are going to have to remain
00:19:16.440 100 meters away from public facilities while they're protesting events. Thank you so much
00:19:21.260 for tuning in to this exceptionally important episode of the Alberta Roundup. Please comment
00:19:25.720 in the section below what you thought about this new style. Did you like the interview format and
00:19:30.040 do you hope to see more interviews on the Alberta Roundup? If so, please let me know some of the
00:19:34.580 guests that you would like to see and I will do my best to pick some of the best ones and have
00:19:38.200 them on the show. I really appreciate your support. I hope that you guys have a great rest of your week.
00:19:42.940 If you're able to, please consider supporting independent media over at donate.tnc.news.
00:19:48.320 I will see you guys next week Saturday. Have a great week and God bless.