Wild Bill is a well-known vlogger (YouTube channel: Wild Bill for America) who lives in Florida. Among other characteristics, he is what is nowadays called an “Islamophobe”, which means he is persona non grata on both sides of our northern border. However, only Canada has recent legislative backing — Motion M-103, opposing blasphemy against Islam — to provide grounds for arresting people like Wild Bill and bunging them into chokey. We haven’t fallen that far in the USA. Not yet.

 

The background for Wild Bill’s story:

 

Last Saturday a “hateful” group called the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI, see their Facebook page) held a rally in downtown Calgary in front of city hall. Wild Bill was one of the invited guest speakers.

Here’s a PC view of the “hateful” rally, excerpted from a CBC report:

Anti-Islam Rally in Calgary Meets With Counter-Protest But Remains Peaceful

Worldwide Coalition Against Islam members march to city hall, met by members of Calgary Anti-Fascist Action

The event billed on social media as a “Patriotic Unity Mega Festival” in front of Calgary’s city hall on Sunday was met by an opposing group rallying against what they saw as a message of intolerance.

Gathered on one side of the municipal plaza were members of the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (WCAI), which was denied a special event permit for the rally by the city.

Officials said in a written response to the group the decision was “on the basis that your organization, and messages it espouses, are hateful.”

Across the plaza were members of Calgary Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), who say they wanted to show unity against what they called messages of intolerance and hate.

Standing between the two groups were Calgary police officers, ensuring things remained peaceful.

Insults, slurs and chants were hurled back and forth. However, no arrests were made.

Among the few dozen people watching the two sides rally was Lifetime Adventure Travel guide Judi Sommerville, who was leading a two-hour tour of the downtown.

“It’s totally embarrassing,” she said. “And it does not represent our city in the least. This is where we start the tour and talk about city hall and some artifacts, and it’s not a very good way to begin a tour of our beautiful, interesting city.”

 

When Wild Blue flew into Calgary, he was arrested at the airport by the Canadian authorities, and his iPad was confiscated. The evidence for his “crime” was the “hate speech” contained in his iPad — the notes for the speech he intended to give at the rally. He was detained for more than seven hours, and then allowed to leave the country. But the police kept his iPad, saying that they needed to send it to Ottawa for forensic analysis, and to determine how much tax he owed for bringing “contraband” — that is, his words — into the country.

 

Read more details on the incident at Adrienne’s Corner.

 

More here.