CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian pastor who received one year’s house arrest for protesting a “drag queen story hour” event marketed to children at a public library in 2023 might soon face jail time after refusing to apologize to a local librarian.
Pastor Derek Reimer of Calgary, Alberta, is currently serving a one-year house arrest, which he had previously appealed, as reported by LifeSiteNews. Last Wednesday, he was in court to go over his sentence conditions.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, in 2023, Reimer’s Mission 7 Ministries lawyer Andrew MacKenzie filed an appeal to a sentence of one year’s house arrest and two years’ probation handed to the pastor before Christmas for protesting a “drag queen story hour” event targeting kids at Calgary’s Saddletown Library in the spring of 2023. Government lawyers had been seeking to sentence Reimer to jail time for his protest against the LGBT agenda.
Reimer told LifeSiteNews at the time of his house arrest sentencing that his trust in the Lord was keeping him strong despite the conditions placed upon him.
He also informed LifeSiteNews that he is only allowed to leave his house with the approval of his probation officer, but noted that when it comes to preaching, “God comes first.”
Pastor: ‘I will not apologize based on a fabricated narrative’
Reimer has asked Shannon Slater, who was the library manager, why the library was hosting such an event. After Slater did not answer, she told Reimer to leave, and he did.
However, Reimer had published his interaction with Slater on social media. He was ordered to write an apology letter to Slater, which was due at the end of last week. Should he fail to submit the letter, he could be jailed.
As of press time, it is not known if he has submitted the letter; however, based on his comments last week, it is unlikely he will.
Reimer told local media that for one to be “sorry,” one has to “admit fault” that “you’re wrong.”
He noted how this is admitting one made a “mistake” and that is what an “apology is.”
Reimer also noted how he told the court he went “into my freedom of conscience and a thorough study and my understanding of it, mixed with freedom of expression and religion,” and that “it explained and constituted that you have to express to the court your deeply held religious views of why this is a violation of your conscience and why you can’t do it.”
He also noted in court that Justice Karen Molle had refused to hear him during his submissions, walked out, and ruled them not relevant.
According to Reimer, he explained in his submissions about his “freedom of conscience” and “so I didn’t adhere to her interruption, she was interrupting me many times, even before I started preaching, she didn’t want to hear me.”
He then told the judge that his probation officer had written that one of his case goals was to “break down his (Reimer’s) traditional thoughts about the LGBTQ community.”
Reimer says Justice Molle did not like this and called it “irrelevant.”
“You’ve given him (probation officer) the power of how I’m supposed to write the apology, and because he is pro-LGBTQ, because he has pride flags all throughout his building and his probation building in office — that’s a massive conflict of interest,” he stated.
“I will not apologize based on a fabricated narrative the Judge has made up based off her discretion that I intimidated the librarian,” he said.
Reimer added that the librarian never used the word “intimidated” and instead he said she felt “anxious, upset, and threatened, because she interpreted me referring to the program as ‘pervert grooming sessions.’”
“She interpreted it as though I called her a pedophile protector,” he recounted, adding his lawyer came up and said, “Well, you had mentioned this three times, and, basically, I never said the word ‘pedophile’ once, ever.”
This is not the first time Reimer has had to battle the courts as a result of his protests against the LGBT agenda.
In a separate case involving another “drag queen story time” protest that took place in February 2023 at Calgary’s Seton Public Library, the outcome was more favorable to Reimer, with Judge Allan Fradsham finding the pastor not guilty in September 2024.
However, in October, Reimer was visited by Calgary Police at his home after he was served a notice of appeal in that case by prosecutors.
Around the time of many of Reimer’s arrests, the Calgary City Council passed the so-called “Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw” that disallowed “specified protests” both inside and outside all city-owned and affiliated public buildings, including libraries.
