Canada: Postal service apologises after delivering anti-gay leaflets
Canada Post, the main postal service in Canada, has apologised after delivering anti-gay leaflets to households.
The leaflets, which quote Bible verses to condemn homosexuality and same-sex marriage, were mistakenly delivered by the company in the town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland.
The eight-page leaflet claims “the homosexual is at war with God”, that homosexuality “is almost always violent”, and that being gay is a “filthy perversion”
According to The Telegram, Canada Post spokesman John Haines said: “We didn’t know what was inside, because we didn’t open it. But once we reviewed the content, we can see how it can be offensive to some people and we wouldn’t distribute any more of it until we had a legal opinion.
“Canada Post didn’t author this material. We did [distribute it] because it was properly prepared and when you look at the front, it says clearly where it came from and who published it. So, if anyone has concern with the content, they should talk to that party.
“I can say that we apologise if anybody was offended by it and that we won’t deliver any more of it, if it comes in.”
Denise Cole, a local member of the LGBT community, told the Telegram: “I thought that we were past this. We just flew the rainbow flag in our community for the past two weeks in support of diversity and inclusion and then Canada Post allows propaganda and hate mail to come through like this.”
“This isn’t just about being offended, there are laws in place now around hate crimes and around same-sex discrimination.”
A man who identified himself as a spokesman for the Halifax-based People’s Gospel Hour said that his group published the fliers, but declined to comment.
