A Calgary professor is hoping that his five-year fight to get an anti-gay letter branded as hate literature will provide a clear ruling on the limits to free speech in Alberta. Darren Lund, an education professor at the University of Calgary, filed a complaint against the letter written by Rev. Stephen Boissoin in 2002 and the case will finally be heard by an Alberta Human Rights Commission hearing this week.

Boissoin's letter, published in the Red Deer Advocate, said homosexuals and those who defend them are as immoral as pedophiles and drug dealers. The pastor went on to say that a war had been declared and the "homosexual machine" would be defeated.

"From kindergarten class on, our children, your grandchildren are being strategically targeted, psychologically abused and brainwashed by homosexual and pro-homosexual educators," Boissoin wrote in the controversial letter. "Your children are being warped into believing that same-sex families are acceptable; that kissing men is appropriate."

Outside the hearing Monday, Lund acknowledged that freedom of religion and opinion are important tenets of democracy, but they shouldn't come at the expense of human rights. Boisson wasn't expected to testify at the hearing, but in previous interviews has said it was his democratic right and Christian duty to voice his opinions.

Gerald Chipeur, Boissoin's lawyer, called the case “probably the most significant constitutional case involving human rights legislation that has ever been considered in Alberta.”

The Alberta government has stepped up to support Lund in the case. At least one national gay rights group has said that it won’t support Lund in order to respect Boissoin’s freedom of speech.

-with files from CP

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