Canadian Justice > Massage Therapist gets wrists slapped for dozens of sexual assaults; Bail system fails as another mother is femicided

..

2-years in jail for Abbotsford masseur who sexually assaulted 

12 women multiple times

Reinhard ‘Bud’ Loewen’s actions were those of ‘long-term, committed

serial sex predator,’ says judge

Jessica Peters

Nov 2, 2023 3:57 PM

Reinhard “Bud” Loewen has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting 12 women while massaging them. (Facebook photo)

A former Abbotsford masseur has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting 12 women while providing services to them.

Reinhard ‘Bud’ Loewen, 59, will also have to submit his DNA to the National Sex Offender Registry. He had at one point been facing a total of 24 charges, but it had been reduced to six counts that affected 12 women, many of whom were pregnant.

In B.C. Supreme Court Thursday (Nov. 2), Justice Ian Caldwell explained why a conditional sentence (house arrest) would not have been sufficient to deter Loewen from offending again.

That such a thing was even considered is just disgraceful.

Loewen advertised his services for free or very low-cost on Facebook pages, sometimes in the form of contests, specifically targeting pregnant women. Caldwell read the detailed accounts of how those massages turned into sexual assaults for 12 different women on multiple occasions over about two years.

“These are the actions of a long-term, committed, serial sex predator,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell also read from victim impact statements from several of the women, who are not to be identified under a publication ban.

“It was hard to have to tell my mom that her baby was hurt,” one woman’s statement read.

“I felt like he violated my baby,” another had said.

Some of his victims have suffered anxiety, anxiety attacks, required anti-depressants, and have had significant impacts on their lives and relationships due to the nature of the assault. One victim lost her job because she was unable to leave her bedroom.

“It’s robbed my children of their mother,” that one had said.

“I almost booked my 16-year-old daughter with him,” one explained. “The devastation sits very deep in me. What if it was her?”

In explaining his decision, Caldwell read portions from similar case law that dealt with sexual assaults during massage treatments in Canada. In each case, a decision had to be made between incarceration or a conditional sentence that would allow the offender to serve his time in the community.

Massage therapy falls under a position of trust or authority, which Caldwell ruled that “Mr. Loewen clearly abused.”

“He relied on the trust bestowed to (him) to attack his victims,” he said, with significant impact to them.

He planned and deliberated the attacks, rather than “simply happening on victims.” He also offered them financial incentives, by way of free or deeply discounted massage therapy.

“He targeted financially and physically vulnerable victims,” Caldwell said, and further isolated them in order to assault them.

And, he added, this was not a one-time event, but a pattern over a course of about two years.

There were some mitigating factors, but a doctor who assessed Loewen found that while he showed some remorse, he was also concerned that nobody was listening to his side of the story. The doctor also felt he was not being fully candid about his actions.

But Loewen had fully complied with bail conditions, has no criminal record, and a strong family and church base that continues to support him.

Some of those supports were in the Abbotsford courtroom for the sentencing, as were a large number of his victims.

One woman clapped when Loewen was handcuffed, while his family members clasped hands. Loewen looked to his family before being taken away for processing.

He was charged with a series of six consecutive charges ranging from three to five months each, adding up to the two years of incarceration. Following his release, he will serve 36 months of probation, with a list of conditions and ancillary orders, including providing a DNA sample, a 10-year firearms prohibition, and strict orders to not contact or be near any of his 12 victims.

“If you see them, you must leave immediately,” Caldwell underlined.

He may not provide massage services, and must remove any information from the internet that offers such services within 24 hours of his release from prison. If he wants massage services during that time, the practitioner must be informed of his history, and a male supervisor must be present who is also aware.

Loewen will also be required to inform his parole officer of any address or name changes, and his employment, for the course of his three-year probation.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of $200 per count, totalling $1,200 payable within 60 days of his sentencing.

$200 per count - Good grief! That should make the victims feel so much better as Loewen walks out of jail next year. 

2 years for dozens of assaults on vulnerable women is surely a bad joke. Where is the justice? For a woman who may have been abused several times, this means a sentence of a few weeks for each crime. In fact, he will certainly be released next year, reducing the sentence to a matter of days per crime. The "Justice" in "Canadian Justice" is a complete farce.

Loewen formerly operated Bud’s Massage Therapy. He started that business in 2017 out of a basement of a home in the 35400 block of Munroe Avenue in Abbotsford that also had an unrelated hair salon.

Loewen was first charged in December 2020. He was not certified as a massage therapist and had taken only a one-week course in late 2016 through “Brandon Raynor’s School of Natural Therapies.” That course is designed to train someone to give massages to friends and family.

‘Bail system is failing’: Calls grow for answers after N.S. mother killed

By Rebecca Lau  Global News

Posted November 2, 2023 10:17 am

 pdated November 2, 2023 2:21 pm

WATCH: A Nova Scotia family is seeking answers and accountability after a woman was killed this week in a hit and run. Hollie Boland was allegedly struck by a car driven by her ex-partner. As Ella MacDonald reports, the incident is being called a horrific act of domestic violence.

Friends and family of a Nova Scotia woman who was killed this week say her death was preventable, and are calling for accountability in the judicial system that failed her.

Hollie Marie Boland of Dartmouth, N.S., died from her injuries on Monday in the Halifax suburb of Cole Harbour after she was hit by a car, police say.

The man accused of killing her is her former partner, court records show, and was out on bail while facing previous charges for allegedly assaulting her.

“We feel at this moment the system failed Hollie, and if they hadn’t, she would still be here with all of us and her babies,” a statement from the Boland family read.

A memorial of flowers and cards at the intersection in Cole Harbour, N.S. where Hollie Boland was struck by a vehicle. Ella MacDonald/Global News

On social media, her aunt Madeline Rhodenizer called Boland a beautiful, soft-hearted, funny, hard-working, mom of three children who had gone back to school to “make a life for her and her kids.”

“The children now have no Mom,” she wrote. “But it could have been prevented. Someone needs to be held accountable for this. So many mistakes made by the system that was supposed to protect her.”

Accused was facing previous charges

Aaron Daniel Crawley, 33, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death and is scheduled back in court Nov. 29.

The hit-and-run Monday prompted an emergency alert at the time, after Crawley allegedly fled the scene.

Aaron Daniel Crawley, 33, was identified as the hit-and-run suspect. Provided/NS RCMP

According to a police news release, a “Good Samaritan” tried to help Boland, who was being held against her will by a man on Shrewsbury Road, in Cole Harbour. Investigators say that when the Good Samaritan intervened, she and Boland were knocked to the ground by the suspect.

Police allege the driver used his car to strike the woman he had been detaining and fled the scene.

Boland died of her injuries in hospital, while the woman who had intervened suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Court documents show Crawley was facing previous charges for allegedly assaulting Boland, including one incident involving a car.

Provincial court Judge Brad Sarson nonetheless permitted Crawley’s release on conditions he stay away from Boland and four other people, not drive and remain at home except when going to his job or travelling for appointments.

Brian Cox, the president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association, says the prosecution had opposed Crawley’s release.

The public prosecution service has said Crawley was charged with dangerous operation of a car and assault with a weapon against Boland on May 24, and had been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a future date.

Despite being ordered not to have further contact, Crawley was charged with assaulting and choking Boland on June 8, as well as with breaching his release conditions.

And why was he not incarcerated at that time, since it was apparent he had no compulsion to abide by his bail conditions?  Criminals who don't take their bail conditions seriously should not get a second chance to prove that.

“Recent amendments to the bail system were meant to modernize and streamline the system while also protecting the safety and rights of victims of intimate partner violence,” Cox told Global News.

“But when we have intimate partners who are killed while offenders are out on release that says to me that the bail system is failing and that the justice system is failing.”

Linda MacDonald, the co-founder of Persons Against Non-state Torture, goes further. The activist wants Boland’s death to be recognized not as a case of intimate partner violence, but as femicide.

“When you see women that are killed in femicide it’s a war — one house, one street at a time,” said MacDonald.

“It’s a very serious crime. It’s still minimized. It’s not a private matter.”

Boland’s friends and family echo that sentiment and say there needs to be accountability.

“My heart is broken,” her mother, Carol Boland, wrote on social media. “My beautiful daughter was murdered and left everyone who loved her.”

— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Ella MacDonald

Islam - Africa > Christian Heroine surrenders to Islam; Burning dead gays in Senegal

..

It's impossible to even imagine the kinds of pressure this young woman has been under for years. Her courage and faith must have been assaulted from every conceivable direction. Let's pray for this beautiful young woman and the impossible situation she is in.

Leah Sharibu finally accepts Islam, remarries another ISWAP commander

by Goodness Adaoyiche, Politics Nigeria, September 27, 2023:

After being held back by terrorists for refusing to denounce her Christian faith, abducted Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, has finally accepted Islam.

Politics Nigeria recalls that Leah was abducted alongside over 100 schoolmates from Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19, 2018.

While others regained their freedom, the terrorists refused to release Leah who according to her mates “refused to denounce her Christian faith”.

There were reports that Leah had been married off to one of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commanders.

But emerging report says that Leah has divorced her first husband for another ISWAP commander.

“Leah was first married to Abdulrahman after she allegedly converted to Islam and they have two children, all boys that were named after two Boko Haram commanders that were killed,” a source told DailyTrust.

“We don’t know what transpired but Leah secured the divorce and married another commander, Ali Abdallah.”…

In Senegal, homophobia follows you even after death: 

Corpse exhumed, burned by mob

A mob in a small town in Senegal dug up the body of a man suspected of being gay, dragged his body through town and then burned it during the night of October 28, 2023. While there have been other instances of exhumations of people suspected of being gay, the incident that took place in Kaolack, a town 200 kilometres southeast of Dakar, is different because it was filmed and posted online, says our Observer, a member of a group dedicated to the upholding the human rights of LGBTQ Africans.

Issued on: 02/11/2023 - 19:02; 4 min

These are screengrabs of different videos showing a crowd gathering around the fire where people are burning the exhumed body of a man suspected of being gay. The image on the right shows a phone filming the scene. It was originally an Instagram live and was later reposted on TikTok. © Observers

By:Thaïs Chaigne

WARNING: This article contains descriptions of violence that some readers may find distressing. We have included screengrabs but have decided not to share the videos.

A number of videos posted on social media document a group of men digging up a man’s body, tying his remains with rope and dragging them on the ground, before burning them on a pyre made of old tyres and bales of hay. The footage shows men turning around the fire in a frenzy and throwing things into the flames in front of dozens of onlookers, who film the scene with their cellphones.

Out of respect for the victim, our team has decided not to share explicit images of the exhumed body. In one of the videos, shared as an Instagram livestream and then reposted on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), a man explains to the camera in Wolof and then in French: "We caught a homosexual and we burned him," as the body is seen behind him. 

Other videos show a large crowd gathering in front of the cemetery of the Léona Niassène mosque, watching the scene. A number of these onlookers film the scene.  

'You wouldn’t even treat an animal that way'

In many of the videos of the event circulating online, you can hear people saying "goor-jigeen", which literally means "man-woman" in Wolof and is used to refer to gay men.

The people who carried out this extreme violence were motivated by rumours that the man was gay. Homosexuality is a crime in Senegal and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Our team spoke to a member of the Idaho Committee, which works to protect LGBTQ rights in Africa. Our Observer wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons.

He and his team were able to get Facebook to take down a video showing the young man’s body being dragged out of his tomb.

This footage has had a terrible impact on the many members of the Senegalese LGBTQ community who have left the country. You wouldn’t even treat an animal this way – digging it up and burning it. Already, it is hard enough to protect the living. But here in Senegal, homophobia follows you even after death. 

Being gay in Senegal means being rejected by your family and losing your friends. If someone discovers your sexual orientation, then your social life is over. 

To my knowledge, this is the first time that a body has been burned in public and that the scene was filmed and shared like this on social media. But exhumations are sadly not new in Senegal. 

There have been a number of documented cases where groups of men have dug up a body and then brought the remains to the home of the victim’s mother.  The victims are people suspected of being gay or, even more commonly, people suspected of being HIV positive.

Senegal’s state prosecutor Abasse Yaya Wane released a statement on Sunday stating that an investigation into the matter had been opened. Four people were arrested on Monday, October 30. Authorities have reported that a fifth person, thought to be an instigator, is on the run. All of the men were identified through the videos posted online.

The religious leader of Léona Niassène mosque condemned the incident in a statement published on October 29. The statement also refuted “erroneous information” that the religious community in Léona Niassène had been involved.

"Our community condemns any kind of violence, intolerance and attack on people’s private lives,” the statement reads. 

“I commend the wise and humanist position of the khalif of Leona Niassène Serigne Cheikh Tidiane Niasse,” reads this post in French on X that features a statement made by the leader of the religious community.

Our Observer says that this kind of reaction is unprecedented:

We were surprised in the best way when we saw that the prosecutor had already opened an investigation. This, along with the statement from the religious leader condemning the act, are new positions. The khalif actually has stepped out of the fray and has even said that people should not get involved in the private lives of others. It’s quite courageous of him. 

Under Senegalese law, the maximum sentence for anyone found responsible for these acts would be one year in prison [Editor’s note: according to Article 354 of the Senegalese penal code]. I am calling on Senegalese authorities to increase the prison terms for people convicted for these kinds of acts. One year isn’t enough for what is barbarism carried out by a mob in a public space. There is nothing in the Koran or in Islam that says that gay people must be dug up and burned, which means the motivation isn’t religious, it is an inhuman act from human barbarism… What else could we call it?

 

Islam - Europe > Muslim beats, rapes 15 y/o German girl; 4 More Pakistanis imprisoned for child sex abuse in UK

..

Germany: Muslim accused of raping, beating 15-year-old,

‘I’ll destroy your entire family. I swear by the Qur’an.’

Trial in Munich: 21-year-old is said to have raped a 15-year-old

Translated from “Prozess in München: 21-Jähriger soll 15-Jährige vergewaltigt haben,” 

Bild, October 14, 2023

Munich – The public prosecutor’s allegations against 21-year-old Ahmet C. are serious.

He is said to have raped, beaten and threatened his then-15-year-old girlfriend on three instances via WhatsApp: “You will really regret that. I’ll make you suffer girl. If I want, I’ll destroy your entire family. I swear by the Qur’an.”

According to the prosecution, the attacks on the girl are said to have happened in Munich and the surrounding area at Lake Olching.

At the beginning of 2021 he was holding a folding knife in his hand. He was upset because she was talking to another man. Out of sheer jealousy, he asked her to kill him with the knife. When she took the knife away from him, she injured her hand, according to the defendant’s account.

He admitted the assault cases through his lawyer. But: He didn’t rape her, the man said.

The verdict is due to come on October 30th.

Women and girls are objects of ownership to Muslim men. Murder is a matter of honour, rather than a crime. Nobody is telling German teens about this. How can Muslims possibly integrate into German society. It's absurd.

Four (Pakistani) men jailed for sexually abusing two girls in Rochdale

Plus one stupid British heroin addict

by Helen Pidd, Guardian, October 31, 2023:

Five men from Rochdale have been sentenced to between eight and 20 years in prison after being found guilty of grooming and abusing two girls between 2004 and 2006.

The longest sentence was given to the oldest defendant, Jahn Shahid Ghani, a 50-year-old care worker. He was at least 30 when he took advantage of the girls when they were 14 or 15. He would pick them up from school while they were still in uniform and ply them with drink and drugs before exploiting them.

He forced one of them, Girl A, to have group sex when she was 14 – once with a male colleague from work and also with his adult girlfriends, Minshull Street crown court in Manchester heard.

Girl A said she had thought she was “in love” with Ghani, and that he was “one of her best friends”. He in turn told the jury he believed she and her friend, the second complainant, Girl B, were 16. They were in separate consensual “friends with benefits”-type sexual relationships with him, he claimed.

It was at Ghani’s flat, above a butcher’s shop in Rochdale, that Girl A was passed around “like a piece of meat” between Ghani younger half-brother, Mohammed Faisal Ghani, and his friends. She said she was “trapped like a prisoner” in the flat and forced to have sex with numerous men on a stained single mattress with no sheets. The jury heard that Mohammed Ghani, a “sweet talker”, told her he would “love her even more” if she had sex with his friends.

The court heard that on one occasion he persuaded Girl A to have sex with his cousin, a man in his 30s, who was visiting from Pakistan. “He’s never had sex with a white girl before,” he told her, urging her to “do it for the team”. He then asked her to marry the cousin for £5,000 so that he could get a UK visa, but she refused.

On one occasion, another defendant, Insar Hussain, now 38, challenged her to a drinking contest at the flat above the butcher’s shop. She drank so much vodka that she passed out, the jury heard. The next day she was shown a video of one of the men sexually assaulting her with a brandy bottle as Hussain and others laughed. The bottle was on display in the bathroom “like a trophy”, the court heard, and the video was distributed around Rochdale….

A fourth defendant, Ali Razza Hussain Kazmi, 36, was described by Girl A as an “intimidating and aggressive figure” when he sexually assaulted Girl B when she was just 13. He went on to rape Girl B when she was 14 and he was 16 or 17, in an underpass near Hopwood Hall college in Rochdale. The rape took place in full view of his friends, with him telling his victim: “I don’t give a f***. I’ll shag you in front of all my mates.”

Kazmi was the youngest defendant, aged 15 or 16 when he first abused Girl B, who was reported missing from home by her mother at least 83 times as a teenager. He denied knowing both girls, only to be confronted with a video of himself attending the Islamic wedding of Girl A. He was given an eight-year sentence, partly on account of his age at the time of the abuse.

Martin Rhodes, 39, a long-term heroin addict, was the only defendant to plead guilty to any of the charges against him, and was sentenced to 12 years and six months for sexual activity with a child. The court heard that both complainants believed he was their boyfriend when they were 14 and he was 20 or 21. He initially denied knowing either girl, only for police to point out that he had a tattoo with one of their names on his arm….

Approaching Sodom > Witnesses at Online Sex Exploitation hearing on Capital Hill; Common Sense will get you kicked out of Council in Pickering; Detransitioners

..

'Groomed to say Yes': Survivors of porn industry, sex trafficking

testify on Capitol Hill

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter

NCOSE CEO Dawn Hawkins speaks during a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2023. | 

Samantha Kamman/The Christian Post

WASHINGTON —A sex trafficking survivor and a man who was abused while working in the porn industry shared their stories during a recent congressional briefing discussing policy solutions to prevent online sexual exploitation. 

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation hosted the briefing last Thursday on Capitol Hill, featuring a variety of experts discussing online child sex abuse material, sex trafficking and pornography.

During the event's second panel titled, "Brazen Networks: Exposing and Combatting Open Online Sex Trafficking," Tanya Gould shared that her trafficker spent four months grooming her. She was later trafficked domestically in Virginia for 18 months right after she exited high school. 

Gould now serves as the director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Office of the Virginia Attorney General, a position she has held since January 2022. 

"Historically, it has been easy to let the sexual exploitation of minors slide," Gould said. "It's messy; hard to deal with, but we must face the reality of how it is affecting our communities in our society today." 

32 Million reports

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in the last year alone, the organization's CyberTipline received more than 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation, and most cases involved online child sex abuse material. 

"If you have not been purchased, I understand the disconnect," Gould said. "And we, as survivor leaders, are here to help you understand." 

(Third from left) Tanya Gould, the director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Office of the Virginia Attorney General, shares her story during a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2023. |

Samantha Kamman/The Christian Post

"Imagine being a child in America, growing up, and singing the songs of freedom in school, but have no one fighting for them," the survivor continued. "But instead are silent because minors don't contribute financially, and because of that, they have no real value and no real voice." 

Gould asserted that traffickers are permitted to thrive due to inaction from lawmakers, whom she argued are afraid to deal with the issue. She warned that traffickers typically do not restrict themselves to interacting with minors online, as the goal is to one day meet the minor in person. 

"We are doing better with what happens in our physical world, but the online world is just as real," Gould said. "Laws to protect kids on this physical plane must exist online. That should go on without saying, but we must." 

Gould shared a quote she heard once from a leader who felt that the demand for sex trafficking and exploitation is too great ever to resolve. 

"I debunk that idea and call on our leaders to hold buyers and traffickers of human beings accountable," Gould said, stating that individuals who purchase fellow human beings should be dealt with "harshly." 

Aaron Crowley, another sexual exploitation survivor, shared his story during the last panel titled "Unveiling Shadows: Exploitation & Injustice in Mainstream Pornography."

Crowley is the author of Bought with a Price: A Gay Christian's Memoir from Porn Sets to Love, which describes his experience of being prostituted in the porn industry. 

(Second from left) Aaron Crowley speaks during a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 26, 2023, describing his experience working in the porn industry. | The Christian Post/Samantha Kamman

Crowley revealed that he was only 9 years old when he was exposed to pornography, admitting that he didn't even understand what sex was at the time. The images he saw at a tender age depicting sexual violence made him believe that sex was supposed to be a violent act. 

He claimed that when he was eventually raped by a group of men, he didn't realize that he had been sexually assaulted. Crowley's rapists shared the images of the rape online. Still under the impression that violent sex acts were normal, he decided that he should be paid for engaging in them. 

"So, whenever I was given the opportunity to do mainstream porn, I was already groomed to say 'Yes,'" Crowley said. "And in order to get booked on a shoot, the talent scout required me to have sex with him any time he wanted."

"In any other business, that would be considered sexual assault," he added. "But when the business is sex, how do you draw the line between what is 'just business' and what is exploitation?" 

Producers in the porn industry would also coerce Crowley into committing actions that he didn't want to do by threatening to withhold his pay, knowing that he needed the money. 

The survivor said that through his work in the porn industry, he met other men who had been "groomed" to see sexual exploitation as normal and who needed the money badly enough to continue complying with the producers' demands. 

Crowley said that he and the other porn industry workers were encouraged to take drugs, which were often available on set, further inhibiting their ability to give consent. Reflecting on his experience, the survivor said that there is material of him out there that he no longer consents to having online. 

"Porn requires the bare minimum of consent," he said. "Enthusiastic consent does not exist on porn sets because enthusiastic consent cannot be bought."

Another issue discussed during the briefing was the need for greater protection for popular online platforms, including Instagram and Google, in order to safeguard minors from sexual exploitation. 

NCOSE CEO Dawn Hawkins highlighted several cases of children being exposed to exploitative content or abuse during the first panel, titled" Digital Shadows Child Exploitation on Popular Platforms." 

Hawkins cited the case of a 13-year-old girl who told NCOSE that a stranger she had never met before could send her a message on Instagram. The anti-sexual exploitation advocate questioned why the social media platform did not have a feature that would prevent strangers from messaging minors. 

She also noted that only this year, Google decided to blur sexually graphic images for all users by default, which Hawkins said is a "victory." 

"But why is it taking so long?" Hawkins asked. "As parents, we're afraid; we're overwhelmed, and we're ill-equipped."

"We cannot protect our kids because we don't have the power."

Attendees of the briefing received a document highlighting NCOSE's legislative priorities, which included the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act and the Kids Online Safety Act. 

The EARN IT Act would hold online platforms accountable if they knowingly allow for the distribution of child sex abuse material, and it would create a federal online Child Exploitation Prevention Committee to establish practices for preventing abuse. 

The other bill, KOSA, would require social media companies to provide safeguards for minors and make the strongest safety settings the default model. It would also create a duty for social media platforms to mitigate harm to children, including sexual exploitation, and require the platforms to perform an annual audit to assess the risks to minors.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Hawkins said that one challenge to enacting legislation that prevents exploitation is that Congress has often been slow to understand what's happening online. 

"But we're seeing Congress waking up," she said, highlighting the bills that have passed the Judiciary Committee this year. "We're finally at a place where Congress is like, 'We have to do something.'" 

Hawkins also stressed the need for accountability of social media platforms that allow for sexual exploitation, noting that these companies often claim immunity for anything that happens when people upload child sex abuse material to their sites. 

"Unless there's a minimum standard across the board, the next big tech company is not going to have even the most common-sense protections," the advocate argued. "It'll be another fight and another fight."

Ratio’d | Ontario councillor SUSPENDED WITHOUT PAY

for opposing gender ideology

By Harrison Faulkner -October 26, 2023

Pickering, (just east of Toronto) Ontario city councillor Lisa Robinson has been given a 60-day suspension without pay for advancing the interests of her constituents. 

Robinson introduced three motions on the council floor; to ban the flying of all non-governmental and special interest flags including the pride flag on municipal properties, imposing an age limit on drag shows taking place on city property and to ensure that women had a safe changing room at a local recreation facility. 

Robinson was suspended from council as a result.

In the Pickering integrity commissioner’s findings, Robinson is accused of “promoting attitudes which are homophobic and transphobic”.

This is an example of a radical city council embracing Marxist tactics to enforce ideological purity across all councillors and to make an example out of the one councillor willing to actually speak up and be a voice for the silent majority.

Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner.

DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care

Short Documentaries

Oct 25, 2023

What happens when a child is told she is born in the wrong body and undergoes life-altering surgery only to experience regret? A growing number of young Americans are being manipulated by social media and pushed by medical professionals to take hormones and undergo surgery. Now, many are finding the courage to detransition and warn others about their experience.

Featuring interviews with:

- Detransitioners Daisy Strongin and Abel Garcia

- Transgenderism expert and fellow at the Manhattan Institute Leor Sapir

- Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, whose clients are suing healthcare providers for performing “gender-affirming” surgery on minors

DETRANS serves as a wake-up call to all of us: our children are in danger and it’s up to us to protect them.

=====================================================================================

Wolves Among the Sheep > Int'l House of Prayer Founder abuser of several women; Caedmon's Call Front-Person in Drag at Dove Awards

..

International House of Prayer founder Mike Bickle accused

of sexual misconduct by multiple women

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Features Reporter Facebook

International House of Prayer founder, Mike Bickle. | YouTube/ International House of Prayer

International House of Prayer Kansas City founder Mike Bickle has agreed to step away from public ministry as he is investigated for “serious allegations including sexual immorality” that have been made against him by multiple women.

Leaders of the charismatic Evangelical Christian movement and missions organization based in Kansas City, Missouri, made the revelations of the allegations Sunday at the 11 a.m. service of the ministry’s “local church expression,” Forerunner Church, where Isaac and Morgan Bennett serve as lead pastors.

“We are heartbroken to share that we have recently become aware of serious allegations including sexual immorality directed against Mike Bickle, the founder of IHOPKC. Our leadership team takes these allegations very seriously and we are laboring for truth, light, redemption, and righteousness. We are engaging with outside parties to assess and arbitrate these allegations,” the church’s leadership team announced on Facebook Sunday.

“Our priority is to love and serve our IHOPKC community during this moment. This news is unsettling for our spiritual family as well as our entire leadership team. Please pray for all involved, including the ones who have come forward, those who have experienced trauma, and for the Bickle family,” it continued.

“We are asking for patience as we work through this complex and very difficult situation. Secondly, we ask that our spiritual family refrain from using prophetic spiritual language that can be interpreted as dismissive of the pain of the traumatized.”

Bickle, IHOPKC leaders further noted, agreed on Thursday that he would not preach or teach from the church’s platform, engage with the public on social media or participate in the church’s well-known 24-hour prayer room on Red Bridge Road in south Kansas City “while we work with others to assess this situation.”

“As difficult as this is for many, we are trusting in Jesus' wise and good leadership to help and strengthen us as we anchor our hope in Him,” the church leaders added.

Dwayne Roberts, a founding member of the IHOPKC, Brian Kim, a former IHOPKC executive leadership team member, and Wes Martin, a former pastor of Forerunner Church, said in a joint statement published on Saturday that they were the ones who first confronted leaders of the ministry with the allegations that span “several decades.”

“A few days ago, we made the leadership team of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City … aware of serious allegations spanning several decades concerning its founder, Mike Bickle. Without going into details to protect the privacy of the victims’ identities, we have found these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing,” they began in their statement. “The credibility of these allegations is not based on any one experience or any one victim, but on the collective and corroborating testimony of the experiences of several victims.”

They allege that before meeting with IHOPKC’s leadership team, they attempted to discuss the allegations with Bickle directly “in the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17” but they were rebuffed. Bickle also attempted to intimidate, isolate, manipulate and discredit his victims.

“When these allegations were brought to our attention, we were shocked. We could never have imagined that inappropriate conduct with women as something we would ever need to be concerned about,” the former IHOPKC ministry workers said. “The allegations seemed out of character to the man we thought we knew, but they were so serious we could not ignore them.”

Bickle, they explained, allegedly used his position of leadership over the women to manipulate them.

“We believe that Mike Bickle’s actions were not above reproach and fall short of biblical standards for leaders in the church. To be clear, the allegations made about Mike Bickle’s misconduct were sexual in nature where the marriage covenant was not honored. Furthermore, the allegations made also reveal that Mike Bickle used his position of spiritual authority over the victims to manipulate them.”

Caedmon’s Call singer Derek Webb wears dress,

flanks drag queen Flamy Grant at Dove Awards

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter

Drag performer Matthew Blake (left) and CCM singer Derek Webb wear makeup and women's clothing while standing in front of a cross for a music video. | Screenshot:YouTube/DerekWebb

Correction appended

Derek Webb apparently really enjoys wearing dresses.

So much so, in fact, the on-again off-again Caedmon’s Call singer decided he would wear one to the Dove Awards, the biggest night in Christian contemporary music (CCM) — and invite a drag performer to join him.

While Webb is no stranger to the Dove Awards, with 10 nominations and three wins, he said this year would be the first time he attended in person.

Webb shared an image of himself wearing a woman’s dress, pearls and black stockings with the caption, “despite having won a few over the past 20+ years, tonight will be my first ever trip to the dove awards, in the company of some very good friends (@FlamyGrant and @gracebaldridge, among others). i hardly ever dress up, but this feels like a very special occasion.”

 

A short time later, he tweeted another image of himself along with Matthew Blake, a former worship leader who wears makeup and women’s clothing and performs under the name Flamy Grant, and Grace Baldridge, who performs as “Semler.”

 

Webb's ex-wife, artist Sandra McCracken, was nominated at this year's Dove Awards for her album Light in the Canyon. In 2014, Webb and McCracken divorced after 13 years of marriage after he admitted to an extramarital affair. The duo have two children together.

While Webb attributed his wardrobe to the “special occasion” of the Dove Awards, the “Jesus Hypothesis” singer hasn’t shied away from wearing women’s clothing on multiple occasions in recent months. 

On the same day as the Dove Awards photos, he posted another image of himself in the same dress in an anniversary message to his wife, Abbie Parker.

Earlier this week, he also promoted print-on-demand merch, including a cup with an image of Webb wearing — you guessed it — a white skirt, along with the lyrics, “but I say unto you, you’re beautiful & free” from the song “God in Drag.”

In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly used the phrase “But I say unto you” to proclaim Himself as a higher authority than the scribes, according to the Christian apologetics website Got Questions.

When asked about his intentions in attending the Dove Awards despite not being nominated, Blake said he sees the appearance as “a sort of banner-wielding, exploratory scouting expedition.”

“We’re not going to stir up trouble or demand a single thing,” he told Baptist News Global earlier this month. “We’re simply going to be present, to express our queer joy, and to celebrate in our little corner of the room.”

Blake said he hopes to make “queer Christians” more visible simply by showing up at the Dove Awards.

“I am interested in representation and taking up space and providing an option for Christians who believe in a God that redeems the whole world, not just the heteronormative parts of it,” he was quoted as saying.

Webb and Blake made headlines earlier this year when the male pair both donned makeup, colorful wigs and women’s clothing while standing in front of a cross for a music video.

The video for “Boys Will Be Girls” includes the lyrics, “I heard Jesus loved and spent his life with those who/ Were abandoned by proud and fearful men/ So if a church won’t celebrate and love you/ They’re believing lies that can’t save you or them/ Cause you’re so beautiful by any name.”

He also wrote a song titled “God in Drag,” in which he appears to mock the biblical notions of Heaven and Hell:

“You’ve heard it said/ Oh, God so loves but he’ll reject you/ If you so choose he will respect you/ And for all time, he’ll disconnect you/ From his love and those who’ve left you/ And in the skies live on without you/ While the devil’s flames surround you/ In the place that he designed to/ For eternity remind you/ Of the choice that’s now behind you/ Either way, I bet you’ll break a sweat.”

In a July interview with Sojourners, Webb said he wrote the song “for a dear person in my life who came out to [him] just a few years ago” and compared performing in drag for the “Boys Will Be Girls” video to the Incarnation of Christ.

“There is something about the experience of being put in drag by Flamy Grant that did feel incarnational to me,” he was quoted as saying. “And I think that’s a great analog to the work that Jesus did, and the power that incarnational risk has.”

The Dove Awards are set to air on TBN on Oct. 20.

Correction: The original version of this article, published on Oct. 19, 2023, reported that Derek Webb is a former member of Caedmon’s Call. However, he is a current member of the band. Webb's participation in the band has not been constant over the decades, and he once left for a time to embark on a solo career. 

Is this what happens when you have no real relationship with Jesus Christ?

Deuteronomy 22:5 ESV 

“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

=====================================================================================