Canada’s attack on free speech continues!

Canadian LGBT lawfare: Bill Whatcott on trial again in Toronto for the same “hate speech” charge he was acquitted of in 2021.

His crime? Ten years ago he passed out a Christian flyer on “gay” health risks!

A judge ruled him “not guilty” in 2021. But the Ontario government appealed – claiming that expert testimony from a radical LGBT “professor” was wrongly excluded.

A new judge agreed to put Bill on trial again! Canadian law allows this.

Could such an abuse of justice come to the U.S.?

June 1, 2026

At the "evidentiary hearing" prior to the second trial. From left: Bill Whatcott, the judge (wearing COVID mask!), the Crown prosecutor (standing), and one of Bill's attorneys.

Bill Whatcott is an extraordinary and completely fearless Canadian pro-family activist. Too many conservatives (and even conservative media) wither away or tone themselves down as their “progressive” government becomes increasingly oppressive. But Bill understands that those are the times when standing on principle counts most!

In 2018, Bill rallied activists for Canada MassResistance at a pro-family conference in Alberta.

Last week Bill was brought into court and put on trial a second time for an absurd “crime” charge that he’d already been acquitted of. Such “double jeopardy” is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, but in Canada it is allowed.

What was the government’s “appeal” that allowed this? This article recounts how the pro-LGBT Canadian government – having already spent millions of dollars in its over-the-top “lawfare” against Bill – used that process to bring him back to trial, despite the efforts of his top-notch defense lawyers. (Upcoming posts will cover the trial itself and the judge’s verdict when it is announced.)

Background

Bill’s so-called “hate crime” consists of a flyer that was passed out ten years ago. Below is the basic timeline of events. (See our full MassResistance coverage of this.)

June 2016. Bill passed out flyers at a gay pride parade. Bill and some unidentified friends registered to march in the 2016 Toronto Gay Pride Parade as masked “gay zombies.” The parade was a spectacle of depravity, including contingents of completely naked men, anti-Christian imagery, and allusions to sexual perversions. As Bill and his group walked in the parade, they handed out to onlookers thousands of “safe sex” flyers. The flyer included strong warnings on the negative health effects of homosexual behaviors along with Christian gospel messages.

The "Gay Zombies" handing out flyer packets as their group marches in the 2016 Toronto Gay Pride parade.

The "safe sex" packet with the flyer inside that they passed out. Ten years and millions of dollars later, the government won't let it go!

August 2016 – Attempted LGBT lawsuit against Bill. A prominent government-supported LGBT group attempted to sue Bill for $104 million. But they gave up after two years when they realized that Bill had no money.
June 2018 – Government decides to prosecute Bill, issues nationwide arrest warrant. A full two years after the incident, the Canadian government (known as the “Crown”) decided to prosecute Bill for “hate speech” and issued a bizarre nationwide warrant for his arrest. When Bill heard about it, he simply turned himself in. Of course, in the U.S. and most of the world, this wouldn’t be an actual “crime” at all.

Bill Whatcott (center) turns himself in at Calgary police station after hearing about his nationwide arrest warrant.

December 2021. Eight-day trial, and acquittal. After various preliminary hearings, the Ontario Attorney General finally put Bill on trial, which lasted a grueling eight days. However, Bill’s lawyer was John Rosen, arguably the top criminal defense attorney in Canada. Rosen did a brilliant job. As a result, the judge (surprisingly) ruled that Bill was innocent. He determined the flyers included factual information and sincere Christian messages, not “hate” speech. The Crown was shocked at the ruling!

The Ontario government appeals the judge's “not guilty” verdict

Most Americans are unfamiliar with the “double jeopardy” concept or its use. The U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment prohibits a person being “put in jeopardy” twice for the same crime. In the U.S., a person can appeal his conviction, but the state cannot appeal a “not guilty” verdict.

Canada allows the prosecution to appeal acquittals. But it only happens rarely – in less than one percent of cases. The Crown must show there was a significant error of law in the trial - for example, if important evidence had been wrongly excluded.

However, the fact that the government would continue to pursue a case where no actual “crime” took place, and where there were overwhelming facts for acquittal, is extremely disturbing. It is “lawfare” at its very worst.

In February 2022, the Ontario Attorney General filed an appeal of Bill Whatcott’s “not guilty” verdict.

In its appeal, the Crown claimed that three significant “errors of law” took place in Bill’s 2021 trial:

Excluding flyers that Bill had passed out years earlier. The judge had ruled not to admit as evidence flyers that Bill passed out in Saskatchewan in 2000 and 2001, twenty years earlier. He said their “prejudicial effect” was not substantial.
Excluding an LGBT “gender” professor as an expert witness. The Crown attempted to have Professor Nick Mulé of York University testify as an expert witness on various types of “anti-gay discrimination.” Besides being a long-time LGBT activist and apparently a broad sexual deviant, Mulé teaches at the university’s School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies where he is coordinator of the sexual studies program. In his lengthy ruling excluding Mulé, the judge recognized that Mulé’s blatantly biased approach would lead to problems as an “expert witness.” There was also a question of whether his “expertise” is relevant to this situation.
The judge misinterpreted Canada’s “hate speech” law. The Crown claimed that the judge erred in concluding that the statements in Bill’s flyer did not comprise hatred within the meaning of the “willful promotion of hate speech” according to the law. (This is difficult to prove.)

All three of those objections seem ridiculous and a waste of time for any court. But the fact that the Ottawa Attorney General is spending so much money and going to these absurd lengths over a flyer passed out ten years ago reveals how insane the Canadian legal system has become.

Judicial panel rules that appeal can move forward

In June 2023, a three-judge appellate panel held a hearing and unanimously approved the appeal for a re-trial. There would be an upcoming “evidentiary hearing” to determine whether the excluded flyers and excluded testimony would be allowed in the new trial.

News of a second trial shocked Canadian conservatives. John Carpay of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said the charges against Bill Whatcott should never have been brought in the first trial. “It’s scary to live in a society where you can get prosecuted for spreading ‘hatred’ over a flyer like that,” he said.

At some point after that, Atty. John Rosen retired. However, his firm has continued to represent Bill and has continued to receive criminal defendant funding from the Canadian government to take his case – one lone positive aspect of the Canadian legal system (at least in this situation).

The five-day “evidentiary hearing” on allowing the excluded testimony at the new trial

The October 2025 evidentiary hearing was an intense five-day ordeal – much like a court trial – to determine whether Bill’s flyers from 20 years ago and testimony from the “professor” would be included in Bill’s upcoming “hate speech” re-trial. (See our detailed day-by-day write-up of of the entire hearing.)

Though Zoom links were provided, it was hard to watch. The judge was clearly a very woke woman wearing a COVID mask (years after the COVID scare) and was visibly contemptuous of Bill’s attorneys, and even rude to them.

The attorneys and judge went back and forth at great length over Bill’s earlier flyers regarding whether they showed that he had an internal “hatred” of homosexuals. At one point the judge admitted that she was unclear about some of the medical terms used regarding LGBT behaviors and their health consequences.

From Queer Liberation Theory to BDSM, the lengthy cross-examinations of Dr. Mulé provided a tour through radical LGBT ideology via a pantheon of sexual perversions.

However, Bill’s defense attorneys were sharp, well prepared, on their toes, and sufficiently aggressive through all of it. In a normal courtroom they would have easily prevailed.

The judge’s decision: On January 31, 2026, the judge ruled (not surprisingly) that Bill’s flyers from 2001 and 2002, as well as “expert witness” testimony from Professor Nick Mulé, would be allowed at Bill’s upcoming re-trial.

Bill Whatcott’s re-trial begins

Bill Whatcott’s re-trial began last week (on May 25) and is expected to end sometime this week. Then the judge’s decision would probably come in about a month.

The good news is that this judge, like the judge in Bill’s first trial (and unlike the woke judge in the "evidentiary hearing"), seems to be surprisingly reasonable. In fact, Bill’s lawyers had originally sought a jury trial, but after seeing the judge, they opted for a bench trial.

Although there are no Zoom links available for the re-trial, we are in close contact with two people who are in the courtroom each day.

We will have a full report when the trial ends, and another when the judge renders the decision.

Marching right in front of Bill and his "gay zombies" in the 2016 Gay Pride parade was this group of naked men. There was another group of naked men behind Bill's group. But no Canadian authorities even objected to them, much less took any steps to prosecute them.

Final thoughts

We suspect that we know a big reason why the government is pushing so hard to convict Bill (which could even include jail time). What he did is an existential threat to Canada’s jack-booted hold being imposed on free speech regarding this hot-button issue. If Bill gets away with publicly telling the medical and religious truths about the consequences of LGBT behavior, anyone else in Canada could also do it. And that’s dangerous for a “progressive” government.

But it’s especially troubling that virtually no Canadian conservative media (including the self-ballyhooed Rebel News) are covering this inflammatory case. (There was one article in 2016 by LifeSiteNews and a MassResistance alert regarding it posted by Action4Canada. Bill actually got more coverage in Canada's leftist media.) Nor is the U.S. conservative media interested in this. Only MassResistance is reporting on it. (In Bill’s first trial, our reporting was even cited by the judge and opposing counsel.)

We will remain on the frontlines!