Activist convicted on assault charge

ChristianWeek Staff

TORONTO, ON-A lengthy trip through the Ontario court system leaves a controversial Christian activist charged with assault after an outburst protesting gay marriage.

The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned two lower court decisions August 25 that had acquitted Cambridge resident Erika Kubassek, 59, of assault and disrupting a church service. She was charged after a January 14, 2001 altercation with pastor Brent Hawkes during a Sunday morning service at Toronto's Metropolitan Community Church (MCC).

Hawkes was scheduled to perform Canada's first two same-sex marriages at the pre dominantly gay church later that day. Banns announcing the couples' intent and allowing time for those who disagreed with the marriage to speak had been posted.

Kubassek says she interrupted the morning service, quoting Scripture and telling the congregation homosexuality is an abomination and a sin because it is her calling as a self-proclaimed "prophetess of the Lord."

When Hawkes intervened and asked her to leave, Kubassek pushed or shoved him and he stumbled backwards. Witnesses say Kubassek was escorted from the building, shouting and throwing papers.

"It seems that some people find the truth offensive," Kubassek later told ChristianWeek. "It should be offensive to every Christian that these marriages went ahead. However, many of today's Christians have moved so far into the world that they find biblical Christians offensive when these carry out the will of the Lord by warning the wicked of their ways."

Although a provincial court judge found Kubassek's behaviour "rude and offensive," she was acquitted in January 2002 on a legal principle that states "the law does not concern itself with trifles."

Ontario's highest court took exception to that ruling and overturned it, finding that Kubassek's actions were not trivial.

"She chose to deliver a message that she knew would fall on unreceptive ears," said Justice Marvin Catzman in the August 25 decision.

"She chose to push or shove [Hawkes] to the side so that she could finish what she had to say. That he tripped, but did not fall or suffer injury, was purely fortuitous."

Following the ruling, the court granted Kubassek an absolute discharge. She will automatically receive a pardon for her conviction in one year if she is not convicted of any other offence.

(With files from the National Post, Toronto Star)