Lorne Mayencourt, the Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly for the area, chaired the Vancouver rally. The Liberal party, Canada's dominant capitalist party, is the governing party in British Columbia.

One of the speakers was Jim Deva, owner of the gay- and lesbian-oriented Little Sisters. A year ago the bookstore won a 10-year legal battle with Canada Customs over the right to import certain titles for sale in the store.

Deva challenged Mayencourt to come to the podium and say that the government will do everything to combat homophobia. As Mayencourt tried to close the rally, some people in the crowd shouted, "What is the provincial government going to do about this?" In July, the Liberal government dropped out of a suit to allow marriage of same sex couples. The suit was launched by the New Democratic Party government before its electoral defeat earlier this year.

The federal parliament is using the incident to consider expansion of hate-crime laws to cover incitement of hatred against gays and lesbians. New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson said that as long as "hate propaganda legislation is silent on this issue, there's at least an implicit statement that it's acceptable." Justice Minister Anne McLellan said she would consider the proposal.

Opponents of the right to speak out against the imperialist assault on Afghanistan recently tried to use hate crime legislation against Sunera Thobani, a UBC professor who denounced the war on Afghanistan.  
 
 
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