Peter LaBarbera

[3] In early August 1994, LaBarbera and another activist, Bill Horn, were invited to Shreveport, Louisiana, by pastor Billy McCormack (vice president of the Christian Coalition of America) to make a presentation on the homosexual rights agenda.

[4] LaBarbera served as a senior policy analyst for the Culture and Family Institute, a conservative Christian group opposed to LGBT rights.

Despite receiving similar criticism in 2013 for inviting a speaker from Courage International to the convention, the decision was defended by the organization's president Marcy Mallette, who stated that "his website is for truth, and that's not hateful at all", but also went on to say that she "welcome[d] dialogue", given that "there's nothing worse than just being silent about everything."

Debra Button, mayor of Weyburn, announced that she and her city council would consider pulling the CDN$1,000 in funding it had provided for the event in response to the controversy.

[15][16] On April 10, 2014—two days before the conference, LaBarbera was denied entry into Canada by customs officials at Regina International Airport, arguing that his appearance at the event could violate Canadian laws on hate speech and "wilful incitement of hatred".

They were both arrested after they refused to respond to requests by officials to leave the premises; Whatcott admitted that they had defied a formal denial of permission to set up a table at the university.