The Vancouver Sun provides closure on a story I’ve been following since 2006. It involves Peter Hayes, who was denied a chauffeur’s permit by the Vancouver police due to alleged accusations that he would use his position to “recruit” people into an imaginary S&M Pagan “sex cult”. In 2008 a B.C. Court of Appeal cleared the way for the case to be heard by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, a preliminary ruling by the Human Rights Tribunal in 2006 stated the case had merit and should go forward. In a decision handed down on November 23rd, the tribunal rejected his appeal.

“Based on all the evidence before us and in light of our credibility findings set out above, we conclude that Mr. Hayes has not met the burden of proving, on a balance of probabilities, that his Paganism or BDSM lifestyle were factors in Constable Barker’s denial of the chauffeur’s permit. As a result of our conclusion that Mr. Hayes’ religion and/or sexual orientation were not factors in Constable Barker’s decision-making, it is not necessary for us to address the issues of whether BDSM is a sexual orientation that is protected by the Code or, if it is, whether Mr. Hayes is a member of that protected group.”

It turns out that Mr. Hayes has a record of sexual abuse and misconduct, and that he was turned down because the officer, after a routine background check, thought he could be a potential threat to women and children riding in his limousine.

“He based this on a review of police files concerning Hayes which showed in 1994 he had been charged and acquitted of sexual assault and an invitation to sexual touching of a person under 14 years old … in January, 2003, police had called at his residence after neighbours complained that he was dancing and posing naked in his bedroom windows while in the view of children … in Oct. 2003 a female partner involved in a master/slave relationship with him told police he had abused her but did not want to press charges.”

Now, it should be noted that Mr. Hayes was never formally convicted of assault or abuse, but it also seems clear that he was not denied a permit due to his religion, or his sexual orientation/preferences. Indeed, a tribunal panel member made a point of noting the constable did not give special focus to Mr. Hayes’ religious beliefs.

Tribunal panel member Heather MacNaughton wrote that “nothing about Constable Barker’s alleged demeanour supports an inference that he had any particular focus on Mr. Hayes’ religion or sexual orientation. Rather, it is consistent with someone who considered Mr. Hayes to be a risk to the vulnerable customers of a limousine service.”

It seems increasingly likely that Hayes exaggerated his encounter with the constable, who had allegedly said he was a “sex cult leader” looking to recruit. It also illustrates the danger of taking journalistic accounts at face value, though the Vancouver Police Department didn’t help matters by fighting the tribunal hearing process every step of the way, making it seem like they had something to hide. One can only think that more transparency on their part might have avoided a five-year legal process.

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Laughing Squid and io9 link to an inadvertently (I hope) creepy clip from the “Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults”.

Here’s another clip from the same video.

While it’s (very) easy to mock and laugh at these videos now, we can’t forget the part programs like this played in ruining the lives of hundreds of people in the 1980s and 1990s. While the “Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults” seems blatantly fabricated and made-up on-the-fly today, programs like it were no doubt instrumental in miscarriages of justice like the West Memphis 3 case, or the Kern County California arrests. Then, and today still, self-appointed “occult experts” ride a circuit of town halls, police gatherings, and church halls to share their “expertise” in an always-alleged but never conclusively proven occult crime underground. Updating their schtick to include the latest fads (lately, that means vampires).

Both serious journalists and talk-show hosts (even Oprah) at the time dived right into the hysteria.

As I pointed out in my recent piece on the mainstreaming of exorcisms, all the “silly” talk about Satanism primes the pump for new moral panics breaking out, especially in hard times. The next time it emerges it could come from within the Hip-Hop community, or be directed at the fans of a popular pop starlet. It all seems bizarre and unlikely until you realize that federal money was spent to combat “goth culture” in the wake of Columbine. So yes, it’s easy to laugh at these videos now, but lets not forget that all comedy is tragedy plus timing.

Last Summer a spate of stories emerged in the UK about the creation of a Pagan Police Association (there’s also a Pagan Police Group, but they aren’t related), and their quest to have Pagan holidays approved for time-off requests. Now, word has come that the PPA has been officially recognized as a Diversity Staff Support Association, ensuring Pagan police can use their vacation time during their holy days without being turned down.

Endorsement would mean that chief constables could not refuse a pagan officer’s request to take feast days as part of his or her annual leave. The eight pagan festivals include Imbolc (the feast of lactating sheep), Lammas (the harvest festival) and the Summer Solstice (when mead drinking and naked dancing are the order of the day) … The new association, which already has three official police chaplains and committee members in the Metropolitan, Hertfordshire and Humberside forces, welcomed its breakthrough. PC Andrew Pardy, its vice-chairman and a beat officer in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, said: “The Police Service needs to embrace paganism in order to represent communities effectively.” Mr Pardy, who worships Norse gods, added: “All activities undertaken by the association support and reinforce the vision and values of the Police Service, while upholding the Home Office standards for equality and diversity.”

This has triggered a wave of coverage and editorial on the matter. For Ruth Gledhill at the Times, this development is the mark of a truly civilized society.

“Today the wheel has turned full circle. Practitioners of witchcraft are no longer burnt at the stake — and it is a mark of civilised society that those who follow these beliefs are accorded the same rights as those who follow mainstream faiths.”

Meanwhile, tabloids like The Sun predictably try to squeeze some controversy out of the news.

“By allowing Pagans to set up their own organisation, the Home Office has officially sanctioned a string of Wicca and Pagan-related holidays, which include leaving food out for the dead, ‘unabashed sexual promiscuity’ and going on long country walks.”

Long country walks! Outrage! In truth, it’s hard for the usual anti-Pagan crowd to get over-excited about this since there are already recognized support associations for most of the major religions in the UK.  Here’s Christian Concern for our Nation giving it a go.

“Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of CCFON, said:  ‘These concerns will no doubt reflect the view among many Christians that the PPA’s equal status is just another example in a long list of ‘diversity’ rules coming at the expense and marginalisation of Christianity.’”

Not exactly a rallying cry that will stir the emotions of Britain’s Christians is it?

Perhaps the best editorial on this comes from The Guardian’s Nicholas Taylor, himself a Pagan, who notes that this can only be a good thing in shifting the public stereotypes of what a modern Pagan looks like.

It will be refreshing when the engine of communication realises there as many different ways of being a pagan as there are ways of being a human. We’re not all crusty trustafarian soap dodgers or aging Lord of the Rings fans waving swords and swearing on Odin’s beard. And our differences, like the variations of the land we belong to, mark us out from the boys’ own adventures of monotheism, with their handy abstract tracts that can be foisted on people the world over. Paganism is not a religion. It is a way of life. If a police officer taking a holiday to celebrate Beltane is a story then by all means go on and tell us whether they prefer sailing round the Scilly Isles, raving in Vauxhall or cycling the Peaks. Even police officers have to be permitted a life outside the job after all and how they choose to spend it is only of prurient interest to anyone else. As the Wiccan rede says: “And it harm none, do as you will.”

So congratulations to the Pagan Police Association, and the 500 Pagan police officers (and 3 Pagan police chaplains) currently serving in the UK. Here’s to equal treatment, challenging assumptions, and getting a bit of time off for the solstice.

Note to my fellow Pagans and Witches: threatening to hex the police officer won’t get you out of a ticket.

But, sometime the most memorable stories are just the reactions from drivers, such a witch stopped by California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Maguire . “I was hexed by a witch,” said Maguire, who works in the CHP’s Contra Costa office. “I stopped a lady for a speeding ticket, and she said, ‘I’m a Wiccan,’ and that I would have a lifetime of bad luck.”

You have to figure the CHP are used to pulling over people adept in the occult sciences by now, they’d know that a Wiccan isn’t supposed to bring down a lifetime of bad luck down on someone just because they got caught speeding. Looking at past occasions of Pagans having trouble with the law, I’d say that the gods/powers/universe have no problem seeing you get caught if you do something foolish.