Toronto Radio Station Trades Air Time To Westboro Baptist Church In Return For Cancelling Protest At Murdered Child's Funeral In Arizona

"TORONTO — Members of a radical Kansas church have cancelled plans to picket the funeral of a nine-year-old girl killed in a shooting rampage in Arizona, after being promised a live interview on a Toronto radio station.

Dean Blundell, a controversial morning show host on rock radio station 102.1 The Edge, said he brokered the deal with Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in an effort to prevent further suffering for the victim's family.

Phelps-Roper has also credited Blundell and another Arizona radio station for persuading her and fellow church members to stay away from the funeral for Christina Green, who was one of six people killed on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.

The church had previously planned to picket Green's funeral on Thursday, saying the Arizona shooter had been sent by God to punish sinners in the country.

The organization also has a long history of picketing the funerals of fallen American soldiers on the grounds that the nation is too tolerant towards homosexuals."
CTV News Online