"Crazy" God Botherers Plan to Disrupt Greyhound Bus Victim's Funeral

Meanwhile, outraged Winnipeg residents rallied Thursday to protect McLean's family from a posse of radical U.S. religious protesters planning to portray Tim McLean's death as God's wrath.

Earlier this week, the Westboro Baptist Church - an organization branded as a hate group and infamous for protesting the funerals of slain American soldiers - announced they would picket McLean's funeral to let Canadians know that his decapitation was God's response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery.

But Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the church's founder, Fred Phelps, said a small group of protesters was stopped at the Canada-U.S. border Thursday afternoon.

"They won't let us in, but we have a group that will cross in another spot," she said. "They'll have to strip-search everyone who crosses that border or they won't know who we are. They'll have to see the WBC (Westboro Baptist Church) tattoo on our butts."

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said his office was flooded with phone calls Thursday from angry Winnipeggers.

"These people (from Westboro) are almost as crazy as the murderer," he said. "If they are here to disrupt the social order, that constitutes grounds to deny them entry. There is no redeeming virtue in the message they are bringing."

According to Martin, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's office sent an alert to border patrol to "look out" for people with signs and pamphlets that fit the hateful messages the church promotes, and to keep them out of the country.

"In the opinion of his office, coming up here with the message they're articulating constitutes hate speech," said Martin.

Li's background is now being scrutinized by police, justice officials and a Winnipeg psychologist ordered by the court to complete a forensic assessment over the next month. There will also be plenty of focus on his years spent in China before immigrating to Canada in 2001.