UPDATE: FACEBOOK Counter-Demo Against "Crazy" God Botherers Plan to Disrupt Bus Beheader Victim's Funeral

Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, said a group of church members was turned away from a border crossing at Niagara Falls, but a small group did manage to get into Manitoba overnight.

"They were looking for picket signs and they were looking for leaflets. Well, we don't do leaflets, and the picket signs, you know, Fed Ex ships them overnight," she said.

However, Phelps-Roper said the reaction the group has raised from some police and public officials has her questioning whether the planned protest will go ahead.

"The question to my mind [is] whether or not we ought to get them the heck out of that country, because that's some crazy stuff when you've got your officials talking like they are in a back-alley brawl and not government officials who took an oath to obey the law and so forth."

Phelps-Roper said she would advise church members not to go ahead with the protest if there is a concern they might be arrested or harmed.

Counter-protest planned

A counter-protest against the church's picket plans was launched on the social networking site Facebook on Thursday.

More than 700 people have since joined the group; postings indicate they plan to form a "human wall" around the family to shield them from the church protest, if it takes place.

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said the group should be "sent packing," and should not try to show up in Winnipeg "for their own safety."

"We're not going to allow these people to compound the tragedy of the McLean family loss, and Canadians simply won't tolerate these lunatics disrupting what should be a respectful service," he told CBC News on Friday.

"Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose," he added. "What these people were going to do was hurtful, harmful and disruptive to the peace, order and good government that we guarantee to our citizens, so they have no place in this country."

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.