Posing as the “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association” during the Pride parade last month, William Whatcott says he and his like-minded group distributed thousands of graphic, anti-gay flyers to the crowd.

The flyers, a $103-million class-action lawsuit now alleges, constitute hate speech directed at the LGBT community and defamed the Liberals marching in the parade, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The offensive literature exposed people to hatred and vilification based on their sexual orientation,” states the statement of claim filed Thursday. (The allegations in the statement of claim have not been proven in court.)

Whatcott’s name has long been linked with Canada’s hate-speech laws. The debate over whether flyers Whatcott distributed in Saskatchewan in the early 2000s were protected by the right to religious freedom went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled in 2013 that two flyers did violate the province’s human-rights code.

But the top court’s ruling appears to have changed nothing about Whatcott’s behaviour, says Douglas Elliott, the lawyer who filed the suit on behalf of the two lead plaintiffs, former deputy premier George Smitherman and activist Christopher Hudspeth.

They seek a Canada-wide injunction to prevent Whatcott and other group members from participating in Pride parades and from distributing the flyers, including distributing their information via a website, the lawsuit states. Smitherman and Hudspeth will also seek disclosure of Whatcott’s financial records to learn where he gets the funding to distribute flyers nationwide, Elliott said in an interview.

“He says he doesn’t have any money. So we want to find out who is paying for this. Who is writing the cheques?” he said. “This is a unique way of dealing with hate speech. It hasn’t been done before. But I have not been very satisfied with what has been happening up until now.”

It has been difficult to get the police to take action, he says, adding that hate-speech charges require special permission from the Attorney General.

Toronto police are investigating after getting complaints about the flyers, spokesperson Mark Pugash said Friday. No charges have been laid.

Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Whatcott had just learned of the lawsuit but said he intends to defend himself.

“Smitherman and the homosexual lobby are the hateful ones. They got a problem with hate and a lack of tolerance,” said Whatcott, who acknowledged passing out the flyers at the parade. “I think my flyers are the most loving and useful and health-promoting literature that the homosexual Pride parade could have. So really, if they were going to embrace diversity, they ought to embrace me.”

He lamented that the laws around hate speech in Canada are too restrictive.

“There is absolutely no free speech on the homosexual issue,” he said, adding that none of the statements made in the flyers constitute defamation.

He adds that activists are welcome to sue him — he has few assets and is staying in someone’s basement, he said. And he would rather go to jail again than divulge where his support comes from, adding that it comes from the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatcott served jail time in the 1990s after he demonstrated at a Toronto abortion clinic and violated the no-protest zone around it.

Asked whether he would respect an injunction if the courts grant it, he said he would have to see what it said.

“I certainly didn’t respect the court’s order when they said I couldn’t protest abortion anymore.”

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However, he will be in attendance at any future court date, he said.

“Oh yeah, now that I have a captive audience, I’ll definitely be there in court.”