Anti-abortion and anti-gay crusader Bill Whatcott is giving up on Canada.
In a March 10 blog post on the socially conservative site Free North America, the activist writes that his "ministry" in this country is finished and he has moved to the Philippines with his wife.
"I have pretty much given the last quarter-century of my life to fighting for a Judeo-Christian vision for Canada, especially in the areas of life, sexuality and family. I also fought very hard for free speech and religious freedom for social conservative Christians."
And Whatcott's very public activism has literally cost him.
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that two pamphlets he distributed in Saskatchewan condemning homosexuals violated that province's human rights code. He was ordered to pay one complainant $5,000 and another $2,500.
A decade earlier, he was ordered to pay $15,000 and suspended as a nurse for picketing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Regina. However, the fine was overturned by a Saskatchewan appeals court, which found Whatcott was protected by the right of free speech, according to Reuters.
Whatcott converted to Christianity many years ago after living on the street as a drug addict, he told Postmedia's Tobi Cohen in 2011. He also said he was raped while living at a halfway house and paid his drug dealer in sexual favours.
"It's a little inaccurate to say I was gay," he said. "It's just, if you have no moral boundaries, you can try anything."
He brought his anti-gay message to the streets of Vancouver last summer by marching in the city's Pride parade. Registered as the fictional "Calgary Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster," he and four other evangelical Christians handed out homophobic literature disguised as condoms.
"Seeing as all the pagans were having fun while rebelling against God, we would have fun too, while evangelizing the parade route and winning souls for the Lord," Whatcott wrote in a post on Free North America at the time.
In his recent blog post, he expressed mixed feelings about the results of his efforts in Canada.
He said he distributed more than 500,000 flyers from 2002 to 2013 but still "failed spectacularly" to prevent gays and lesbians from expressing themselves.
However, he feels more optimistic about his fight for free expression. He writes that he won multiple court cases against the University of Regina and Calgary over the right to preach against homosexuality and abortion on campuses, and appeared at several other universities to challenge "attempts at censorship."
"On a nationwide level I have certainly had an impact on the course of free speech in Canada."
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