With a radical religious group planning to protest at the funeral of Tim McLean on Saturday, some Winnipeggers are promising to insure the victim's family is protected.
Raymond Henry says hundreds of Winnipeggers will stand united to form a human shield outside Westwood Community Church.
He is organizing the wall of people in hopes of blocking protesters and their message from the sight of grieving relatives.
"Rather than try and stop the protesters or confront them, which only feeds their agenda, [we want to] simply, and civilly keep them as far away from that family as we can," Henry told CTV News.
He and other Winnipeggers were upset when they heard that the Westboro Baptist Church, a radical American religious group, was planning to come to the funeral and spread a message of hate.
The group has said Tim McLean, who was decapitated by a fellow-passenger on a Greyhound bus last month, deserved his fate.
Although no member of the group ever met McLean, they claim he lived an immoral and godless life, just like all other Canadians.
The group is infamous for protesting at military funerals across the United States.
Officials had hoped to keep the protestors from entering Canada, but a spokesperson for the groups some members got through and were staying in Manitoba Friday.
Constable Jacqueline Chaput says the Winnipeg Police Service will be at the funeral to keep the peace, and to make sure Tim McLean's friends and family are given the respect they deserve to grieve their horrible loss.
