CCRL fighting for religious freedom (Canada).

Toronto--The Catholic Civil Rights League has entered the controversy over the Human Rights Commission judgement against Scott Brockie for refusing to print letterheads for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Brockie, an evangelical Christian, turned down the printing job on religious grounds, saying he was willing to do work for homosexuals but not for an organization promoting homosexuality.

Pearl Eliadis, speaking for the Commission, said that they were prepared to acknowledge that Brockie had a sincere religious belief, but that the Human Rights Code lists homosexuals as a protected group, and this fact trumps Brockie's religious freedom. "He did not have the right to impose his religious discrimination on others," she said. So he was fined $5,000.

The CCRL is prepared to fight this ruling all the way to the Supreme Court. Vice-president Phil Horgan stated, "The nature of the encroachment on both the religious and economic freedom of individuals is phenomenal" (Cath. Reg.)

Brockie's lawyer, Peter McMullen, pointed out that the right to religious freedom is the first right mentioned in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so that it can't be trumped by a province's code giving protection to "gays" and lesbians. Horgan added that religious people should be very worried by an attempt to promote a political agenda at public expense.

CCRL President Tom Langan called the Commission's decision "one of the most frightening erosions of the rights of Christians, if it's allowed to stand."

The CCRL also entered the dispute over the question of Father Peter Gumpel's comments about the responsibility of Jews for the death of Christ. In a television programme broadcast on CBC on March 16, and on CBS the following day, Gumpel said that some of his comments were taken out of context, so that he was maliciously and malevolently portrayed as anti-Semitic. The CCRL issued a press release on March 21, accusing the CBC of "airing a contrived smear against the Church."