Lesbians and "gays" triumph over businessman (Canada).

Toronto--At the beginning of March this year, the Ontario Human Rights Commission fined Scott Brockie, owner of a Toronto printing business called Managing Excellence, $5,000 for refusing to print stationery for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. He refused on religious grounds; he said that he will continue to refuse to provide services to groups promoting homosexuality while his appeal of the ruling is being heard.

The one-woman commissioner who found him guilty, Heather MacNaughton, said his religious convictions were not enough he may have the right to follow his religious principles in his home or in his Christian community, but there are reasonable limits to them. When he enters the public marketplace, he is not free to practise his beliefs in a manner that discriminates against lesbians and "gays" by denying them a service that is available to everybody else. She also accused him of inconsistency, since he did work for other homosexual customers such as Body Body Wear, which produces underwear for gay men.

Brockie answered that he had no problems with Body Body Wear, because it was a commercial enterprise with the goal of making money, as opposed to the archives organisation, which promotes the acceptance of "gay" and lesbian issues. "I don't want to be involved in any way, shape or form in promoting something that I am totally opposed to," he said.

Chief Commissioner Keith Norton, a known homosexual, agreed that the ruling represented a reasonable limit to Brockie's religious beliefs.

"It is important for every business in Ontario to know that when they offer services to the general public, they cannot exclude some clients. The Code clearly prohibits discrimination in the provision of services and this decision simply recognizes this important reality."

No discrimination? Would Brockie be forced to print material which he considered obscene? Or direct attacks on Christianity, rather than the indirect attacks which "gay" and lesbian propaganda amount to? He contended that his right to "fundamental freedom of conscience and religion," as enshrined in the Charter, should override concerns of discrimination against "gays" and lesbians, especially given that printing is not an essential service.

Philip McMullen, the lawyer representing Brockie, said that the adjudicator had failed to balance the competing rights of "gays" and Christians. "Mr. Brillinger (who filed the complaint on behalf of the Archives) can live his life the way he wants to, but my client has to take his religion off like a housecoat and leave it hanging behind the front door when he goes out in the mornings. We need to get in front of a court of law that will take the things into account that need to be looked at."

Peter Stock of the Canadian Family Action Coalition, who declares that this ruling "is nothing more than persecution of Mr. Brockie on the basis of his religious beliefs," says the provincial premier is ultimately to blame, since he appoints the members of the Human Rights Commission: "In Keith Norton's Ontario, homosexual 'rights' trump all the other rights that citizens have. But I don't blame Mr. Norton; after all, what do you expect to happen when you put the fox in charge of the henhouse? Mike Harris is ultimately responsible for this religious persecution."