What's wrong with Human Rights Commissions?

Canadians who think the practice of homosexuality is sinful and wrong should beware: anyone who expresses that opinion in public could end up in jail as a prisoner of conscience.

For proof, consider the plight of Hugh Owens. On June 15, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Board of Inquiry ruled that he had violated the equality rights of three gay men by expressing his opinion on gay and lesbian sex through an advertisement in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that consisted solely of a pictograph of two men holding hands superimposed with a circle and slash--the symbol of something forbidden--and a list of Bible verses condemning the practice of homosexuality.

The specific Bible verses listed were Romans 1:26-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. This last verse affirms: "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them."

Does Leviticus incite violence against homosexuals? Of course not. Leviticus teaches that by God's righteous decree, it's not just sodomites, but also adulterers, men who practise bestiality, and children who curse their parents that deserve death.

No sane Christian thinks the Bible mandates any person to execute these offenders on behalf of God. On the contrary, Christians are called upon to "hate the sin, but love the sinner." The Catechism of the Catholic Church stipulates that homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."

Of course, such admonitions do nothing to mollify gay-rights activists. They want to stamp out the idea that sodomy is sinful and wrong. Valerie Watson, the inquiry adjudicator in the Owens case, relates in her ruling that one of the complainants "stated that he was angry that it appeared that it was still acceptable in society to attack gay individuals in a public forum even in 1997."

Regarding Owens' advertisement, Watson held that the pictograph did not express hatred. "However," she said, "when combined with the passages from the Bible, the Board finds that the advertisement would expose or tend to expose homosexuals to hatred or ridicule, or may otherwise affront their dignity on the basis of their sexual orientation."

On this basis, Watson concluded that publication of Owens' advertisement in the Star Phoenix violated the equality rights of homosexuals under terms of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What, though, about Owens' right to freedom of religion and the newspaper's right to freedom of the press as guaranteed by that same code and Charter?

Watson recalled that in Canada (Human Rights Commission v. Taylor, 1990), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the guarantee of freedom of expression in the Charter does not extend to the communication of "hatred and contempt" of "an ardent and extreme nature" for a protected group. As a result, the offender in this case, John Ross Taylor, was sentenced to one year in jail for refusing to obey an order of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to stop communicating his hatred and contempt for Jews over the telephone.

By analogy, Watson concluded that the complainants in the Owens case, "have been discriminated against with respect to the advertisement placed in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on June 30, 1997, and as a result, were exposed to hatred, ridicule and (sic) their dignity was affronted on the basis of their sexual orientation." For this offence, she ordered Owens and the newspaper each to pay $1,500 in damages to each of the three complainants in the case, and to refrain from ever again publishing an advertisement that consists of a pictograph and a list of Bible verses condemning the practice of homosexuality.

Owens has appealed the ruling. If the courts uphold this manifestly unjust ruling, he could end up in jail as a prisoner of conscience unless he is prepared to bow down to the judiciary. The same fate awaits Scott Brockie, a courageous Toronto printer and conscientious Christian who has appealed an order of the Ontario Human Rights Board of Inquiry to print materials for groups that promote the cause of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community.

What more evidence is needed to prove that Canada's autocratic human rights tribunals stifle the very rights and freedoms they are supposed to uphold? The sooner these malign agencies of oppression are abolished, the better.

Rory Leishman lives in London, ON, Home page: http://members.home.net/rleishman