By Hilary White
TORONTO, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Personal opposition to her union’s support of the homosexual creed is not sufficient reason for a devout Catholic federal civil servant to withhold union dues, an Ontario court ruled on Friday.
The National Post reports that Susan Comstock, a Catholic and senior intergovernmental relations officer with the Indian Affairs Department, has lost her bid to have her union recognize her right to freedom of conscience.
Comstock had argued that the support of the homosexual political agenda by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) violated her right to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. She had proposed to divert her union dues, about $800 a year, to charity.
She argued that a collective agreement clause adopted by the union allows members to donate their dues to charity when they are members of a religious organization “whose doctrine prevents him or her as a matter of conscience from making financial contributions to an employee organization.”
Despite the existence of this clause, Justice Frederick Gibson ruled, “the union’s political or social causes does not force her to act in a way contrary to her beliefs or her conscience.”
Comstock’s lawyer, Phil Horgan, head of the Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada, told the Post the decision is “chilling” in its implications for religious expression in Canada. “I think it’s indicative of a problem Canadians will have in addressing what is becoming a somewhat oppressive environment,” said Horgan.
“The reach of these decisions is only starting to be felt,” Horgan added.
While PSAC claims to represent equally all its members, during the 2004 federal election campaign, the union declared “zero tolerance” for homophobia and “heterosexism,” which it defined as “the presumption that everyone is heterosexual and that heterosexuality is superior to other forms of loving.”
The Canadian Human Rights Commission had rejected Comstock’s complaint that the union’s policy discriminated against her based on her religious beliefs. She said the policy “has the effect, at the very least, of making me a moral and social outcast within my union, creating the impression or belief that my contribution in the workplace … is unwelcome, inferior, and of little or no positive value.”
Comstock’s attempt to have her freedom of conscience rights recognized was supported by her PSAC Local. Last May, PSAC Local 70160 voted with none opposed, to support a motion denouncing “the actions of the leadership of PSAC for failing to accommodate Sister Susan Comstock’s religious beliefs by allowing her to divert her union dues to a charity.”
Comstock said she hopes to appeal the ruling, citing the protection of religious freedom in the federal same-sex “marriage” law. Although the Canadian Catholic bishops praised the provision, many observers were more sceptical in the light of recent decisions that have largely disregarded religious conscience in cases of conflicts with the homosexual activist community. Courts and extra-judicial human rights tribunals have consistently found in favour of homosexual claims against Christians.
Union Local Supports Catholic Member’s Bid to Redirect Dues away from Gay “Marriage” Support
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06052508.html