News

OTTAWA, Apr 2 (LSN) – Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province of Alberta must include specific protection for homosexuals in the province’s Individual’s Rights Protection Act (IRPA). The justices said that, effective immediately, Alberta’s act shall be interpreted to include gays and lesbians, even if the province does not formally amend it.  The case was initiated by an active homosexual, Delwin Vriend, who was dismissed from his position at an Edmonton Christian college in 1991 for flouting the college’s moral standards. Vriend was frustrated in his attempts to file a formal charge against the college for his dismissal, since the Alberta Human Rights Commission refused to hear his complaint, saying sexual orientation is not covered under the province’s human rights act.  Legislators in Alberta and across the country were astounded by this latest move in the contest between the power of democratically elected legislatures to pass the laws as they see fit, and the power of non-elected courts to strike down or change those laws, according to the courts’  own liberal agenda.  Several intervening groups in the case noted that the proceedings were also a test of the religious freedom of the college to ensure teaching and behaviour in accord with its beliefs. Although the Supreme Court ruling does not force the college to reinstate Vriend, it may require the provincial human rights commission to hear his complaint as a violation of human rights. Pro-family advocates in Alberta remain hopeful that the government will use its constitutional not-withstanding clause to refute the dictates of the Supreme Court.