News

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

REGINA, May 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After hearing submissions from both sides of the issue in the case involving proposed legislation that would allow the province's marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex “marriages,” the five judges of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal have reserved their decision and will issue a written ruling after further deliberation.

The provincial government is seeking the court's advice on the constitutionality of two versions of a proposed law. The law is intended to resolve the situation that has seen marriage commissioners sue the provincial government over its insistence that they perform homosexual “marriages” or resign from their positions.

One version of the legislation would provide complete freedom of conscience and religious objection to officiating at same-sex “marriages” for all commissioners. The other legislative option would introduce a grandfather clause providing a religious exemption from performing same-sex “marriages” for individuals who were commissioners before homosexual “marriage” was legalized in 2004.

Chief Justice Klebuc and Justices William Vancise, Robert Richards, Gene Anne Smith, and Ralph Ottenbreit are reported to have taken into consideration a proposal by Cynthia Petersen, the lawyer representing EGALE Canada (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere), to look at the arrangement for acquiring the services of a marriage commissioner in place in Ontario.

The “single entry point” system used in Ontario involves a single government contact phone number. After a call is placed to this number a marriage commissioner, who is a government employee, is dispatched to perform the service.

In Saskatchewan, where marriage commissioners are appointed by government, but paid by couples who hire them, the couple phones the individual commissioner directly. If the proposed legislation becomes law, the commissioner could refuse if he discovers the couple is the same sex.

“Nobody ever gets rejected (in Ontario),” Peterson told reporters outside the courthouse. “The system is designed in such a way that if there is someone with such a (religious) objection, they could be accommodated without it ever infringing the equality rights of any applicant.”

While lawyers arguing for the conscience rights of commissioners approved of the single entry point proposal, those arguing on behalf of same-sex couples were opposed.

Dale Blenner-Hassett, lawyer for the Canadian Fellowship of Churches and Ministers, called the proposed law a “win-win” solution. “Each side can live its own values.”

Scott Kennedy, representing the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, told reporters that while same-sex couples have the right to “marry” under Canadian law, “On the other hand, there are … Supreme Court-protected religious rights that also need to be balanced out and not just swept under the carpet.”

However, lawyers representing a number of homosexualist groups countered that “in the end, it doesn't address the deeper concern for us, which is why these people want the right to discriminate against us in the first place,” and that, “It's religion trumping human rights.”

Ruth Ross, Executive Director and General Legal Counsel for the Christian Legal Fellowship, one of the interveners in the case, stated in a press release, “The heart of this case will determine whether the law, as reflected in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is truly committed to diversity, tolerance, and freedom, since the legislation does nothing more than to explicitly restate and apply the freedom of religion, as has been understood in Canada for generations, to marriage commissioners.”

While the court did not disclose when it would issue its written decision, the ruling of the judges could set a precedent for other provinces that are considering similar conscience-rights legislation.

See previous LSN coverage:

Sasketchewan Court Considers Legislation Protecting Conscience Rights of Marriage Commissioners
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10051204.html

Saskatchewan Government Considering Religious Exemption For Marriage Commissioners
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09070705.html