Case Heard Despite Missed Deadline for Appeal
OTTAWA, October 10, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In an unusual move the Supreme Court of Canada has allowed an appeal to be heard despite the fact that the applicants for the appeal missed the six-month deadline to request an appeal. Homosexual activists, who lost a case to force the Surrey School Board to allow homosexual propaganda books into elementary school classrooms, were granted both an extension to appeal and the appeal by the Supreme Court. The decision to allow the appeal was made by three of the justices headed by Justice L’Heureux-Dub{197}{189}, considered by many to be an activist for expansion of homosexual rights.
The case of Chamberlain v. Surrey School Board traveled up the court system until the BC Supreme Court ruled in favour of the homosexual activists. That ruling forced homosexual propaganda books into kindergarten and grade one classrooms against the wishes of a majority of parents. The ruling by the BC Supreme Court’s Madam Justice Saunders overturned the board’s decision to ban the books from elementary grades saying it was based on religious convictions and therefore “contrary to s.76(1) of the School Act,” which states that schools are to be “conducted on strictly secular … principles.” However, a unanimous, 3-0, decision of the BC Court of Appeal overturned that decision. In writing the Appeal decision Mr. Justice Mackenzie stated: “Moral positions must be accorded equal access to the public square without regard to religious influence. A religiously informed conscience should not be accorded any privilege, but neither should it be placed under a disability.”
For sequential LifeSite coverage of the case see: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/mar/980302.html#2 https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/july/980702.html#2 https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/dec/981217.html#1 https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/sept/000920.html#1