ANTI-GAY LETTER VIOLATES LAW – ALBERTA TRIBUNAL

A human rights panel in Alberta found that a homophobic letter to the editor violated that province’s human rights law. In that letter, fundamentalist pastor Stephen Boissoin, had linked homosexuality with “all manner of wickedness.” The law targets statements “likely to expose” persons to “hatred or contempt” on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among other grounds. According to the panel, “the eradication of hate speech, is paramount to the freedom [the respondents] should have to speak their views.”

CCLA Special Counsel Josh Paterson [of Vancouver’s Fiorillo Glavin Gordon law firm] had argued that the statute should be interpreted to apply only to those public statements that facilitate unlawful discrimination. Thus, he argued, the law would ban employment ads restricting applications from homosexuals. But, according to CCLA, the law should not be read so as to limit expressions of opinion [R. v. Boissoin]