Liberals behind assault on Christianity

By Ted Byfield

Calgary Sun

Sunday, April 3, 2005

It seems almost fitting that the next major step in the gradual outlawing of Christianity in Canada should be taken by one of our so-called "human rights" commissions.

For, if the Alberta commission in fact hails Calgary's Catholic bishop before it to answer charges that, by proclaiming church doctrine and the teaching of the Bible he is preaching "hate," then surely an important milestone will have been reached.

It will mean that wherever Christian teaching contradicts the moral certitudes of the New Canada, then Christians -- clergy and laymen alike -- will be ordered to shut up.

And as the norms of the New Canada depart ever farther from those of the Canada that once was, the restrictions against Christian practice and teaching will widen.

How long, therefore, before the faith itself is prohibited in the New Canada's ongoing march of "human rights?"

Not very long, perhaps.

If this seems preposterous, look at the Canadian record to date, carefully set out in an article by London, Ont. columnist Rory Leishman in the current issue of Touchstone magazine.

In 1995, when the mayor of London, Ont., refused to proclaim a "Gay Pride" weekend, she was summoned before a human rights commission, pleaded that her faith prevented her from endorsing the practice of homosexuality, and was ordered to proclaim it anyway.

Damages of $10,000 were awarded to the complainant homosexual group.

The mayor ignored the order and was re-elected by a landslide.

Subsequently, the mayors of Fredericton and Kelowna were ordered by human rights commissions to make such proclamations.

The following year, a Christian printer in Toronto who refused to print stationery for a lesbian group was ordered by the Ontario human rights commission to print the stationery and assessed $5,000 in damages.

The commission also ruled that Christian teachings deemed offensive must be confined to the home and church, and spoken nowhere else.

The printer took the case to the courts, where the rights commission was in the main upheld. Legal cost to the printer: $100,000.

Last year, a Quesnel, B.C. school teacher with a universally regarded "long and unblemished record" in the school system and "a notable record of community service," was suspended by the B.C. College of Teachers for writing letters to the local paper opposing gay marriage, in part on the grounds of rampant homosexual promiscuity.

But he had not expressed these view in class, pleaded the teacher.

Irrelevant, said the college.

His job as a teacher denied him the right to express such opinions publicly. The courts upheld his suspension, and warned that anyone, not just teachers, who expressed such a view in public, was breaking the law.

Meanwhile, in Saskatchewan, a Christian prison guard ran an ad in Saskatoon's daily, simply quoting the biblical injunctions against sodomy.

Three gays brought charges against the printer and the newspaper publisher before the Saskatchewan commission.

The accused were ordered to pay $1,500 to each of the three complainants.

More important: Quoting anything from the Bible deemed offensive by the human rights commission is against the law in Saskatchewan.

The publisher gave up.

The prison guard has appealed at his own expense.

Now we have the case where Fred Henry, Catholic bishop of Calgary, is accused of "hate" because he represented sodomy as "evil" in a newspaper article and in a diocesan letter.

If the Alberta commission decides to hear the case, the bishop can be counted on to disregard the usual process of "conciliation," and instead provide the board with two thick binders which diocesan lawyers have compiled in his defence.

If the commission decides against him, judging by his gutsy record, he will almost certainly defy it and, if need be, go to jail.

So what's next?

An attack on church property tax exemptions obviously, and an attack on the existence of a Catholic school system, and a removal of the tax-deductibility of church donations.

Are these dire things inevitable?

Certainly not.

The ultimate author of all this is the Liberal government.

If it is returned to office, all these things can be expected.

If it is thoroughly thrashed from coast to coast, that will be the end of both the New Canada and the "gay rights" movement for a long time.

In short, this may be our last chance to smarten up.

END