Judicial activists have destroyed the rule of law

Anyone who thinks conscientious Christians have nothing to fear from the courts should ponder the escalating persecution of Hugh Owens and Scott Brockie.

Brockie is the Christian printer who ran afoul of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, by refusing to print business cards and other materials for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. The aim of the Archives is to promote the lifestyles of gays, lesbians and bisexuals -- lifestyles that Brockie deplores as gravely unhealthy and sinful.

In a ruling on Feb. 19, 2000, the Tribunal found that Brockie had violated the ban on discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in the Ontario Human Rights Code. To atone for this offence, the Tribunal ordered him to pay $5,000 in damages to the Archives president, Ray Brillinger. In addition, the Tribunal directed that Brockie must henceforth print materials for any homosexual individual or group on the same basis as all other clients.

Brockie appealed to the Ontario Divisional Court, and lost. On June 17, 2002, the Court upheld the orders of the Tribunal, subject only to the qualification that he is not required to print anything that, in the opinion of a judge, "might reasonably be held to be in direct conflict with core elements of Mr. Brockie's religious beliefs."

Having expended close to $100,000 in legal fees for a fruitless defence, Brockie decided against any further appeal. That decision would have ended the matter, except that the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Brillinger appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal for an order requiring Brockie to pay their legal costs. In a ruling on March 30, the Commission and Brillinger won. Brockie is now stuck with an additional legal bill of $40,000.

Meanwhile, Owens is appealing a ruling by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal that requires him to pay $15,000 in damages to three homosexuals who were offended by an advertisement he had placed in The Saskatoon StarPhoenix that contained a list of Bible verses opposed to homosexuality. Owens is a modestly paid guard at the Regina Correctional Centre. To avoid legal costs, he has represented himself without the benefit of legal counsel.

Now, even Owens is facing financial ruin. He has already lost one appeal in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench. If he loses again in the Court of Appeal, he, like Brockie, could get stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees run up by the prosecuting human rights commission.

Apologists for gay rights activists and the courts would argue that Brockie and Owens are only getting what they deserve for deliberately breaking the law. That's patently untrue. Brockie and Owens did not intend to violate the law. Given the ostensible guarantee of freedom of religion in section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they and their lawyers thought Christians are still free in Canada to express peaceful opposition to sodomy, rimming and other deviant sexual practices.

In a classic text, The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek observed that in countries governed by the rule of law, "government in all its actions is bound by rules fixed and announced beforehand -- rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances and to plan one’s individual affairs on the basis of this knowledge."

Prior to the rulings in Owens and Brockie, no one could have foreseen with fair certainty that Canadians are no longer free to publish Bible verses opposing sodomy or to refuse on principle to print materials for a gay advocacy organization. These two cases illustrate how judicial activists have destroyed the rule of law for all Canadians.

Sean Murphy of the Catholic Civil Rights League is fed up. In reaction to the latest Brockie ruling, he charged: "There is a point beyond which the conduct of judicial officers will bring the administration of justice into disrepute. That point is passed when a Christian printer is ordered to produce business cards and letterhead for an organization that promotes pro-pedophilia essays, is fined $5,000 for having refused to do so, and is left with $40,000 in legal bills for daring to defend himself."

Rory Leishman 836 Wellington St., London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3S7 Home/Office Phone: 519-439-2676 Home Page: www.roryleishman.com

And in America, the people still don't get it! Even after the subpreme court canceled all states' laws against abortion as an activist court grant of societal engineering scope, while ignoring the existing evidence in federal courts that ruled the unborn to be human beings deserving of Constitutional protection, resulting in more than 40,000,000 already running human lifetimes being aborted, the American people STILL don't get it.

Never heard that fella Limbaugh, Gingrich, or Reagan?

A few years ago Limbaugh published a book in which he claimed in the afterword "we are wining." Since then we've had civil unions, gay marriages, massive judicial activism, massive illegal immigration (invasion really) and so on. The sad truth is that we are not wining. We don't control the media, we don't control Hollywood;therefore, we don't control the hearts and minds of an increasingly large number of Americans. Furthermore, it is nonsense to claim that Republicans control all three branches of government when republicans are too afraid to enforce conservative policies-illegal immigration for example-which basically means the liebrals win by default. The problem will only increase as illegals continue to invade this country and have children, use welfare, etc. Eventually, there will come a time when no republican can be elected to the white house due to the alliance between the elite media, Hollywood, and the changing nature of population demographics(we may see it this year). That's when the constitutional crisis happens. I sure as hell won't stay in a country where I can't be represented.

In conclusion, we are not wining. And will not win unless we become just as ruthless as the other side (we need our own Micheal Moore). It is incorrect to think that just because we have rush we are wining. After all, it's kinda hard to win when you are lacking all the things that count.

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