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«Queen's Bench Judgement» CALGARY: Darren Lund, the losing party in a recent decision from the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench favouring freedom of expression, has launched an appeal.
The case involves Reverend Stephen Boissoin, a pastor in Alberta who wrote a fire-and-brimstone letter to the Red Deer Advocate in 2002 expressing his opposition to what he considered homosexual “brainwashing” in school curricula.
Lund, a former high-school teacher who did volunteer work with gay youth, complained to Alberta’s Human Rights Commission, which charged Boissoin with publishing a statement likely to expose a class of persons to hatred or contempt. Following a hearing before a Human Rights Panel, Boissoin was found guilty and ordered to pay damages of $7,000. As well, he was prohibited for life from publishing “disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals”.
Boissoin appealed that decision to the Court of Queen’s Bench. In December, 2009 the court reversed the panel’s decision, holding that Boissoin’s remarks had not violated the law and that the remedies imposed by the panel had been “either unlawful or unconstitutional.”
Lund served notice last week (March 29, 2010) that he would appeal the Queen’s Bench decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal on numerous grounds including alleged misinterpretations by the court of constitutional law.
The Canadian Constitutional Foundation (CCF), which had participated in the Queen’s Bench case as an intervener, announced that it would again seek status to intervene at the Court of Appeal. CCF Executive Director John Carpay said: “We look forward to another opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of this censorship law at a higher court.”
Carpay pointed out that residents of Ontario and other eastern provinces are not subject to provincial censorship legislation similar to Alberta’s. “Why should Albertans have fewer rights to express themselves on matters of public concern than other Canadians?”
No date has yet been set for the hearing of the appeal.
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