Student claims he was let go over his Catholic views
Holds ‘strict’ views on gays, transgenders
A Toronto student journalist claims he was fired from a ryerson university student newspaper because he holds strict roman Catholic views, including adhering to church and biblical teachings about how being gay or transgender is sinful.
Jonathan bradley, who has written for the National Post and a variety of other publications, claims in documents filed with the human rights Tribunal of Ontario, that he was fired on the basis of making those views public and this constitutes discrimination on the basis of creed under Ontario human rights law.
A fourth-year student, bradley wrote for the eyeopener, ryerson’s independent student newspaper, before he was dismissed.
“I am a strict roman Catholic. The bible and 'The Catechism of the Catholic Church’ are core to my beliefs. I strive to follow the bible and I do my best to apply 'The Catechism of the Catholic Church’ to my life,” says bradley in the documents.
bradley referred an interview request to his lawyer, Carol Crosson, who said it’s troubling an organization can terminate someone for speaking their beliefs, someone who’s “very tolerant and appreciating diversity and opinion.”
“We’re hoping that they would take seriously discrimination against someone on the basis of creed,” said Crosson of the human rights Tribunal.
Meanwhile, ryerson university is undergoing its own reckoning with the legacy of its namesake, egerton ryerson, who was involved in the residential schools system in Ontario. While the eyeopener campus newspaper isn’t directly affiliated with the university’s school of journalism, two other school publications, the ryersonian and the ryerson review of Journalism, are. The Toronto school is currently seeking applicants for a committee to work on the name change for the two journalism publications.
The documents filed by bradley say he had never been spoken to by his editors for his views, nor was he told that he couldn’t share his opinions elsewhere. he has, since 2017, has written 28 articles for the paper, according to the tribunal filings. In March 2020, bradley wrote an article for the Post Millennial, a conservative online publication, in which he criticized diversity and inclusion offices at universities. The tribunal documents say “he had grown disenchanted with these offices because he had noticed that some groups were being discriminated against by these offices on the basis of their viewpoints.”
A day after the piece was published, his editors called him into a meeting where they told him the article he wrote made the newspaper an unsafe space, making staff feel uncomfortable.
“Mr. bradley left this meeting feeling disrespected and that his dignity had been harmed,” the documents say.
Three days later, bradley had a call with the newspaper’s editor and recorded it, fearing “intolerance.” The documents say he felt there was bias against right-leaning views at the paper. he was told that he couldn’t write about diversity and inclusion for the eyeopener, and that if he wrote about it for other publications, they might ask him not to attend pub nights with staff.
In June 2020, a former classmate sent a number of tweets tagging the eyeopener and ryerson and calling bradley “a bigot, homophobe, and transphobe for holding roman Catholic beliefs about God, secularism, forgiveness, homosexuality, and transgenderism.” The tweets included screenshots of a conversation between her and bradley.
bradley’s lawyer contacted the person, and the tweets were removed. Months later, this was followed by an apology to bradley. Previously, bradley had tweeted explanations of where the bible suggested being gay or transgender are sinful.
Catholic teaching has softened in recent years,
the bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are Core to My beliefs.
with Pope Francis’s synod saying gay people have “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” but the church maintains “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically disordered.” The church’s views on gender remain staunchly conservative.
but in June 2020, bradley was sacked. “I fear that since you’ve made your opinion public, members of our community, especially queer, trans and non-binary folks, would no longer feel safe if you are associated with the publication,” says the email to bradley firing him.
The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship has sent a letter to the eyeopener in support of bradley. “A campus newspaper, certainly one owned by the students themselves, has a responsibility to be open to wide range of views and ideas,” it said.
bradley is seeking $20,000 in compensation and his reinstatement at the paper, plus the development of human rights codes at the paper.
A statement from the eyeopener’s current editorin-chief said: “We strongly refute the applicant’s allegations of discrimination. Nonetheless, we will honour the hrto processes at this time, and not comment further. The hrto will decide the application.”