Freedom from religion
By all accounts, the evangelical charity known as Christian Horizons has been doing good work in Ontario for years, providing care and homes for the severely disabled. Its funding comes almost entirely (more than 90 per cent) from Ontario taxpayers, but bizarrely, it was allowed to operate for years with a discriminatory policy that barred homosexuals from its employment. The organization required employees to sign a “Lifestyle and Morality Statement” that barred extra-marital affairs, premarital sexual relations, reading or viewing pornography and homosexual relationships. It wasn’t until three years ago when a lesbian employee was fired for entering a same-sex relationship that this obnoxious policy came to light. The employee won in court after Christian Horizons appealed an Ontario Human Rights decision that said the charity had violated the complainant’s human rights. The discriminatory policy was then scrapped, and now in what appears to be a settlement with the Ontario Human Rights Commission based on a new complaint, the charity has agreed to allow anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, to apply for jobs at its centres across the province.
“We will welcome applications from anyone, regardless of creed. We seek to be fully in step with our partners in human rights,” the charity’s chief executive Janet Nolan said. “We are going to work with the commission to evaluate our employment policies, procedures and job requirements.”
The amazing thing is not that the organization agreed to abandon workplace discrimination, but how it managed to carry on this long without anyone in government noticing.
Religious institutions have the right to act according to the dictates of their respective religions. But under no circumstances should a charity that is largely funded by taxpayers be allowed to impose its moral values on everybody else. In taking public money, there is an implicit acceptance by all groups of all the rights available to every Ontarian. The Christian Horizons case suggests poor monitoring of groups taking public money. The provincial government should have clear anti-discrimination rules and enforce them to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.