Human rights warning over bakery case
A HUMAN rights lawyer has said that if the Ashers bakery, currently fighting a case brought against them for refusing to make a cake for a gay couple, were to lose their court battle then no defence could be taken against other businesses defending their personal beliefs.
Among those cases listed by human rights QC Aidan O’Neill, were an atheist web designer refusing to design a website presenting as scientific fact the claim that God made the world in six days.
He also said that a Muslim printer refusing a contract requiring the printing of cartoons of Mohammed would be illegal.
Other examples include a Christian film company refusing to produce a pornographic film, a Christian baker refusing to take an order to make a cake celebrating Satanism, a T-shirt company owned by lesbians declining to print T-shirts with a message describing gay marriage as an “abomination”.
Another scenario might be a printing company run by Roman Catholics declining an order to produce adverts calling for abortion on demand to be legalised.
The court case currently under consideration concerns the McArthur family, owners of Ashers Baking Co, who are being sued by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).
The case arose after a complaint that the baking company refused to make a cake featuring the logo of a Belfastbased campaign group called Queerspace and a picture of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie in an embrace with the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.
The bakery is receiving an outpouring of public support.
A ComRes poll asking 1,000 people in Northern Ireland whether they believe the ECNI is right to take the Ashers Bakery to court, revealed that 71 per cent of people disagree.
Meanwhile a ComRes poll of more than 2,000 people found that 71 per cent said a bakery run by Christians should be able to refuse an order to make a cake celebrating Satanism without being taken to court.
Similarly, 71 per cent of those surveyed believe a Muslim printer should be able to refuse to print cartoons of Mohammed without being taken to court; 68 per cent said a printing company run by Roman Catholics should be able to decline an order to produce adverts calling for abortion to be legalised without being taken to court.
Simon Calvert, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, who are funding the Ashers case, commented: “When we asked top human rights lawyer Aidan O’Neill QC about the implications of this case he warned of an avalanche of similar cases if the litigation was successful.
“As Mr O’Neill said in his own words, ‘If the approach of the ECNI were correctly based in law - which I do not consider it to be - then on the basis that the law does not protect the fundamental right, within the commercial context of supplying services, to hold opinions nor guarantee any negative freedom of expression, there would be no defence to similar actions being taken in any of these scenarios’.”