Human Rights Complaint: M.J. V. Nichols
In 2005, Orville Nichols, a 30-year marriage commissioner and devout Baptist, refused to marry a gay couple, M.J. and B.R., because it conflicted with his religious beliefs. M.J. filed a complaint under The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, on the basis that "...Mr. Nichols refused to perform a marriage between M.J. and B.R. on the basis of the prohibited ground of M.J.’s sexual orientation." The Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ordered Nichols to pay $2,500 in compensation to the couple for infringing their right under The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code to access to public services without discrimination. In 2009, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench dismissed Nichols' appeal.
Read more about this topic: Same-sex Marriage In Saskatchewan
Famous quotes containing the words human rights, human and/or rights:
“I recognize no rights but human rights—I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights ...”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“Before any woman is a wife, a sister or a mother she is a human being. We ask nothing as women but everything as human beings.”
—Ida C. Hultin, U.S. minister and suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 17, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being, as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)