Members of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal should not air publicly their dissent from proposed legislative changes granting protection on grounds of sexual orientation, according to Ken Norman, a former chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Thomas Schuck, a Weyburn lawyer and a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal since January 1984, has come under fire from those promoting homosexual rights. His view, that homosexuality is both personally harmful and damaging to the community as a whole, and that pro-homosexual legislation “will impose sanctions on those who demonstrate their natural aversion to homosexual immorality…” is published elsewhere in this issue of The Interim.
According to Ken Norman, Mr. Schuck has compromised his objectivity as a Tribunal member. “His obligation is to zip his lip on matters of policy,” Norman told the Star Phoenix. Norman, a law professor at the University of Saskatchewan, chaired the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission from 1978 to 1983, and was a member of the federally-appointed Human Rights Tribunal prior to 1984, when Mr. Schuck was appointed.
Professor Norman has supported homosexual rights for some time. Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Equality rights last June, he told the parliamentarians of the occasion in “1979 when as the Chief commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission I proposed that sexual orientation be added to the [Human Rights] code…”
The Body Politic (once prosecuted for a pro-pedophile article, “Men Loving Boys Loving Men”) described Schuck as a man “who wants to breathe new life into dying prejudices.” It suggests that its readers write to the Tribunal “expressing an opinion on Thomas Shuck’s suitability as a member.”
It appears that “objectivity” only applies to those who support homosexual rights. Interim readers who feel that a Human Rights Tribunal should be composed of people holding diverse views on sensitive issues may like to write and express their opinion. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal can be reached at 90 Sparks Street, Ottawa K1A 1E1 or phone (613) 995-1151 (collect calls are accepted).
