Darryl Anaka’s five-year effort to obtain religious exemption from the B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) and his local teachers’ union, the Terrace Teachers’ Association (TDTA), has failed.
Mr. Anaka, 41, father of three and a science teacher for 14 years at Thornhill Junior Secondary School in Terrace, had argued that the BCTF’s official ‘pro-choice’ position could not be reconciled to his religious belief that abortion is murder.
Despite the unanimous opinion that he was “a devout Christian,” the Industrial Relations Council (IRC) ruled January 18 that “[Mr] Anaka…failed to demonstrate the element of irreconcilability necessary in order to obtain the exemption from membership.”
After reviewing Mr. Anaka’s ongoing dispute with the teachers’ union during which time he did not quit his job, the IRC decided that he “has the capacity to reconcile the religious conflict with the BCTF policies and continued membership.” In the unions.
Mr. Anaka maintains that his religious beliefs and the BCTF’s policies are ‘irreconcilable’ with membership in this particular union. “For me to complete BCTF membership forms,” he concluded in his written submission to the IRC, “would…show my acceptance of what is the complete antithesis of my religious convictions.”
“If I didn’t have family responsibilities I would have appealed or resigned immediately, but under the circumstances it would have been too great a burden in either case on my family immediately after the sacrifice they had already made during the past year,” he acknowledged.
