Early in July, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Toronto translator Brian Mossop was not entitled to bereavement leave to attend the funeral of his homosexual lover’s father.
All three judges overturned an earlier decision of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) which determined that by excluding homosexual couples from the collective agreement, Mr. Mossop’s employer and his union discriminated against him on the grounds of family status.
“Even if we were to accept that two homosexual lovers can constitute ‘sociologically speaking’ a sort of family, the judges wrote, “It is certainly not one which is now recognized by law as giving its members special rights and obligations.
Jim Schlater, National Director of Public Policy in Canada for Focus on the Family, believes the judges acted fairly in rejecting the expanded definition of the family. Mr. Mossop and his companion, Ken Popert, didn’t lose any of the civil rights they possess as Canadians. The court simply refused to grant them any special status on the basis of their sexual orientation, he said.
Despite the intent of the Human Rights Commission to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, Mr. Schlater is encouraged by the justice’s recent judgment upholding the ban on the active solicitation of sexual favors by prostitutes. Apparently the Court is willing to restrict individual rights and freedoms if they jar with the public interest, Mr., Schlater told The Interim.
The HRC, however, believes that the law should recognize a liaison like Mossop’s and Popert’s as family; “in everything except they couldn’t have children, they were the same way as a family,” said deputy chief commissioner Michelle Falardeau-Ramsay.
But according to Mr. Schlater, it is precisely the intergenerational bond of parents and children that defines the family: “If that were taken away, we would have a hard time supporting the family in our society in a legal sense.
“The health of family and society depends on the nurturing the children receive and that is something which, from our point of view, demands defending. Children need nurturing, preferably from a mother and a father. Anything else – even a single parent family – is a contraction of that,” he added.
