Heather MacNaughton, who chaired the three-panel B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in the mixed judgement of the Port Coquitlam Knights of Columbus v. two lesbians, is the same justice who fined Christian printer Scott Brockie and denied an appeal by Christian teacher Chris Kempling.

In 2000, MacNaughton was the adjudicator in a Ontario Human Rights Commission decision against Scott Brockie, a Toronto printer, who was forced to pay $5,000 in damages for refusing to print stationary for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.

Brockie, who opposes homosexuality on religious grounds, politely asked the representative of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives to take his business to another printer in the Toronto area. MacNaughton also ordered Brockie and his business, Imaging Excellence, to provide the printing services they provide to others, to lesbians and gays and to organizations in existence for their benefit.

In November, MacNaughton then chaired the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, when it denied Christian teacher Chris Kempling his complaint of religious discrimination against his employer, the Quesnel School District. Kempling brought the case after he was disciplined by the board for granting an interview to CBC Radio in December 2003.

In the interview, which was conducted by phone on his Christmas vacation, Kempling explained the orientation change therapy services he offers as part of his private counselling practice. Kempling, who holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate in psychology, is a registered clinical counsellor and a clinical member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Rev. Tristan Emmanuel, a leader in the movement to defend the family in Canada, told LifeSiteNews.com that the decision was an outrage.

“Dr. Kempling isn’t the only victim. All people of good will and conscience have been victimized by the tyranny of a few, who are so desperate to legitimize a particular lifestyle that they will stop at nothing to strip away the fundamental rights of their critics, including one of the most fundamental rights of a free and democratic society, the right of dissent,” said Emmanuel.

There were many critical of the tribunal’s ruling in the case of the Knights of Columbus v. Deborah Chymyshyn and Tracey Smith. After refusing the same-sex couple a hall for their same-sex “wedding,” the Knights were fined $2,000 for their supposed rudeness. The tribunal awarded Smith and Chymyshyn $1,000 each “for injury to their dignity, feelings and self-respect.” Although the tribunal upheld the right of the Knights to refuse a hall for a same-sex “wedding,” there was no clear justification given for why the group was fined.

The National Post, jumping into the fray, asked the rhetorical question: “When did the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal become Miss Manners? Enforcement of rules of etiquette are surely one responsibility that falls outside legitimate government power. When Parliament passed the bill legalizing same-sex ‘marriage,’ there was a great deal of concern that the new law would result in the infringement of the religious rights of groups opposed to such unions,” the Post author said. “

That fear has not found support in the Knights’ case. But an equally vexing precedent has been set. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has usurped the role of Emily Post.” MacNaughton also decided a 2002 B.C. Human Rights case that awarded a trans-sexual woman (previously a man) $7,500 for injury to her dignity and ordered a Vancouver rape crisis centre to allow trans-sexual females to counsel women who are victims of rape. The 45-year-old trans-sexual, Kimberly Nixon, had sex reassignment surgery in 1990.

This story originally ran Dec. 8 at LifeSiteNews.com and is reprinted with permission.