snipThe firing of broadcaster Damian Goddard, who was let go from Sportsnet six months ago, is turning into a test case about religious freedom in Canada and the right to declare those views in public.
Mr. Goddard lost his job after he wrote on Twitter only marriage between a man and a woman is a “true” marriage.
“I do not hate homosexuals,” the devout Roman Catholic said in an interview this week.
“But if I remain silent I am consenting to something I don’t believe in. I have 2,000 years of Christian history backing me up on this. I’m good with that.”
On Wednesday, it was announced Mr. Goddard had been hired as a spokesman for the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance, a wing of the National Organization for Marriage, which is working to stop legalizing same-gender marriage in the United States.
“In Canada we’ve become far too sanguine about restrictions on speech when in fact we should be encouraging speech, not restricting it,” said Iain Benson, a lawyer whose expertise is constitutional law and religious freedom.
He says the bill that legalized gay marriage in Canada six years ago included several clauses that protected freedom of expression, including this one: “[N]othing in this Act affects the guarantee of freedom of conscience and religion and, in particular, the freedom of members of religious groups to hold and declare their religious beliefs and the freedom of officials of religious groups to refuse to perform marriages that are not in accordance with their religious beliefs.”
The lawyer, who would not comment directly on Mr. Goddard’s case, said there is now a dangerous atmosphere in Canada in which comments protected under law can be twisted to appear as hate speech.
“Hate speech needs to be related to inciting violence, not hurting feelings,” he said.
“I draw a distinction between ‘hurt speech’ and hate speech, and the culture has shifted in which hurt speech has become hate speech.”
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