In a ground-breaking case on freedom of speech and religion, a Canadian court ruled this week that a public school teacher had no right to make remarks critical of homosexuality.
The British Columbia Supreme Court said on Wednesday that Christian teacher Chris Kempling's freedoms were not violated when he was suspended for letters he had written to a newspaper.
Justice R.R. Holmes, declaring Kempling's writings to be discriminatory, said: "Discriminatory speech is incompatible with the search for truth."
He backed the decision of the B.C. College of Teachers, the province of British Columbia's professional accrediting agency, to suspend him for a month.
"It is entirely appropriate that the teaching profession, like any profession, be held to more stringent standards of conduct than the lay public," he said.
Kempling said he would appeal the decision to the B.C. Court of Appeal. The final level of appeal would be Canada's Supreme Court.
"It is a black day for religious freedom in Canada," Kempling said in a statement.
"It means that teachers who happen to be Christians or who belong to other religions proscribing homosexuality may not comment publicly on this issue."
Justice Holmes said Kempling was free to hold unrestricted views "should he choose not to...teach in public schools in British Columbia."
Among the letters to his local newspaper that Justice Holmes quoted from, Kempling had written: "Homosexuality is not something to be applauded."
In another letter he wrote: "I refuse to be a false teacher saying that promiscuity is acceptable, perversion is normal, and immorality is simply 'cultural diversity' of which we should be proud."
The B.C. College of Teachers, which lost a Canadian Supreme Court case in 2001 in another gay-religious conflict, welcomed this week's ruling.
"Kempling used his authority as an educator to lend credibility to his discriminatory writings, thereby casting doubt on the integrity of the teaching profession," it said.
In the 2001 case, Canada's high court ruled that the B.C. College of Teachers had discriminated against Trinity Western University when it had refused to approve Trinity's teacher program on the grounds that the university required students to refrain from homosexual behavior and extramarital sex.
But the court also warned that public school teachers could be disciplined for what it called "discriminatory conduct," though it left open exactly what would be discriminatory.