CCLA has been granted intervenor status in the May, 2010 reference to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. The government of Saskatchewan has asked the Court to examine the constitutionality of two proposed bills that would permit civil marriage commissioners to refuse to perform marriages which run contrary to their personal religious beliefs. Although the bills make no reference to same-sex marriage, it is clear that the proposed changes arose from ongoing controversy surrounding civil marriage commissioners being asked to perform same-sex marriages.
While CCLA firmly supports the freedom of religious officials to decline to perform religious marriages based on their beliefs, the function of a civil marriage commissioner is to provide a basic non-religious government service; to do this, they must serve the public equally. CCLA will be intervening before the Court to argue that the proposed amendment would unjustly violate the right to equality of same-sex couples. Although CCLA sympathizes with the attempt to accommodate marriage commissioners’ individual religious beliefs, giving individual public servants the right to discriminate in the provision of basic public services is not an acceptable solution. Allowing a general right to deny a government service based on personal religious beliefs would open the door for civil servants to deny government services based on a multitude of factors. Individuals should not have to fear that a government employee will deny them access to a basic public service due to that employee’s personal convictions.
