Excerpt:
Nichols, who served as a marriage commissioner from 1983 after retiring from a 25-year career in the police force, was approached by the complainant, only identified as M.J., in April 2005 to conduct the ceremony. Nichols informed M.J. that he was available, but when he realized that M.J.’s partner, B.R., was a man, he told them that he could not “marry” them based on his religious beliefs.
[…]Nichols had himself complained to the human rights tribunal in February 2005 after he had been informed in November 2004 by the Saskatchewan Department of Justice that commissioners would be required to conduct same-sex ceremonies after the law changed to allow them. That case was later dismissed, in March 2006.
He was fined $2,500 by the tribunal in June 2008, which decided that as an official of the government, Nichols was not entitled to have his religious beliefs accommodated.
Nichols appealed that decision to the Court of Queen’s Bench, contending that his right to religious freedom should have been protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But Justice Janet McMurtry upheld the tribunal’s decision.
Nichols’ religious views are not relevant in how he conducts his job, according to the judge in her 36-page decision. “In that capacity [as marriage commissioner], his personal religious beliefs do not matter,” she wrote.
So much for the right to religious liberty. What this decision says is that government’s values supercede the values of individual citizens – even if it violates the fundamental right to religious liberty.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
This does not violate anyone’s right to religious liberty. It simply states that if you work a government job then do the work of the government.
It does not demand that they have to be married in a Christian church, but it does demand that they have the right to marry in a government building by a officiator of the court.
Not difficult. Canada has been a strong supporter of leave your faith at home. It can run your personal life, but let it not run your work, especially if it is government work.
Step it up!
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No, what the decision says is that an official of the government is obligated to carry out all of the government’s laws, not only those he personally agrees with.
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Well, sometimes these things pop up when we change the philosophical foundation of government.
When the philosophical foundation is no longer “The government’s authority descends from God’s sovereign authority” the government is doomed to descend into a war of all against all.
How can the center hold when the foundation of government is “there is no center.”?
Democracy only works when it is founded on some set of religious values.
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