Ruling (.pdf) - International Center for Law and Religion Studies

[232] Second, I find that Ms. Heintz’s sexual orientation was a consideration in Mr.Alemu deciding whether to call for a formal inquiry into resident abuse allegation. Ms.Heintz did testify in cross-examination that she felt that Christian Horizons was correctin holding an inquiry. That may be so. However, there was no evidence that there wasany legal or policy obligation to hold an inquiry in the circumstances. Mr. Alemu’stestimony suggested that he had discretion, and part of the purpose of his investigationwas to determine whether a formal inquiry team should be established. In addition, hisnotes indicate that the suspicion of resident abuse was only one of the reasons hedecided to hold the inquiry.[233] Third, in my view the discipline issued to Ms. Heintz was tainted by adiscriminatory animus. Assuming that Christian Horizons was justified in issuing awarning because of Ms. Heintz’s comments to Mr. Alemu, the discipline letter wentmuch further. The letter indicated that Ms. Heintz needed to improve her performance,yet Ms. Heintz’s last two performance appraisals were exemplary, and there was noevidence that any performance issues had been previously brought to her attention. Mr.Alemu spoke of negative grievances by co-workers, but these were primarily grievancesby Ms. Ward and Ms. Odhiambo, the two employees who had raised concerns aboutMs. Heintz being gay.2008 HRTO 22 (CanLII)[234] Finally, the entire course of events, and the workplace atmosphere at ChristianHorizons generally, must be seen in the context of an organization that sincerelybelieves that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals cannot be part of “thecommunity.” Rev. Cox explained how profound this belief is:Well, among other things, it would -- it might -- it might reflectthe fact that they're not really committed to our vision and whatit means to be human and what it means to be a flourishinghuman being. So if they're not committed in that area, in whatother areas might they also not be committed to expressing inpractical ways this strong Christian conviction about God'screation of us in his image? So sexual behaviour thenbecomes really almost a touchstone among other behaviours oftheir commitment to our vision of what it means to be a humanbeing in a faith. If they're – If they don't want to follow what70