by Rex Wockner
International
The large Ontario charity Christian Horizons, which helps disabled people, must pay $23,000 to a lesbian it fired and stop discriminating based on sexual orientation, the provincial Human Rights Tribunal ruled April 25.
Connie Heintz will receive $8,000 for being discriminated against, $10,000 for suffering a poisoned work environment and $5,000 for willful and reckless infliction of mental anguish. She also will be compensated for nearly two years' lost wages and benefits plus interest, minus any income she made working elsewhere.
Horizons operates with substantial government funding and does not restrict its services to people who share its beliefs, which, the tribunal said, makes it a "public service" subject to the Ontario Human Rights Code.
The tribunal also ordered the agency to stop requiring staff to sign a "Lifestyle and Morality Statement" that banned them from engaging in extramarital, premarital or gay sex and from using or endorsing alcohol or tobacco.
"When faith-based and other organizations move beyond serving the interests of their particular community to serving the general public, the rights of others, including employees, must be respected," said Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
