FORCED

Saskatoon StarPhoenix - July 14, 2005
Marriage commissioner ready for human rights fight
Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post

REGINA (SNN) - A Regina marriage commissioner says he is facing a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission complaint after refusing to perform a same-sex marriage. But Orville Nichols - a marriage commissioner for the past 23 years who has, himself, registered a complaint before the human rights commission over being forced to perform gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies - says he'll go to a higher court to keep his marriage commissioner's license. "I knew this was coming," Nichols said in an interview Wednesday. "As far as I'm concerned, it was a set-up job."

After receiving a letter last November from Justice Minister Frank Quennell notifying all provincial marriage commissioners they were obligated to follow the law and perform same-sex marriages, Nichols stated publicly in January that he would neither perform same-sex marriages nor give up his licence for not performing the ceremonies. "It's my personal and religious belief that it is not right," Nichols said last January. "My definition of marriage is opposite - male and female - not two males and females. That's why I oppose it."

Nichols said Wednesday he believes that the complainant deliberately sought him out to manufacture a human rights complaint after seeing his public statement. The marriage commissioner said he received a call in late April requesting that he perform a May 6 wedding at 2 p.m. When he asked the caller for the name of his fiancee, the person said it was his partner. "I asked if it was same sex, he said yes and I said I wouldn't do it," Nichols said. "He said it's my legal right and I said I won't do it."

This week, Nichols received a letter requiring him to appear before the Human Rights Commission on July 15, but responded that he needed more time to issue a legal challenge. He added he likely would apply for a legal injunction to keep his commissioner's licence if he loses it.

Nichols said he doesn't mind being targeted because of his stance, but he said he was worried about what might happen to the weddings of the 30 couples he committed to marry this summer if he loses his licence.

The complainant could not be reached for comment and Quennell and Justice Department officials declined comment.

However, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott issued two press releases defending Nichols. In the first release Tuesday, Vellacott said Quennell's insistence that marriage commissioners have to resign for refusing to perform same-sex marriages "violates the spirit and letter of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." The MP added that, like bilingual services, the province should find marriage commissioners "willing to perform this function" instead of firing them."

In a second press release Wednesday, Vellacott named the "two homosexuals that issued the complaint," but the MP said he did not see anything wrong with doing this. This is a public issue and marriage should be viewed as a public event, Vellacott said.

The human rights commission has not only refused to reveal the name of the complainant but has also refused to confirm a complaint had been laid.

(Regina Leader-Post)