Canadian Marriage Commissioner Charged For Refusing To Perform Gay Marriage

In Regina, Saskatchewan yesterday the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal held a hearing on a discrimination complaint against one of the Canadian province's marriage commissioners who refused to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony on religious grounds. Canadian Press yesterday reported on the hearing. A lawyer for the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission said that marriage commissioners are required by law to provide civil wedding services for gay couples since same-sex marriage has been legalized in the province. However Orville Nichols, a devout Baptist, said he would have never taken the position as a marriage commissioner if at the time he was appointed there had been a requirement that he perform same-sex marriages.