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• Religious practice curtailed: The court case Brillinger v. Brockie involves Toronto Christian print-shop owner Scott Brockie, who accepted printing jobs from homosexual groups. But Brockie drew the line at printing stationery that implied an endorsement of homosexual behavior, which is contrary to his Christian beliefs. The Ontario Human Rights Court fined Brockie $5,000. Saying Brockie was free to believe as he wished, the court ruled that he violated the rights of others by refusing to print the stationery. "I think Brillinger is the most important case in the courts at the moment," said Vancouver civil-rights lawyer Iain Benson. He says it will establish whether religious freedom includes the freedom to live according to traditional religious convictions. In a similar incident, the Human Rights Commission fined Dianne Haskett, mayor of London, Ontario, $5,000 because she refused to declare a Gay Pride day in the mid-1990s.

Benson calls the situation for conservative Christians in Canada a "velvet oppression"—underneath a surface of calm harmony lies an explicitly anti-Christian perspective. In the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union often works to strengthen the wall of separation between church and state. But its northern counterpart, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, has intervened on behalf of Trinity Western before the Supreme Court.

Starting in 1982, Liberals initiated political reforms under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and moved the government from a British style to a more American style of government—enhancing, for example, the executive power of the prime minister. But they failed to establish American-style checks and balances.

As a result, the prime minister has enormous influence on the government and society; the prime minister appoints both the Senate and the Supreme Court, and he can decide when to call a national election. He also enforces very strong party discipline, sometimes even requiring his members to vote against campaign promises that the party abandons. It is nearly impossible for a Liberal member of Parliament to vote against the party on an important issue and remain in the party.

But Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's suspect use of his official powers became a sharp campaign issue last year. Chrétien was discovered to have pressured the government bank to lend $615,000 to a man with a criminal record who had purchased a hotel from Chrétien and three partners. The government's ethics counselor, a Chrétien appointee, ruled that the loan was legal.

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April 2 2001, Vol. 45, No. 5