Day 3: Equality Commission grilled by judges

May 12, 2016 by

from The Christian Institute:

During day three of the Ashers Baking Company appeal hearing the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) was grilled by judges on different aspects of the case.

Under questioning from a panel of three judges, the ECNI’s QC Robin Allen admitted that there was no discussion between the McArthur family on the sexual orientation, beliefs or opinions of customer Gareth Lee.

The taxpayer-funded ECNI took Ashers to court on behalf of Mr Lee after they declined to bake a cake with a slogan supporting same-sex marriage.

‘Discrimination’

In May last year, County Court judge Isobel Brownlie ruled that the owners of Ashers, the McArthur family, broke discrimination law when they refused Mr Lee’s request.

In court today, Allen compared the way Gareth Lee was treated to race discrimination – though he was at pains to say he was not likening the family’s views to racism. But Lord Justice Weir pointed out that Mr Lee had bought cakes from Ashers several times before.

Lord Weir then suggested that the focus of Karen McArthur’s concern when she was asked to make the cake was the message, not the customer’s sexual orientation.

In response, Allen suggested that refusal to promote a campaign for same-sex marriage is itself discrimination against gay people.

Intervention

Later in proceedings, Allen was asked if the ECNI think refusing to produce a cake supporting abortion on demand would amount to gender discrimination.

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