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Pagan who is also into dominance takes Vancouver police to rights tribunal

Canadian Press, via The Vancouver Sun, Canada
Jan. 10, 2006
Terri Theodore, The Canadian Press
www.canada.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday January 11, 2006

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal says a full hearing should be held into a complaint from a pagan who practices a form of sadism and masochism after he was denied a chauffeur’s permit by the city’s police department.

The complaint on the basis of religion and sexual orientation was filed against the Vancouver Police Department and one of its officers, Kevin Barker, who refused to give Peter Hayes the permit.

Tribunal member Lindsay Lyster ruled that complaints like Hayes’ should be tested under the Human Rights Code.

“To take a more restrictive approach would have the effect of denying those complainants whose complaints may push at the borders of the code,” she wrote in her recently released ruling.

In tribunal documents, Hayes complained that the officer refused the permit because he posed an “extreme risk of recruiting passengers-customers into my cult during my work hours.”

Hayes filed materials with the tribunal alleging that in May 2005, Barker told him that he was a member of a “sex cult” and that his sexual leanings towards a master-slave relationship were the primary reasons for denying the permit.

The lawyer who represented the Vancouver Police Department in the preliminary stage of the hearing was unavailable for comment.

Hayes is a pagan and practices a so-called BDSM lifestyle. BDSM refers to bondage and discipline, domination and submission and sadism and masochism.

“Given the gate-keeping nature of the function in which the tribunal is engaged, I consider it especially appropriate to take a liberal and purposive approach,” Lyster wrote.

She said it was clear that Hayes suffered an adverse impact because he was denied the chauffeur’s permit and lost the opportunity to work.

“On the facts alleged, it appears that it would be artificial and perhaps impossible to separate the religious and sexual orientation parts of Mr. Hayes’ complaint,” she ruled.

Lyster also strongly encouraged Hayes to get a lawyer as the case moves into the tribunal stage because of the legal complexity of the case.