Excerpts from three articles follow with links to take you to the complete articles.

Yellowknifer – June 23, 2010
Human rights case over cancelled lease
By Elizabeth McMillan, Northern News Services

A Yellowknife couple has taken a landlord before a human rights panel for refusing to honour a rental agreement because they were gay. Their case was heard at a hearing held Tuesday. Scott Robertson and Richard Anthony signed a one-year lease on May 21, 2009 with William Goertzen for an apartment in Old Town, the same building where Anthony’s sister and her son lived. But Goertzen proceeded to cash their damage deposit, dispose of their lease and rent the unit out to another family after finding out they were a couple.

Robertson and Anthony are asking for $10,000 each in punitive damages, $13,500 each for “injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect” and $930 in compensation for time Robertson missed at work.

According to Anthony’s sister, Amanda Anthony, who was tenant in a different suite owned by the landlord, Goertzen was surprised to hear the two men were in a gay relationship, having to balance himself against a wall when he found out. “He seemed scared and shocked,” she told James Posynick, an adjudicator for the NWT Human Rights Adjudication Panel.

When Amanda Anthony phoned her brother to relate the conversation, he and Robertson were in Edmonton buying furniture for their new home. Richard Anthony said he was initially hopeful they could settle the issue but upon checking YK Trader he saw their apartment was listed. “It just seemed like my whole life was coming apart. I knew how difficult it was to find another place,” he said.

Robertson said he confronted Goertzen about the ad when he returned back to Yellowknife but he refused to honour their lease and agree to let the men move in. “He told me he obeyed God’s law over man’s law,” Robertson testified. …

Goertzen, who made reference to being a churchgoer, defended his actions saying he feared God would punish him for being around gay people, either in judgement after his death or “here on Earth by withholding blessings of any kind or by any hardship he can put you through.” Quoting scripture, he argued religion came before Canadian law. “Anybody that would read God’s word would very clearly see (homosexuality is) not natural and it’s a crime against nature. I can definitely not have a part in it.” …

Since last spring, Robertson and Richard Anthony sought damages through the NWT’s rental office and eventually got their $1,150 damage deposit back. They are appealing the decision for additional damages. …

Both men testified the ordeal has affected their confidence and increased their stress levels. “It was a terrible feeling of helplessness to see everything unfold and not be able to do anything about it. It was like being in a dream and not being able to scream,” Robertson said. …

The men said they’ve pursued a human rights case because they hoped it would make other people reconsider discrimination. “Based on your beliefs I don’t think you should be a landlord,” Anthony said, addressing Goertzen. “I wouldn’t want someone else to go through this. It’s completely unreasonable in this day and age.” Arguments wrapped up after six hours of deliberations.

Posynick said his decision will not be ready until August.

Read the complete article here.

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The St. John’s Telegram – June 24, 2010
Landlord says he tore up gay couple’s lease over fear of God
By Elizabeth McMillan, The Canadian Press

A landlord who said he feared God’s wrath has found himself in front of the Human Rights Commission in the Northwest Territories after refusing two gay men an apartment. Speaking in his own defence in a Yellowknife boardroom, property owner Will Goertzen read from the Bible as he attempted to justify his not honouring a lease with Scott Robertson and Richard Anthony after finding out they were a couple. Homosexuality “isn’t natural and it’s a crime against nature. I can definitely not have a part in it,” Goertzen told a commission adjudicator on Tuesday. “We all die and after that is the judgment.”

Robertson and Anthony, who say they ended up homeless for 10 days, are asking the commission to award them $23,500 each, for punitive damages and damages for “injury to dignity, feelings and self respect.” Robertson is also asking for $930 in compensation for time he missed at work to deal with the matter. …

Goertzen, a journeyman who made reference to attending a Baptist church, said he never considered the two men were gay when he rented them the apartment. But when Anthony’s sister told him they were a couple, Goertzen readvertised the property, three weeks before Robertson and Anthony were to move in. Anthony saw the ad online and questioned Goertzen.

The couple said he referred to gay people as “an abomination and one of the reasons the world is going to hell in a hand basket.” The landlord told the commission he recognizes the supremacy of God over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “There’s a reason I’m fearful: God is bigger than me and any person on Earth,” he said. He also believed the men would be a negative influence on Anthony’s sister and her son. …

Read the complete article here.

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Yellowknifer – June 25, 2010
Letter: Landlord wrong to point to Bible in human rights case

Dear editor,

This letter is a response to William Goertzen’s comments in the article about the human rights case over the cancelled lease which appears in the June 23rd issue of Yellowknifer (“Human rights case over cancelled lease”).

I am outraged and disgusted when people use Christianity to support they’re own feelings of hate. Goertzen quotes the scriptures to justify his stance, saying the Bible condemns homosexuality and that is why he could not lease his rental unit to a homosexual couple.

I’d also like to remind Goertzen that the Bible also says love your neighbour as you love yourself, judge not and you shall not be judged, hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrong, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace, these things I command you, that you love one another, and the Lord makes you increase and abound in love towards one another, and towards all men, whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Should I go on?

Mr. Goertzen should not be allowed to stand behind his so called faith as a reason to treat others like crap. The Bible does not preach hate and discrimination. Those are Mr. Goertzen’s personal feelings and he should at least be man enough to admit that. He does not have to agree with how other people live their lives but it is not his right to judge them because of it and it certainly is not right to claim his feelings are from God.

Furthermore, he claims he is afraid that a homosexual couple will negatively influence a neighbour’s son? I didn’t realize gay was some kind of disease you could catch. If anyone is negatively influencing the boy, it is this intolerant landlord, so maybe he should be the one considering moving away.

Inemesit Graham
Yellowknife