Anglican minister tells it like it isThat’s a headline Canadian Anglicans never expected to see.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t refer to statements by any minister of the Anglican Church of Canada.  No, it fell to a foreign Anglican clergyman to speak the truth about our "human rights" commissions.

Reverend Father Nicholas Sykes (at right) of St Alban’s Church of England, George Town, Grand Cayman, warned his countrymen against adopting a proposed Human Rights Commission by pointing out the oppression that a similarly constituted commission has brought upon Canada.

“In [Human Rights Commission] the defendant’s right to due process is withdrawn. They reach judgments on the basis of no fixed law and by simply agreeing to hear a case, they tie up the defendant in bureaucracy and paperwork, and bleed him for the cost of lawyers, while the person who brings the complaint, however frivolous, stands to lose nothing.”

Mr. Sykes said over half all of the Canadian Human Rights Commissions “hate crime” cases have been brought by one person who was a former employee of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Rev Sykes is one of several Cayman Islands clergy opposed to constitutional proposals brought forward by the governing People’s Progressive Movement (PPM).  He spoke at a public meeting earlier this week at the Family Life Centre in George Town.

The estimated 85 attendees heard from the Leader of the Opposition Hon McKeeva Bush and his United Democratic Party (UDP), who organised the meeting. Mr Bush told the gathering how the ruling People’s Progressive Movement (PPM’s) proposal to enshrine the Bill of Rights in the Constitution would fundamentally alter life in the Cayman Islands.

“The Bill of Rights in particular is going to seriously affect the Christian church and the Christian schools,” he said.

Another speaker mentioned the recent decision to fine the Anglican bishop of Hereford £47,345 and require him to attend re-education sessions after he refused to hire a non-celibate homosexual as a youth officer in his diocese.

The people of Cayman Islands will vote on the constitutional proposals in a referendum scheduled to be held in May, although the PPM government says it is willing to postpone the vote to allow more time for public discussion.

Fr Sykes has been minister at St Alban’s, Grand Cayman, for almost 25 years.  He was the subject of a lengthy profile by Cayman News Net Online in September 2006, whence the photo at the top of this post.  The website of the Church of England in the Cayman Islands includes several articles about the “apparent clash between rights and freedoms” and other interesting material.

h/t: The intrepid Ezra Levant, who headlined his post "They're laughing at us in the Cayman Islands".

Actually, I don’t think they’re laughing at Canada so much as looking at us and fearing for their own future. Canada used to be a beacon of hope and freedom to the world.  Now, thanks to our human rights commissions, we’re becoming a bad example.

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