Greg DalyIf Christian bakers were guilty of discrimination for refusing to make a pro-same-sex marriage cake, the law itself is at fault, the North’s Attorney General has said.
Attorney General John Larkin was speaking on the second day of Daniel and Amy McArthur’s appeal against a May 2015 decision by Belfast’s County Court which found that Ashers Bakery had discriminated against Gareth Lee by initially accepting but then refusing his order for a cake featuring the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.
The McArthur’s appeal against the verdict was dramatically cut short on March 2 this year when the Attorney General made a last-minute intervention, expressing concerns that the North’s equality legislation might clash with the European Convention on Human Rights. Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan agreed to adjourn the appeal until Monday, May 9.
Speaking at the appeal this week, Mr Larkin argued that the case was primarily one about freedom of expression, and the right not to be compelled to express a view contrary to one’s own beliefs. Northern Ireland’s human rights legislation ensures constitutional protections for religious beliefs, he said, emphasising that the right to decline to express views contrary to one’s own beliefs is protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Recognising that the case was a balancing act between different rights, he noted that Mr Lee could have asked other bakers to have expressed his opinion, and said the court should not compel the McArthur’s to do so for him.
“Although the case for the plaintiff is put pleasantly, and with every appearance of sweet reasonableness, what cannot be disguised is that the Defendants are being compelled, on pain of civil liability, to burn a pinch of incense at the altar of a god they do not worship,” he concluded, “The constitutional law of Northern Ireland, supplemented by the ECHR, resists such a compulsion.”
The appeal is expected to end today (Thursday) and the judges are likely to announce their decision at a later date.