A college journalist says he has reached a settlement with the school paper that fired him last year for expressing Catholic views.
Jonathan Bradley, a student at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, was working last year as a part-time volunteer reporter for The Eyeopener, a student-run newspaper at the school.
However, in June last year, the editor-in-chief of The Eyeopener emailed Bradley to inform him that his Catholic views on sexuality meant he could no longer write for the newspaper.
Bradley had made comments calling the homosexual lifestyle as well as transgenderism a “sin.”
“Recently, The Eyeopener’s Twitter was tagged in a thread involving screenshots of a conversation in which you defended the notion that homosexuality as well as being transgender is considered a sin,” read an email from then Editor-in-Chief Catherine Abes to Bradley that was obtained by The Daily Wire earlier this year.
“I fear that since you’ve made your opinion public, members of our community, especially queer, trans, and non-binary folks, would no longer feel safe if you are associated with the publication,” Abes wrote.
After he was fired, Bradley sued the paper for alleged discrimination, filing a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The lawsuit states that Bradley’s firing sets “a dangerous precedent.”
“It is illegal discrimination for an employer to punish an individual on the basis of that individual sharing his or her legal and permissible creed in other forums,” the lawsuit said. “Allowing the respondent to discriminate on this basis would set a dangerous precedent for all employees who hold and share a particular creed.”
Last week, Bradley said that he reached a settlement with The Eyeopener and that the publication had provided him with a letter of regret.
“My human rights complaint against the Eyeopener has been settled to mutual satisfaction,” Bradley said in a statement posted to Twitter. “The Eyeopener has issued a letter of regret about this ordeal. I have no further comment.”
At the time he was terminated, Bradley had been writing for The Eyeopener since his freshman year and has written for a number of other publications including The Post Millennial, The Toronto Star, and The National Post.
Editors at The Eyeopener had previously complained to Bradley about some of his articles at other outlets, expressing concern that he might be creating an “unsafe” space for other writers, The Daily Wire previously reported.
Editors even uninvited Bradley from “pub night,” the paper’s weekly dinner compensation. At one point, he was banned from writing about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion at The Eyeopener.
“So, it’s not that you can’t write whatever opinion you want,” the editor told Bradley on a recorded call. “It’s that if you do write an opinion piece along those lines or even at all for the Post Millennial, I’ll likely tell you hey, maybe skip dinner this week.”
Bradley graduated in journalism from Ryerson last year, and he is earning his master’s in media production from the school this year.
The Eyeopener did not immediately respond to a request for comment.