View cases - Stewart McKelvey

Bible-trained conscience would be inconsistent with the faith. I accept that Mr. Jones believedas a matter of personal conscience that decorating the store was contrary to his religious beliefsand that, as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it was wrong for him engage in conduct that wasinconsistent with his Bible-trained conscience.[27] There is no dispute that Mr. Hardy asked Mr. Jones to display some artificial poinsettiasor that, when he refused, Mr. Eisler informed Mr. Jones that he was required to follow Mr.Hardy’s direction. The Respondents submit, however, that this is not a case of an employerrequiring an employee to engage in conduct that was inconsistent with his religious belief; ratherit is a case of insubordination. The Respondents submit that Mr. Jones had made it clear that hewould merchandise and stock seasonal merchandise. They say that the poinsettias were for saleand were, therefore, such merchandise.[28] There was evidence that the poinsettias were for sale. They were assigned a “price lookup code” which enabled cashiers to enter a price for them at the cash register. Debbie Carvalho,who had worked as head cashier when Mr. Jones was at C.H.E., stated that many poinsettiaswere sold each year. She said that they were stock that was put out with the other seasonal stockeach year. I accept that the poinsettias were stock and were for sale. That does not mean,however, that they were the same as other seasonal merchandise or that they were not decoration.[29] Mr. Jones, Mr. Hall and Kelly Bennett, another merchandiser at C.H.E., understood thatthe poinsettias were decoration and were unaware that they were for sale. Ms. Carvalho testifiedthat, when they started “decorating”, they just put up some paper; then they put up lights, thensnowflakes, poinsettias and Santa Claus. The store had displayed poinsettias for a number ofyears. Mr. Eisler testified that he started using poinsettias after he spoke to the person who rananother store in Victoria, who suggested poinsettias because they create ambience and incentiveto buy. Mr. Hardy testified that, although Christmas merchandise was advertised in a flyer,poinsettias were not included. Moreover, in his conversation with Mr. Jones on November 19,1998, he referred to the poinsettias as “those decorations” (Exhibit 7).[30] I find that, although the poinsettias were for sale, their primary purpose was to serve asdecoration and the staff viewed them as such. The store stocked a variety of seasonalmerchandise, which Mr. Jones handled as part of his job. That merchandise, such as chocolates,7