REGINA -- A judge has denied a Regina family's injunction application that would have allowed their daughter to play on the Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School team.
The Ounsworth family decided to take legal action after their daughter, Hannah, didn’t make the football team at Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School this year. Hannah's family believes she didn’t make the team because she's a girl.
The Ounsworths filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, and then decided to seek an injunction because the Human Rights Commission wouldn’t be able to review the matter before the high school football season ends on Friday.
The injunction application was presented in court on Thursday. The judge denied the application late Friday morning.
At the heart of the arguments made by the family and the Regina Catholic School Board, was whether or not incorporating Hannah into the team’s roster now would have irreparable harm on Hannah, or the team.
Justice J. E. McMurtry decided an injunction “at this time would not undo the alleged harm,” adding injunctions are not meant to compensate for past harm, and instead look to give a solution to an applicant where monetary damages will be insufficient.
“Hannah stands to gain little by an injunction that cannot be compensated for in damages if her complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is successful. Thus the balance of convenience favours the defendants and the application for an injunction is denied,” Justice McMurtry wrote in her decision.
