TORONTO - Former Rogers Sportsnet host Damian Goddard is accustomed to talking into a camera. But with the lights temporarily shut off on his TV career he is looking forward to telling his story to a live audience.

Goddard will be a featured speaker at the Toronto Pro-Life Forum 2012 to be held June 15-16 at Hotel Novotel in Toronto.

Goddard was fired by Sportsnet, part of Rogers Media, in May 2011 after he tweeted support for hockey agent Todd Reynolds’s position against gay marriage. Rogers says the firing was unrelated to Goddard’s tweet. A year later, still seeking fulltime employment in the broadcast industry, Goddard stands behind his words.

TORONTO - The Catholic Civil Rights League is standing by the human rights appeal of Damian Goddard, a sports anchor fired for his Catholic views on traditional marriage.

Goddard, a former host of Connected on Rogers Sportsnet, plans to file a human rights complaint against his former employer, Rogers Communication Inc.

“Mr. Goddard’s case typifies a theme we hear all too often in other, lower-profile cases of workplace discrimination against people who do not support same-sex marriage on religious grounds,” said Joanne McGarry, league executive director. “We hope Damian’s case will establish that freedom of religion and conscience, protected by the Civil Marriage Act of 2005, were meant to be given a robust interpretation.”

Goddard posted comments in early May on his Twitter account supporting Burlington, Ont., hockey agent Todd Reynolds for criticizing the New York Rangers' Sean Avery who appeared in a TV ad for Human Right's Campaign's "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality Campaign" in support of same-sex marriage. (New York legalized same-sex marriage on June 24.)