Little League Baseball Canada has struck out with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, losing a sex discrimination case filed by a Victoria girls softball team denied funding to a national championship.

The tribunal has ordered the league to pay $1,000 each to 13 members of the Beacon Hill Little League Major Girls softball team for refusing to fund the team's trip to the national championship in Windsor, Ont.

The league paid the way for a B.C. boys team to travel to its national championship in Ontario.

In a 74-page decision, tribunal member Marlene Tyshynski found the league had engaged in discriminatory conduct against team of 11- and 12-year-old girls in 2005.

The girls eventually raised the money themselves through fundraisers and anonymous donations and attended the tournament. They won the tournament and went on to represent Canada at an international tournament in Portland, Ore.

"I find that every team member suffered an injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect due to the discriminatory conduct of the Little League," said Tyshynski's ruling.

"I have determined that the impact of the (travel) policy on the team gives rise to a prima facie case of sex-based discrimination that impedes the team's full and free participation in the social and cultural life of British Columbia."

Gary Law, who was president of Beacon Hill Little League in 2005, testified on behalf of the girls at last year's tribunal hearings.

He said Tuesday he is a former player and life-long supporter of little league but the Victoria situation needed to be addressed.

"Did we want to do this? No," he said.

"But one decision they make doesn't make the program bad, it makes one decision bad."

He said the team, and the local league, had to challenge the decision.

Law said public support for the team was overwhelming in 2005.

"Within four or five days the general public came through and kicked in probably $20,000 to $22,000 in donations," he said. "The public support was unbelievable. Local companies would come to a practise that we had with a box of bars and a thousand dollar cheque saying, `we want to help out."'

Tyshynski said the league showed disregard for the impact its travel policy could have on female players and noted that some of the players told the tribunal they felt stress and concern about not being able to have enough money to attend the tournament.

Tyshynski also noted the league also had a surplus of almost $210,000 in 2005.

Little League Baseball Canada took another strike earlier this week from the tax man when the Canada Revenue Agency stripped the league of its status as a registered athletic association and the right to provide donors with receipts for income tax purposes.

"We're disappointed," said an official in the league's Ottawa headquarters about the two recent calls against them.

The official, who did not want to be named, said the league is reviewing the human rights ruling.

The league official referred further comment to president Roy Bergerman, who is away from the office until next week.

Little League officials argued unsuccessfully that the boys' tournament was an officially sanctioned event while the girls' championship was an invitational contest, not covered by the travel fund.

In addition to the cash award for injury to the girls' dignity, the tribunal ordered the league to overhaul its travel policy to prevent similar complaints in future.

On Monday, the Canada Revenue Agency stripped the league of its status as a registered athletic association, meaning the league can no longer provide receipts to donors for income tax purposes.

According to the revenue agency, the minor league ball association issued more than $82 million in receipts for what the government calls "abusive transactions arising from its role as a participant in a tax shelter arrangement."

The donations, in the opinion of Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, "do not qualify as gifts."

In a statement issued Monday, Bergerman acknowledged the league ran a tax-shelter scheme but said it had been cleared by tax experts and previous government audits.

He said the decision by the Canada Revenue Agency, "has upset our volunteers across the country" and noted the ruling is being challenged by donors.

The organization, which has only two full-time employees, oversees about 10 per cent of the 400,000-plus recreational baseball and softball players in Canada.

With files from The Canadian Press