Category: Trinity Western University

Ontario Law Society won't accredit TWU; BC Law Society Has to Reconsider

4/25/2014

The Ontario Law Society has decided it will NOT accredit graduates from TWU, the law school in BC which requires students and staff to sign a covenant that includes requiring them to abstain from gossip, obscene language, prejudice, harassment, lying, cheating, stealing, pornography, drunkenness and sexual intimacy “that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman". (That is: no gay sex,married or not).
Nova Scotia's law society considers the issue today.
B.C.'s law society voted in favour of accrediting TWU graduates this month, but that fight is not over. Lawyers have petitioned to have the matter reconsidered at a special meeting of the entire profession. The petition required 600 signatures; Michael Mulligan, the lawyer organizing the petition, says there are over 1300 signatures so far.
TWU was granted accreditation by the Federation of Law Societies but still requires the individual approval of each provincial law society. TWU expects to open in 2016.

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TWU is only for PLU...

2/24/2014

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TWU is only for PLU...people like us.

Trinity Western University is a Christian-based university in Langley, B.C.

It has stirred a storm of controversy with its proposal to launch a law school.

Why? Because its faculty, staff and students have to sign a contract agreeing not to have sex except if they are in a heterosexual marriage.

Sounds discriminatory? Absolutely. Straight people can have sex, as long as they are married; queers cannot have sex, even if they are married.

Queers are not the only target.

Prospective students must also agree to respect life "from conception to death"; not drink, do drugs, or smoke cigarettes on campus; and to chose only entertainment which is in accordance with biblical priorities.

Leaving aside for a moment the interesting question of how TWU would enforce such rules, the question is: Can they do that??? In a law school???

The answer, so far, is yes.

The Federation of Law Societies, the national certification body, has approved the TWU application to host a law school despite its discrimination against queers.
The school relies on freedom of religion as a defence.

Some people think that no one should ever be allowed to rely on 'freedom of religion'. In Quebec, the bill currently before the provincial legislature goes further and says that people in public service cannot wear religious items. I vigorously disagree with the Quebec approach, which I think is code for discriminating against (in particular) Muslim women.
But I equally vigorously disagree that an educational institution which is teaching prospective lawyers about the rule of law, including the constitutional requirement of freedom from discrimination, should be able to discriminate against students who want to study there.

The Globe and Mail also disagrees. Read their editorial on the subject.
The fight is not over. Despite the approval by the Federation of Law Societies, several province's law societies are considering how to deal with the issue, B.C. among them.

What do you think?

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The Pace of Change in the U.S. of A.

2/21/2014

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Change is speeding up in the U.S.
Same sex marriage is now legal in 17 states and the District of Washington. SEVENTEEN STATES!
The homophobic opposition is now trying a new strategy, of legislating protection for anyone who, on the basis of their religion, discriminates against queers. Freedom of religion trumping the right to equality and freedom from discrimination.
But this week, lawmakers in Idaho, Kansas, South Dakota and Tennessee either voted down, blocked, or backtracked those legalizing-discrimination laws in their states.
Canada is wrestling with this problem in the form of approval for a law school at Trinity Western University. TWU requires its faculty staff and students to sign a pledge which, among other things, requires students to refrain from sex except in a (you guessed it) heterosexual marriage, effectively making homophobia a foundational principal of the law school. The question is whether such a law school should be entitled to operate.

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Ontario Law Society won't accredit TWU; BC Law Society Has to Reconsider

TWU is only for PLU...

The Pace of Change in the U.S. of A.

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