Trinity Western University will not be accredited as a law school whose graduates can practice in Ontario, an Ontario court decided today. The court upheld the decision of the Law Society of Upper Canada not to accredit TWU's law school because TWU has a mandatory covenant that discriminates against queers, holding that even though the law society's failure to certify its fundamentalist Christian law school was a breach of TWU's religious freedom, that religious freedom has to be balanced against the right of queers to be free from discrimination. The Law Society of Upper Canada properly balanced those rights.
TWU is a fundamentalist Christian University in Langley which requires its students to sign a covenant to refrain from sex outside of a heterosexual marriage. They are building a law school. But for the graduates of the law school to be entitled to practise law in a particular province, the law school must be accredited by the Law Society (governing body of lawyers) in that province.
Over the past couple of years, TWU has been seeking accreditation across the country. BC's Law Society governors initially approved TWU, but were forced to reverse their decision after the largest vote of lawyers in BC history overwhelmingly voted to overturn the decision of the governors because of the discriminatory covenant that students are required to sign. For details on the BC situation, go to the Law Society of BC website.
A Nova Scotia court, considering the same issue in that province, decided in favour of TWU, deciding that it was an impermissible infringement of TWU's religious freedom to refuse to accredit its law school The decision is here.
The Law Society of Upper Canada, the law society governing Ontario lawyers, refused to accredit TWU, again because of its discriminatory covenant.
TWU is suing - in BC, in Ontario, and elsewhere. Ontario is the first province to render a decision - and its a good one. Full text of the decision is available here._
TWU is a fundamentalist Christian University in Langley which requires its students to sign a covenant to refrain from sex outside of a heterosexual marriage. They are building a law school. But for the graduates of the law school to be entitled to practise law in a particular province, the law school must be accredited by the Law Society (governing body of lawyers) in that province.
Over the past couple of years, TWU has been seeking accreditation across the country. BC's Law Society governors initially approved TWU, but were forced to reverse their decision after the largest vote of lawyers in BC history overwhelmingly voted to overturn the decision of the governors because of the discriminatory covenant that students are required to sign. For details on the BC situation, go to the Law Society of BC website.
A Nova Scotia court, considering the same issue in that province, decided in favour of TWU, deciding that it was an impermissible infringement of TWU's religious freedom to refuse to accredit its law school The decision is here.
The Law Society of Upper Canada, the law society governing Ontario lawyers, refused to accredit TWU, again because of its discriminatory covenant.
TWU is suing - in BC, in Ontario, and elsewhere. Ontario is the first province to render a decision - and its a good one. Full text of the decision is available here._
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