Straight Talk

Ontario court upholds law society's refusal to accredit Christian law school

by Craig Takeuchi on July 3rd, 2015 at 1:35 PM
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      A proposed controversial B.C.–based Christian law school has hit another setback.

      An Ontario court has upheld the Ontario law society's decision to deny accreditation of B.C. Trinity Western University's law school.

      The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that although the April 2014 decision by the Law Society of Upper Canada infringed upon the right to religious freedom, it also found the university's controversial covenant, which bans sexual relations outside of opposite-sex marriage, discriminatory.

      TWU spokesperson Guy Saffold stated in a news release that the decision "points a knife at the freedom of faith communities across Canada to hold and practice their beliefs.”

      TWU is seeking to appeal the decision.

      The B.C. law society voted to reverse accreditation of the law school in October 2014 and the B.C. government rescinded approval in December 2014. TWU is taking the B.C. law society to court for revoking its approval.

      Meanwhile, Nova Scotia's Supreme Court ruled in January that its province's law society cannot deny the school accreditation. The law society is appealing the decision.

      You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at twitter.com/cinecraig. You can also follow the Straight's LGBT coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/StraightLGBT.
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      Craig Takeuchi

      @Cinecraig

      The urban beastie otherwise known as Craig Takeuchi is a UBC BA (art history/film studies) and MFA (Creative Writing program, with a screenplay thesis) graduate who has had his fiction and non-fiction work published in numerous local and national publications. He's covered a wide range of topics...

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      Comments

      3 Comments

      Huh?

      Jul 3, 2015 at 3:06pm

      Not to worry, this stupid decision WILL be overturned by the Highest court in the land. Law society's should only rule on whether someone's education is enough. They should stay out of the business of moral and social standards.

      @Huh?

      Jul 3, 2015 at 4:19pm

      Agreed.

      It's really scary how these neo-fascists operate. And it's really upsetting to me because I am fully supportive of homosexual rights---but I am not a "single issue" type, I believe in a moderate view that respects freedom of contract, too.

      And as I have said consistently on this issue, all schools impose "codes of conduct" beyond what the provincial/federal/municipal bodies have promulgated for the region that the school exists in. If the neofascists were against this, I would be supportive, but they're not. They want a code of conduct that, for example, forbids students from saying something sounds "gay," even tho such is not criminal and at most represents a potential legal liability for the school, mostly because they won't stand up for freedom of expression and have taught generations of lawyers that there is no freedom of speech.

      hey!!!!

      Jul 4, 2015 at 10:35pm

      How did the nursing school get away with this convanent?