Trinity Western loses supreme court case; law societies can deny accreditation

[SebC]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trin...sion-1.4707240

A B.C. Christian university has lost its legal battle over accreditation for a planned new law school, with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling today saying it's "proportionate and reasonable" to limit religious rights in order to ensure open access for LGBT students.


In a pair of 7-2 rulings, the majority of justices found the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario have the power to refuse accreditation based on Trinity Western University's so-called community covenant.


The mandatory covenant binds students to a strict code of conduct that includes abstinence from sex outside of heterosexual marriage.

[Locke]

Abstinence from sex outside of heterosexual marriage?

What year is it?

Who wants to go to a College where they legislate whether or not you can have sex or who you can have it with?

That is way outside the bounds of their authority.

[Cole436]

I'm so happy this is the ruling.

My ex is a Trinity grad (and now a lawyer), and the stories she would tell me about that campus were blood boiling.

Their covenant bond is horrendous, discriminatory and dehumanizing. There's a reason the student population is primarily white, evangelical Americans. The politics and culture of a campus which encourages discrimination is no place for a law school.

The SCC got this right, and sets a strong precedent.

Now from what I remember about this conversation, this will allow for similar challenges in the rest of the provinces and we'll see accreditation denied in the remaining 8 provinces.

[blankall]

Good.

[CaptainCrunch]

So dumb question, will this ruling allow students from Trinity to transfer and take their credits with them to another school?

[Violator]

Kind of surprised most of the people would not be very faithful to those vows. Im guessing they wanted to stick to there guns and keep the financial contributions coming in.Alot of people from my high-school went to Trinity.The place is out in the middle of nowhere strange place to build that big of a campus.

[FlamesAddiction]

I can understand why a law society would deny accreditation to a program in a school that has a covenant that goes against secular legal principles, so I have no issue with the decision. It is completely rational.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a private school having a covenant though. The school exists for a very specific religious group and would be an odd place for anyone who doesn't already want to follow that covenant, to decide to go to school. There are similar or better schools that do not have stupid covenants.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

The school exists for a very specific religious group and would be an odd place for anyone who doesn't already want to follow that covenant, to decide to go to school. There are similar or better schools that do not have stupid covenants.

Maybe they have a lower academic bar for entry, or you live with your parents in Langley and would struggle to afford residence.

[Cole436]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

So dumb question, will this ruling allow students from Trinity to transfer and take their credits with them to another school?

This has no impact on their undergrads applying to law schools. This is solely preventing them from opening up their own accredited law school.

Originally Posted by SebC

Maybe they have a lower academic bar for entry, or you live with your parents in Langley and would struggle to afford residence.

It's actually the most expensive University in all of Canada, if I remember correctly, as it's not government subsidized. I believe my ex's cost per year for her undergrad was close to $30,000.

[Locke]

Law should be Law and completely separate from Religion.

Sharia or Christian or whatever, Law should not be tied to religion.

The concept of a completely Christian Lawyer is almost hilarious. What're they going to do? Be ethical? Thats leaving them preposterously unprepared for the real world.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Locke

Law should be Law and completely separate from Religion.

Sharia or Christian or whatever, Law should not be tied to religion.

The concept of a completely Christian Lawyer is almost hilarious. What're they going to do? Be ethical? Thats leaving them preposterously unprepared for the real world.

You're saying an ethical lawyer can't succeed?

I disagree. I know a couple with high principles who are hugely successful.

[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Locke

Law should be Law and completely separate from Religion.

Sharia or Christian or whatever, Law should not be tied to religion.

The concept of a completely Christian Lawyer is almost hilarious. What're they going to do? Be ethical? Thats leaving them preposterously unprepared for the real world.

What does being a Christian have anything to do with being ethical?

[Two Fivenagame]

Originally Posted by John Doe

What does being a Christian have anything to do with being ethical?

It has everything to do with being ethical. Don't you know that ethics and morality are the exclusive domain of christianity and all their imaginary friends?


So happy for this ruling.

Now if only the government would realize that church and catholic school are the same thing and only ONE needs to be funded/subsidized.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by John Doe

What does being a Christian have anything to do with being ethical?

This ruling was, effectively, a judgment that TWUs interpretation of Christianity is unethical.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by blankall

Good.

Ditto.


The church we went to years and years ago has their Sunday church bulletins on line. They've had this as a prayer request since it went to court:




Wondered if they'd updated - yep:

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by SebC

This ruling was, effectively, a judgment that TWUs interpretation of Christianity is unethical.

Say what? It was nothing of the sort.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Cole436

...My ex is a Trinity grad (and now a lawyer), and the stories she would tell me about that campus were blood boiling...

I am not sure what years your ex attended TWU, but as someone who has been a faculty member off-and-on for the better part of the past twenty years—and who has worked at a handful of other state universities in Europe—the campus life is not altogether much different.

Their covenant bond is horrendous, discriminatory and dehumanizing. There's a reason the student population is primarily white, evangelical Americans. The politics and culture of a campus which encourages discrimination is no place for a law school...

Well this is patently false—at least insofar as the student body compares to most other Canadian universities. There has actually been a sharp increase in the number of Chinese, and Korean students in my time at TWU, and there is a burgeoning group of Muslim students every year.

I also fail to see what is "horrendous" about a voluntary commitment of students and faculty members to abstain from certain practices. For the vast majority of mostly Christian students the community standards agreement is already an echo of basic Christian principles about sexuality and marriage.

FYI, as a current faculty member I am not at all bothered by the SCC decision. The last thing this country needs is yet another law school—especially one that specialises in "Evangelical" values.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

Say what? It was nothing of the sort.

If their obviously religiously-motivated covenant (confirmed by them defending it as freedom of religion) wasn't discriminatory (i.e. unethical) they would've won their case.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by SebC

If their obviously religiously-motivated covenant (confirmed by them defending it as freedom of religion) wasn't discriminatory (i.e. unethical) they would've won their case.

That's a very odd interpretation of the judgment. It wasn't an indictment by the SCC or the LSBC or anybody else on TWU's "interpretation of Christianity" at all. In a nutshell, it was two principles going head to head - religious freedom versus the LSBC's election to deny accreditation to TWU's proposed law school for reasons to uphold and protect the public interest. That public interest was purported to create inequitable barriers against (predominantly) the LGBTQ community. The ethics of the covenant were not at issue at all.

[Resolute 14]

I think a more relevant concern here is why six provinces - including Alberta - have granted accreditation to this school.