Trinity Western law school accreditation denial upheld by Ontario court

An Ontario court has upheld the Ontario law society'srefusal to accredit a B.C. Christian university's yet-to-open lawschool.

Trinity Western University had asked the Divisional Court inOntario for a judicial review of the Law Society of Upper Canada'sdecision, but the court dismissed the application Thursday.

The university's covenant forbids sexual intimacy outsideheterosexual marriage, which has led to similar legal battles forthe university in other provinces.

The cases pit religious freedoms against same-sex equalityrights, with each side saying one is discriminating against theother.

Three judges wrote that the law society's decision to denyaccreditation carefully weighed the school's right to freedom ofreligion versus the students' rights to equal opportunity.

"We conclude that the respondent did engage in a proportionatebalancing of the charter rights that were engaged by its decisionand its decision cannot, therefore, be found to be unreasonable,"the judges wrote.

The key component of the case involved the university's covenantthat includes requiring students to abstain from gossip, obscenelanguage, prejudice, harassment, lying, cheating, stealing,pornography, drunkenness and sexual intimacy "that violates thesacredness of marriage between a man and a woman."

The judges slammed the nature of the covenant, calling itdiscriminatory despite the university's statements it is an open andaccepting school.

'Points a knife at the freedom of faith'

"Individuals who may not believe in marriage, or LGBTQ persons,may attend (Trinity) but they must first sign the community covenantand thus, in essence, disavow not only their beliefs but, in thecase of LGBTQ individuals, their very identity," the court said.

"To assert that that result is not, at its core, discriminatoryis to turn a blind eye to the true impact and effect of thecommunity covenant."

The law society said it is pleased with the court's decision.

The university can still open a law school, but its graduateswouldn't be eligible to be called to the bar in Ontario.

Trinity Western said it will appeal the Ontario court's decision.

The decision "points a knife at the freedom of faith communitiesacross Canada to hold and practise their beliefs," said GuySaffold, a spokesman for Trinity Western.

In British Columbia, the B.C. Law Society voted not to recognizethe university's law school graduates and the provincial governmentrevoked its support for the proposed law school.

The school recently won a similar case in Nova Scotia, where acourt stopped that province's law society from denying theuniversity accreditation, although the decision is now beingappealed.