Canadian top court denies religious freedom to Christian law school

Jun 16, 2018 by Jill

from ADF International:

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada dealt a major blow to religious freedom and freedom of association, ruling that law societies in Canada may deny accreditation to a Christian law school. The judgment comes after a long legal battle in several provinces. Trinity Western University’s law school asks students and faculty to follow its “Community Covenant” based on biblical views of appropriate sexual behaviour on campus. This covenant was deemed discriminatory by some law societies, leading to a denial of accreditation.

“The Supreme Court of Canada has abandoned the promise of freedom that led to the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 36 years ago. Individuals will need to turn to their legislators to protect freedom of religion”, said Gerald Chipeur, Q.C. of the Canadian firm Miller Thompson, LLP, and one of more than 3,000 lawyers allied with ADF International.

Two justices, Russell Brown and Suzanne Côté, dissented, expressing the view that “legislatively accommodated and Charter-protected religious practices, once exercised, cannot be cited by a state-actor as a reason justifying the exclusion of a religious community from public recognition. Approval of [Trinity Western University’s] proposed law school would not represent a state preference for evangelical Christianity, but rather a recognition of the state’s duty—which [the law society of British Columbia] failed to observe—to accommodate diverse religious beliefs without scrutinizing their content.”

Read here

Trinity Western decision: the beginning of the end of public Christianity, Anglican Samizdat