Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: August 23, 2021 05:15PM
Here's an article (from June 2018) on the Supreme Court decision on the Trinity Western case:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trinity-western-supreme-court-decision-1.4707240Bottom Line: They didn't get their law school due to mandating sex only between people who are married to each other and they specified "a man and a woman" which the SCC found to be discriminatory (in view of the fact that SS marriage has been legal in BC since 2005).
The university has a "mandatory covenant" that seeks to control students' choices in their private life. This was the problematic area the Supreme Court zeroed in on.
Excerpts from the article:
"The mandatory covenant binds students to a strict code of conduct that includes abstinence from sex outside of heterosexual marriage.
"The majority judgment said the covenant would deter LGBT students from attending the proposed law school, and those who did attend would be at risk of significant harm.
"It found the public interest of the law profession gives it the right to promote equality by ensuring equal access, support diversity within the bar and prevent harm to LGBT students.
"The university's mandatory comprehensive covenant agreement requires that all students and faculty pursue a holy life "characterized by humility, self-sacrifice, mercy and justice, and mutual submission for the good of others." It requires members to abstain from using vulgar language, lying or cheating, stealing, using degrading materials such as pornography, and "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman."
"While that rule effectively bars anyone who is unmarried from having sexual relations, it's the reference to "man and a woman" that is considered discriminatory against LGBT people. Same-sex marriage became legal in Canada in 2005.
"Janet Epp Buckingham, a TWU professor who helped develop the law school proposal, said she was saddened by the ruling.
"We feel that this is a loss for diversity in Canada," she said. "Canada has traditionally upheld values of diversity for a broad array of religious views. So we're very disappointed in the way the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled today."
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One suggestion Buckingham made that may find a way around the SCC ruling against establishing the law school at the U is to do away with the mandatory covenant.
That would seem to be a reasonable step all the way 'round.
There's always the thought about why a person would want to go to a Christian-based university that doesn't align with one's private life choices. But that's a different question. It would be good, though, if they could just leave private stuff private.