{"id":185573,"date":"2017-01-09T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irpp-policy-options.local\/issues\/trinity-western-university-and-the-erosion-of-religious-freedom\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T04:24:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:24:54","slug":"trinity-western-university-and-the-erosion-of-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/potestlaunch.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/01\/trinity-western-university-and-the-erosion-of-religious-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Trinity Western University and the erosion of religious freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent decision<\/a> by British Columbia\u2019s highest court to protect the right of Trinity Western University<\/a> to operate a law school was the last of the provincial judicial rulings in this legal dispute. A decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, however, may prove to be Trinity\u2019s ultimate undoing \u2014 and that would be a shame.<\/p>\n

The private Christian university in British Columbia wants to open a law school. Citing the public interest, the regulators of the legal profession in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia refused to license Trinity\u2019s law graduates because of a clause in the Community in Covenant agreement<\/a> that all Trinity students must sign. The clause prohibits \u201csexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.\u201d The dispute boils down to a delicate balancing act under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms between Trinity\u2019s religious freedom and the equality rights of LGBTQ persons who might want to study law at Trinity.<\/p>\n

Trinity has won in Nova Scotia and British Columbia but has lost in Ontario. The Nova Scotia Barristers\u2019 Society will not appeal to the Supreme Court, but Trinity intends to appeal the Ontario decision and the Law Society of British Columbia will appeal its defeat. The dispute seems destined for Canada\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n

A loss there would likely put other degree programs at Trinity at risk, starting with education and nursing. These programs too implicate a public regulator that accredits degree programs on the basis of which graduates may be licensed to work in these fields. How will these programs escape a ruling against Trinity\u2019s law school? In British Columbia, the public regulators of these professions must carry out their mandate with the public interest in mind.<\/p>\n

(Such an outcome would effectively overturn a 2001 decision<\/a> by the Supreme Court upholding Trinity\u2019s education program. That decision resolved a legal dispute over essentially the same clause that is at issue in the law school litigation.)<\/p>\n

But why stop at degrees that implicate a public regulator? If Trinity\u2019s law school is denied because a law degree must be offered without regard to a student\u2019s sexual orientation, why should it matter that the degree is in law, history, biology or business? To say that the sexual intimacy clause can continue to apply to programs at Trinity other than law mistakenly puts legal education on a pedestal above other academic disciplines.<\/p>\n

Aside from the loss of a reputable institution with 24,000 alumni, Trinity\u2019s demise would mark a significant dilution of freedom of religion and association in Canada. What does it mean if a private, self-funded, faith-based university cannot maintain a campus environment that reflects its faith through a code of conduct accepted by its students? It means that these fundamental freedoms (as the Charter terms them) are anything but fundamental.<\/p>\n

Trinity is not merely a university. It is first and foremost a community of faith. And the covenant is not just a code of conduct. The five-page document is, in many respects, a profession of faith. It is no secret that Trinity has a target audience. Trinity exists for this audience. As the Supreme Court noted in the 2001 decision, Trinity \u201cis not for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, individuals who don\u2019t share Trinity\u2019s worldview usually don\u2019t join this community. Opponents of Trinity\u2019s law school reject this approach. They demand that Trinity abandon an aspect of its worldview that makes attending Trinity unpalatable to them. The wish of LGBTQ persons for inclusion springs from a painful history of exclusion, but granting their wish in this case would mean not\u00a0 striking a proper balance with the other interests at stake. They are asking Trinity to fundamentally alter its identity to accommodate theirs. While the same charge could be laid against Trinity vis-\u00e0-vis LGBTQ students who might wish to study there, the crucial difference is that attending Trinity is a choice \u2014 for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, religion or any other identity-conferring characteristic.<\/p>\n

Silencing expressions of fundamental rights that offend some is a way to avoid the messiness of a diverse, democratic society, but it makes a society less free by eroding rights and less democratic by stifling principled debate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Silencing expressions of fundamental rights that offend some \u2014 or even the majority \u2014 is a way to avoid the messiness of a diverse, democratic society. It may even feel right if you are one of the offended. But this approach makes a society less free by eroding the rights behind these expressions, and less democratic by imposing views and stifling principled debate.<\/p>\n

As British Columbia\u2019s highest court pointed out, suppressing viewpoints with which we disagree or that we find offensive in the name of tolerance and liberalism is a contradiction in terms. The fate of Trinity\u2019s law school (and possibly Trinity itself) depends on the sincerity of our commitment to accommodate difference \u2013 even\u00a0when most of us passionately oppose the difference that seeks accommodation. This commitment is, for better or for worse, a pillar of the \u201cfree and democratic society\u201d that the Charter declares Canada to be.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court rulings often have effects beyond the legal dispute at hand. This case is a prime example of this. Should the Court deny Trinity\u2019s law school, this may herald both the end of Trinity and a shift towards a society that is ultimately less free and less democratic.<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0Jonathan Hayward\/The Canadian Press<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent decision by British Columbia\u2019s highest court to protect the right of Trinity Western University to operate a law school was the last of the provincial judicial rulings in this legal dispute. A decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, however, may prove to be Trinity\u2019s ultimate undoing \u2014 and that would be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37974,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[9381,9359,9372],"tags":[8634,8728],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4209,4246],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7045,7167],"class_list":["post-185573","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-fr","category-loi-droits","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-religion-fr","tag-universites","irpp-category-education","irpp-category-law-and-justice","irpp-tag-religion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrinity Western University and the erosion of religious freedom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Supreme Court decision against the Trinity law school would be a dilution of the freedom of religion and association in Canada and could imperil the Christian 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