Catholic boards take part in Trinity Western case

Alberta Catholic school boards and their counterparts in Ontario and Saskatchewan are interveners in a case bound for the Supreme Court involving a B.C. private Christian liberal arts university that pits religious freedom against equality rights.

The move prompted Alberta Education Minister David Eggen to say school boards should be spending public education dollars in schools, and not on litigation.

“I recognize how they would be concerned, but I would caution any school board to make sure they’re spending money in the classroom as much as they can,” Eggen told reporters Monday.

While seeking assurance of accreditation for future law school graduates, Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., has battled law societies in B.C., Ontario and Nova Scotia that object to the school’s code of conduct.

Trinity Western’s “community covenant” requires students to abstain from obscene language, harassment, lying, stealing, pornography, drunkenness and sexual intimacy “that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

Advocates say that discriminates against LGBTQ students.

In a factum filed with the Supreme Court in September, a “coalition” of five Catholic school board organizations — including the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association (ACSTA) — say there are “troubling implications” of organizations refusing to accredit graduates on the basis of religion.

“For the coalition to maintain the Catholic education system and preserve Catholic identity, schools must have the ability to educate students in an environment that is consistent with their faith, which includes the determination of policy and admission,” the factum said.

Edmonton-area parent Luke Fevin, the founder of Alberta Parents for Unbiased Public Inclusive Learning, released documents Monday showing ACSTA in February approved drawing money from its reserves to support the intervener application.

Catholic school boards use provincial K-12 public funding to pay membership fees to ACSTA. Fevin said that money “shouldn’t be anywhere near this court case.”

ACSTA president Adriana LaGrange on Monday called Fevin’s complaints a “witch hunt,” and wouldn’t comment further on the organization’s involvement with the case, or say how much it has spent on it.