Student sexual ‘covenant’ dropped

Top court cited requirement as problematic

A Christian university in British Columbia that lost a Supreme Court battle to create an evangelical law school has dropped its controversial requirement for all students to sign a contract that forbids any sex outside heterosexual marriage.

Many observers, including some who intervened in the court case, saw this as a preliminary step toward a renewed push for an accredited law school. Trinity Western University, in Langley outside Vancouver, first announced plans to offer legal degrees in 2012, only to find itself locked in litigation with law societies in Ontario and B.C., which refused to accredit it.

The school’s new motion, passed last week but only released Tuesday, reads: “In furtherance of our desire to maintain TWU as a thriving community of Christian believers that is inclusive of all students wishing to learn from a Christian viewpoint and underlying philosophy, the Community Covenant will no longer be mandatory as of the 2018-19 Academic year with respect to admission of students to, or continuation of students at, the University.”

The decision removes the primary problem considered by the Supreme Court in its June decision, which was the mandatory nature of the “Community Covenant.” The court found the Law Society of Ontario’s refusal to accredit the school “represents a proportionate balance” between freedom of religion and the law society’s own statutory goals, which include “equal access to the legal profession, diversity within the bar, and preventing harm to LGBTQ law students.”

Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General on Tuesday directed questions on possible future law school accreditation to the Law Society of Ontario, which said it is “premature to speculate.”

TWU president Bob Kuhn said the move is an effort to signal to the wider community, including potential students, that it does not discriminate against LGBTQ students or others. He said it was “not about the law school.”

“It’s meant to say that nothing that’s been discussed over the past few years during the law school battle should make anyone feel unwelcome,” he said.

“The theological, biblically based definition of marriage (hasn’t) changed, in our perspective. That continues to be something we adhere to as a principle. It’s a question of application, and the application of that principle to students or prospective students.

“And (this policy change) is to clarify the fact that we will not discriminate … no matter how that’s defined, with respect to LGBTQ (people) or people of other faiths. But that perspective has not necessarily been the one that’s been understood by much of the public, or in fact, perhaps, some students, who would otherwise find Trinity Western a very welcoming and inclusive place,” he said.

“I think it’s long overdue,” said Cam Thiessen, who dropped out of TWU’s Masters program in biblical studies last year.

He never actually signed the covenant because he objected to a school trying to control the sexual lives of its students, and the “blatant homophobia” of its language. “I just kind of ignored them,” he said. “No one came for me and I got my credits.”

Thiessen, who now identifies as non-binary and bisexual, said it was frustrating to see so much money from donations being used to fund a legal battle that so many of its students regarded as unnecessary.

Richard Moon, a law professor at the University of Windsor and an expert on religious freedom, said he expects the law societies that declined to accredit TWU will now move to accredit, if asked again. But he noted that the sexual morality covenant was not the only source of constitutional trouble.

The Supreme Court only decided that it was not unreasonable for the law societies to refuse to accredit based on the mandatory morality covenant. There are other ways a Christian law school could discriminate, Moon said.

The school was proposed as a place to make Christian lawyers from Christian students who do not feel comfortable in secular law schools.

Preserving that status will require a way to “favour Evangelical students and, in effect, disfavour non-Evangelicals,” Moon said.