Nova Scotia bar can’t block graduates of Christian law school

TRINITY WESTERN

missed an appeal from the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society fighting accreditation for graduates of Trinity Western University law school, which is under scrutiny for forbidding sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage.

The barrister’s society was also ordered to pay $35,000 in legal costs to the university, which welcomed the decision as a victory for freedom Tuesday. “This recognition of the importance of freedom is something that we should celebrate, whether we’re religious or not,” said Amy Robertson, a spokeswoman for the university.

Trinity Western’s plan to open a law school in Langley, B.C., has drawn criticism because students will be required to sign a “com- munity covenant,” or code of conduct. It includes requiring students to abstain from gossip, obscene language, prejudice, harassment, lying, cheating, stealing, pornography, drunkenness and sexual intimacy “that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

Law societies in Nova Scotia, Ontario and B.C. have all opposed granting accreditation to Trinity law graduates, sparking legal battles pitting freedom of religion against equality rights.

In April, 2014, the Nova Scotia barristers’ society amended its regulations to say the requirement represents unlawful discrimination against gays and lesbians. As a result, graduates of the law school would not be allowed to article or practise law in Nova Scotia.

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge later decided the law society exceeded its jurisdiction and said the move also amounted to an infringement on religious freedom.

The appeal court upheld that decision, saying the society did not have the authority to “issue rulings whether someone in British Columbia ‘unlawfully’ violated the Human Rights Act or the charter.”