Supreme folly

Re: Religious Freedom takes a smackdown, Chris Selley, June 16.

There are plenty of public law schools where I and others of the LGBTQ community can attend. Being unable to attend the private university Trinity Western and having sexual relations concurrently is such a trivial infringement of my rights that the court should have dismissed the whole matter. What next?

Taking the Roman Catholic Church to court for not giving homosexuality its full blessing. Whatever happened to live and let live? Our society is marching to the drum of a very rigid political correctness which can only lead to a nasty backlash one day in the future.

Let’s not go down that road. Let’s be more tolerant of diversity. Ted Mason, New Westminster, B.C. It seems to be that Canada is now becoming religiously intolerant of certain faith groups with the decision of the Supreme Court against Trinity Western University.

Christians have been targeted by not only the gay community but, now, by the very body that is deemed to protect the rights of all its citizens. The Supreme Court in its ruling against a Christian university is stating loud and clear that the rights of one group prevail against the rights of another group.

That is unacceptable to me as both a Christian and citizen of this country.

Trinity is known to be a Christian university with Christian values and traditions, so why is the Law Society of Upper Canada in Ontario making an issue of not accrediting graduates of Trinity because of their stand of Christian standards regarding marriage within the context of Christian lifestyle?

If anyone seems to be discriminating it is the Law Society not Trinity, even more so the Supreme Court of this nation.

No one is forced to attend Trinity or accept their code of conduct. Trinity has the right to establish its own guidelines and for the Ontario Law Society exclude those graduating from Trinity is indeed reverse discrimination — and this by a legal entity.

I abhor what the Supreme Court and the Law Society of Ontario have done, they need to have their respective jurists think again about the rights of all people in Canada and not favouring one group over another simply based on society’s acceptance of one group over the other. Regina Silva Robinson, Toronto Thank you Chris Selley for referencing the dissenting arguments of Justices Côté and Brown.

As they point out, the state is “constitutionally bound to accommodate difference in order to foster pluralism.” This case was about balancing freedoms.

TWU’S Law School, had it been permitted, would not have denied access to anyone of the LGBTQ community.

If they chose not to apply to that law school, they would still have had 97% of Canadian law student positions available to them.

Now TWU has had the 3% of law student positions denied to them.

A balance of freedoms? Edward Field, Duncan, B.C. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of the B.C. and Ontario law societies decision not to accredit TWU Law School graduates on the basis of TWU’S policy against LGBTQ lifestyles.

I eagerly await both law societies to now expunge their membership of all of those lawyers who came from other countries or universities that share TWU’S philosophy on the LGBTQ way of life. John P A Budreski, Vancouver Why will law societies in Canada accept graduates from law schools in the United States (after completing Canadian equivalence courses) from Brigham Young (Mormon) or any of the numerous Christian/denominational universities in the United States — many of whom have a similar, if not identical, Code of Conduct to Trinity Western University — yet certain provincial law society have chosen to reject graduates from TWU?

They have singled one Canadian school for something that they accept from foreign schools. Shameful. C. Rowe, Brockville, ON The cartoon in your June 16 edition is particularly disturbing, not only to those with religious beliefs but to all who are concerned for truth, fairness and decency.

It is well known that Trinity Western University does not ban gays, the university’s standard simply requires all students to adhere to biblical standards of sexual morality and this includes heterosexuals as well as homosexuals.

Moreover, just what grounds are there for the charge that the university does not care about the Charter of Rights? It would seem that label should be more accurately applied to the Supreme Court.

Rarely have I seen any organization or institution so falsely represented and attacked so viciously and unfairly as TWU, and it is distressing to find the National Post participating. Derek Frew, Vancouver

BEN NELMS FOR NATIONAL POST / FILES Several readers strongly disagree with the recent decision by the Supreme Court against Trinity Western University.