Future grads not welcome in Ont.

TWU: Law society dislikes school’s sex policy

TORONTO — Graduates of a planned law school at Trinity Western University in Langley will not be allowed to practise in Ontario, that province’s law society decided Thursday.

TWU is a Christian university that forbids sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage. Many members of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s board of directors condemned the policy as “abhorrent,” though several said they would still vote in favour of allowing graduates to practise in Ontario.

Ultimately there were 28 votes against accreditation to 21 in favour.

TWU, which plans to open a law school in the fall of 2016, requires students to abide by a covenant that includes abstaining 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.”

Students can face discipline for violating the covenant, either on or off campus, according to the school’s student handbook.

University president Bob Kuhn appealed to the Law Society of Upper Canada to avoid penalizing his students for their beliefs, saying it would signal to millions of Canadians with religious views that they are “not welcome in the public marketplace.”

“The irony of the situation is that the assault on this small Christian community is being led by a powerful moral majority who seek to impose their views and enforce conformity and compliance on TWU as a price for entering the public arena,” Kuhn said.

Trinity Western says it will be the first Christian university in Canada to open a law school. It plans to enrol 60 students in the first year of the three-year program.

The law school has received preliminary approval from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, and earlier this month the Law Society of B.C.’s board voted to allow the school to proceed.

But a lawyer from Victoria has submitted a petition with 1,177 signatures asking the B.C. law society convene a special meeting to reconsider its approval.

Any resolution passed at that meeting would not be binding, but the law society has a process to call a general referendum if enough members make the request.