The Benchers of B.C.’s law society, who not long ago affirmed and defended Canada’s free society by recognizing the Trinity Western University (TWU) law school, have now voted to rescind their approval. Sadly, the majority of BC’s lawyers disagree that TWU law grads have a constitutional right to associate with each other under common values and aims, and to freely practice and live out their religious principles and doctrine.
This is a serious threat to our freedoms in Canada, which is why the Justice Centre has been relentless in its defence of freedom of association, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression, for TWU law grads, and for all Canadians.
The Justice Centre has been granted intervener status in the Ontario Superior Court’s hearing for Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada as well as in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, in Trinity Western University v. Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society The Justice Centre will be arguing for freedom of association in both court cases. The Nova Scotia case will be heard this December, and the Ontario case in January. In both court cases, the Law Society has ignored the fact that TWU is a private institution whose students and staff voluntarily choose to abide by a “Community Covenant,” which includes a commitment to abstain from sexual relations outside of the marriage of one man and one woman.
Judge Nordheimer of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice accepted the Justice Centre’s application for intervener status, noting that “the Justice Centre concentrates its submissions on the freedom of association issue as it pertains to any group that espouses views that may be unpopular or controversial,” noting the Justice Centre intervention as “valuable to the court hearing this matter.”
The Justice Centre will argue for the Charter section 2(d) right to freedom of association, which the Ontario and Nova Scotia law societies are violating by demanding, as a requirement of entering the legal profession, that law students abandon their freedom to associate with others at a Christian university that has a Community Covenant.
The decisions to be rendered by the courts in these cases will have a significant impact on the constitutional freedoms of all Canadians.
In September, the Justice Centre was granted intervener status in the Ontario Superior Court’s hearing for Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada. The Justice Centre will be arguing for freedom of association, which is under attack by the law societies of Ontario and Nova Scotia, and most recently, British Columbia.
In July, we were granted intervener status in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Trinity Western University v. Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. TWU was granted a judicial review of the April 2014 decision of the Barristers’ Society, that graduates of TWU law school cannot practice law in Nova Scotia because of TWU’s “Community Covenant”.
Justice Centre lawyers will argue that the Law Society and the Barristers’ Society violate Charter section 2(d) freedom of association rights by demanding, as a requirement of entering the legal profession in these provinces, that law students abandon their freedom to associate with others at a Christian university that has a Community Covenant.
These Court decisions will have a significant impact on the constitutional freedoms of all Canadians.
