NEWS
4 Obiter Dicta
OUTlaws call on B.C. government to reverse
Trinity Western law degree approval
douglas judson › contributor
T
oday, the le a ders of Canada’s lesbian,
gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (“LGBTQ”)
law students wrote to the Honourable Amrik
Virk, British Columbia’s Minister of Advanced
Education, to request that he reverse his Ministry’s
approval of Trinity Western University’s (“TWU’s”)
law degrees.
TWU’s ‘Community Covenant Agreement’ prohibits sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage,
which discriminates against LGBTQ individuals. Earlier this year, the OUTlaws wrote to all provincial and territorial law societies, including the
Law Society of British Columbia (“LSBC”), outlining
their view that accrediting TWU is inconsistent with
Canadian law and public policy, the equality rights of
LGBTQ individuals under the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, and the obligation of the legal profession
to advance the cause of justice and protect the public
interest.
TWU’s law school has now been denied accreditation by law societies in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and
most recently, in British Columbia. The Law Society of
New Brunswick may soon follow suit.
A July 2014 letter from Minister Virk to TWU
indicates that the approval of the TWU degrees is
conditional on TWU’s law program securing the
accreditation of the LSBC. On October 30, the LSBC
held a binding vote of its members to determine this
question, where seventy-four per cent of the 8,039
ballots were cast in favour of a resolution stating that
TWU is not an approved law faculty for the purpose of
the bar admissions requirements in British Columbia.
Accordingly, the LSBC benchers rescinded TWU’s
accreditation on October 31.
Minister Virk had originally hastily approved the
TWU degrees in December 2013. His announcement
came the day after the Federation of Law Societies of
Canada (“FLSC”) recommended that their provincial
and territorial members accredit the school. A key
finding of the FLSC’s review was the absence of evidence of discrimination by TWU, even though there
was no opportunity for anyone to present such evidence. The Minister’s approval of the degree program
also ignored an expert panel’s “serious reservations”
about the proposed law school’s academic freedom,
the breadth of its world view, its ability to teach legal
skills, and its course quality.
In their message to the Minister, the OUTlaws
state, “Although it should never have been necessary
to do so, your Ministry can now rely on the numerous
regulators, academics, and legal authorities that have
consistently rejected TWU’s position on this issue.”
The OUTlaws request a reversal of the Minister’s
earlier decision that will align with both his statutory
mandate under the Degree Authorization Act and his
obligation to support the equality rights of LGBTQ
individuals.
The OUTlaws are a network of affinity groups for
LGBTQ and Ally students. There are chapters at fifteen of Canada’s law schools. The groups at Osgoode
Hall Law School and the law schools at the University
of Toronto, Queen’s University, and the University
of Windsor are intervening in TWU’s application for
judicial review of Ontario law society’s decision not
to accredit TWU’s law program. u
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