Trinity Western is an evangelical community that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. That position is hardly radical. It is the teaching of the Catholic Church and many other Christian and non-Christian religions. It was the law in Canada until 2005 and remains the law across most of North America. Yet Ontario’s 200-year-old legal regulatory body has decreed that Trinity Western law students who willingly sign a covenant which affirms the biblical definition of marriage are banned from practising law in Canada’s largest province. It is a shameful decision.
No one is asking the law society to endorse Trinity Western’s beliefs. But lawyers of all people should demonstrate respect and tolerance for widely held religious views, and never resort to what the university president calls “institutional bullying.” The practice of law is often about arguments and persuasion. One reason Canada has same-sex marriage is that lawyers successfully advocated for reform. Now these reformers are slamming the door on future generations of Christian lawyers who might argue against them. It’s shabby.
For Trinity Western, its position on marriage reflects a sincerely held religious belief. As such, those who profess that belief are protected from discrimination by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That leads to questions about whether the law society’s decision could withstand a court challenge. But beyond that iffy legal position, their heavy-handed tactics are distasteful.
Trinity Western intends to open its law school in 2016. It has received conditional approval from the B.C. government, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the Law Society of British Columbia. That doesn’t mean those bodies endorse the school’s community covenant on moral conduct, but they respect the institution’s right to proclaim religious beliefs and to promote them on campus. That is how it should be.
Society’s views have evolved on many social issues, but that evolution doesn’t invalidate Charter guarantees on religious freedom. It’s wrong to try to fix one perceived injustice by replacing it with another. That’s what happened here. The decision of the law society is tantamount to denying some students a career because of their faith.
Trinity Western University president Bob Khun said the ruling would have a “chilling effect” on Christians. But, actually, this type of ham-fisted dictate should give all of society the chills.