On February 23, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal in Trinity Western University, et al. v Law Society of Upper Canada and in Law Society of British Columbia v Trinity Western, et al. The two cases will be heard together with a tentative hearing date set for November 30, 2017. This is a significant case of national importance because it concerns how to balance the right to freedom of religion and the right to equality under the Charter.
Trinity Western University (“TWU”) is a private evangelical university, which obliges its students and faculty to sign a community covenant that requires them to adhere to certain behavior, including abstaining from sexual intimacy outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. The governing bodies of lawyers in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia declined to accredit the TWU law school on the grounds that the community covenant is discriminatory.
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court decision that the Nova Scotia Barristers Society did not have jurisdiction to refuse accreditation; no appeal was taken from this decision. On June 29, 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the LSUC’s decision not to accredit TWU’s law school in Trinity Western University v The Law Society of Upper Canada. On November 2, 2016, the British Columbia Court of Appeal quashed the LSBC’s decision not to accredit TWU’s law in Trinity Western University v The Law Society of British Columbia. More detail on the Ontario Court of Appeal decision can be found in the article “Ongoing Conflicting Decisions in Trinity Western Cases” in our July/August 2016 Charity & NFP Law Update. More detail on the British Columbia Court of Appeal decision can be found in our Charity & NFP Law Bulletin no. 394.