Concerns over proposed law school in Langley
Posted January 17, 2013 5:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – Deans of Canadian law schools say they are worried about a private Christian university in Langley looking to open a law school in 2015.
The concern is the possibility of discrimination at Trinity Western University, according to Bill Flannigan Dean of Law at Queens University.
“We’ve expressed our concerns about the Community Covenant Agreement that requires abstinence, and I’m quoting, ‘from sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.’ So in our view this specifically contemplates the discrimination between gay and lesbian students. It is very troubling.”
He says what is viewed as the school contract would be un-lawful in any public institution.
“But the question here is that this is a private, religious institution exempt from the BC Human Rights Code…but nonetheless it’s still inconsistent with the core values of any Canadian law school. We wanted to register our concern with that,” explains Flannigan.
Trinity Western University President Jonathan Raymond says there is no problem here. “We’ve crafted a curriculum that focuses on law as a service profession, especially serving small firms in small communities.”
He says a conventional law curriculum would be taught with a greater focus on social justice. “The law curriculum doesn’t include religion, but certainly there is an open-ness and a safe setting to talk about values.”
A formal complaint has been written to the Federation of Law Societies to see if the school meets requirements for graduates to be called to the bar.
