Today, West Coast LEAF is in the BC Supreme Court as an intervener in the review of the Law Society of BC’s decision to deny the accreditation of a proposed law school at Trinity Western University.
West Coast LEAF asserts that the Law Society’s decision to deny accreditation is consistent with equality rights; BC law schools must be accessible to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, marital status or gender.
If you’ve followed our involvement so far, you will know that West Coast LEAF is the only intervener arguing that TWU’s Community Covenant leads to differential treatment on the basis of sex. Significantly, we argue that the Covenant infringes on women’s reproductive freedom, including the constitutionally protected right to seek an abortion.
In our view, the university’s admission and regulatory policies violate equality protections and should therefore disqualify TWU from operating a law school to train future lawyers and judges in BC. A law school that is permitted to discriminate is not in the public interest.
The hearing is expected to continue through Friday, August 28.
Read more about the case (including our argument) here.