TWU makes Supreme case

A Christian university argues that civil liberties and religious freedom are at stake.

DOUG KOOP
CW Editor
— Ottawa —

Now comes the waiting. More than four years of legal wrangling culminated November 9 when lawyers acting on behalf of Trinity Western University (TWU) and the British Columbia College of Teachers (BCCT) presented arguments to the Supreme Court of Canada. A decision is not expected before next spring.

Headlines about the case reveal a clash of worldviews. “Christian values before Supreme Court,” states one. “Supreme Court of Canada hears challenge to evangelical university’s anti-gay policy,” replies another.

As an avowedly Christian institution, TWU expects students and faculty to conform to “community standards” that prohibit any extra-marital sexual relations. But according to the BCCT, the section requiring students to refrain from “homosexual behaviour” discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

The question surfaced as a legal issue in 1996 after the BCCT, the province’s accrediting agency, denied TWU’s application to fully certify its teacher education program. Although the school’s academic program had passed muster, the BCCT determined TWU’s policy on homosexuality to be “discriminatory” and “contrary to the public interest.” TWU executive vice president Guy Saffold describes the process that followed as “a horribly expensive court battle with a public body that has denied us licensing because it doesn’t like the way we think.”

The BCCT maintains that Trinity Western students might be inclined to discriminate against gay students in public schools. “It is contrary to the public interest to approve a teacher education program offered by a private institution which appears to follow discriminatory practices that public institutions are, by law, not allowed to follow,” states the agency’s newsletter.

But TWU sees it quite differently. “Here’s the main issue,” explains Saffold in a recent letter to supporters. “Will public agencies be allowed to express disapproval of religious convictions and on that basis deny professional certifications, licenses or other public benefits? Can this be done without a scrap of evidence of intolerance?

“In short, will stereotypes, groundless fears and unproven suspicions become sufficient ground for punitive action?” he asks, and warns that if this approach is “upheld against Christian people today, it could easily become a weapon against other groups tomorrow.”

Two levels of courts have agreed with TWU, saying there is no evidence that Trinity Western graduates discriminated against gay and lesbian students in their classrooms, and, further, that the BCCT had overstepped its jurisdiction when it refused to certify the program.

However, BCCT registrar Doug Smart maintains the agency is simply trying to ensure that public schools uphold the nation’s stated values. “Sexual orientation is a protected right in this country,” he says.

Outside help

Christian groups are not the only ones concerned about the threat the BCCT action poses to basic freedoms. Both the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Associaton stood alongside the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as intervenors in the case.

EFC president Gary Walsh says his organization is supporting TWU because of the threat to religious freedom this case represents. “In the eyes of growing number of people, being a Christian disqualifies you from participation in public life,” he says. “That’s the big issue—Christians being sidelined, silenced and labeled a liability in contemporary Christian life.”

Speaking on behalf of EFC, lawyer David Brown argued that rather than using the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the religious freedom of TWU’s students, the BCCT sought to use the Charter as a sword.

The BCCT was supported by Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE) and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation. EGALE argued that “the impact of systemic discrimination on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth in schools justifies the BCCT decision to refuse to approve the training program of university which espouses explicitly anti-gay views.”

According to Saffold, however, TWU standards require students “to obey Jesus’ commandment to love and respect others, and to uphold the human dignity of all people. Students are also asked to refrain from practices contrary to biblical teaching, such as drunkenness, pornography and extramarital sex—including premarital sex and homosexual behaviour.”

He says the Supreme Court “should make it clear that public bodies may not employ discriminatory practices that are contrary to civil liberties and undermine religious freedom.”