Quashing liberty

So, the Law Society of Upper Canada has finally voted, albeit after a great deal of consideration, appeals and a close vote, to prevent law graduates from Trinity Western University’s law school from being accredited as lawyers in Ontario. In other words, other than for an academic exercise, the law degrees from this British Columbia Christian university’s law school, set to open in 2016, are largely devalued. I’ve been to Trinity Western and spoken there; I’ve interviewed the president on my television show. All concerned seem like fair-minded, gentle, intelligent people.

I would assume, however, that Trinity will now shelve its plans for training lawyers because I can’t see them changing their policies and recruitment is going to be very difficult indeed. Let me be direct: I honestly believe that this decision is genuinely obscene and totally contrary to what we like to think of as a free and open society.

The reason there has been so much time and money spent on this issue and why so many activists have so vehemently opposed Trinity Western is that the school is evangelical and asks its students to declare that they do not indulge in sexual relationships outside of marriage. And marriage, they believe, is the union of one man and one woman. In other words, they do not support gay marriage. This is not about men and women living together and of course nobody involved in this debate has called for more rights for such couples — no, as is so often the case, it’s about same-sex marriage.

But then again, in a way it isn’t. Gay marriage is the law of the land, it’s done, won, achieved. Whether you like it or not, it’s here and it’s staying. The Trinity Western case is less about marriage and more about the right to disagree with the status quo, the establishment and conventional wisdom. Let’s be candid here. Students tend to be more and not less socially liberal and permissive than the rest of the population and it could well be — perish the thought — that they frequently cohabit before marriage. So if you’re looking for a lawyer who rejects the Trinity Western approach you’re probably going to be able to find one if you try really, really hard.

But it might just be that, for example, a Christian, a Muslim, an orthodox Jew or even an atheist with conservative morals would want as a lawyer someone who does and did support the Trinity Western charter. Surely that’s their right. Nobody is obliged to hire a Trinity Western graduate, but now we’re being told that no lawyer has a right to be a Trinity Western graduate in the first place.

It’s triumphalism and arrogance, the outward political and constitutional aggression of a minority group that has long been persecuted and denied basic equality and is still thus treated in much of the world, that now seems to want to impose some of those ugly lumps of intolerance on others. I don’t think for a moment that most gay people believe in this sort of approach and are too busy getting on with their lives, paying bills, raising children, to care about Trinity Western. They might not approve of the university’s charter, they might not ever want to spend time with a lawyer from the place, but they don’t believe in limiting the freedom of others.

Does believing in traditional marriage limit one’s ability to be a good lawyer? I can’t see why. There is not even any indication that the Trinity people want to touch the marriage issue legally; they simply want to form their students in an evangelical Christian manner.

Look, I would not have qualified to study at Trinity Western when I was a student, could not have signed the charter. No, I’m not gay. But neither am I a bigot, and I bitterly disapprove of this new wave of oppression. Trinity Western has a right to be Christian, has a right to be — if you so think — wrong, simply has a right to be. We certainly don’t need any more lawyers, but we do need more people who believe in liberty, constructive dissent and in genuine rather than plasticpluralism. A sad day in Canadian history.

(Coren’s latest book is The Future of Catholicism. His web site is www.michaelcoren.com.)