The decision by the Law Society of Upper Canada to refuse accreditation to graduates from an evangelical Christian law school was “unnecessary” and “not reasonable,” argues the federal government.

Trinity Western University, which plans to open its law school next year in British Columbia, was denied accreditation last year in a 28-21 vote by the regulatory body. It then applied to Ontario’s Divisional Court for a judicial review of that decision. The court begins hearing arguments June 1.

The university has faced controversy over its “community covenant” — a document students must sign promising to abstain from "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

The Attorney General of Canada is one among many interveners in the court case who recently filed factums stating their positions on the Law Society’s decision. The government’s involvement at this stage of the case is described as “perplexing” by lawyers for two of the other interveners.

“I’ve never seen them intervene at this level before in this type of case,” said Paul Jonathan Saguil. “Regulation of law schools and the legal profession is under provincial jurisdiction, so it’s kind of perplexing that the federal government would wade in on this issue.”

Saguil represents Out On Bay Street, which connects LGBTQ law and business students with working professionals, and OUTlaws, a collection of LGBTQ law school student associations. The two groups want the Divisional Court to dismiss Trinity Western’s application.

“It’s hard to see really what is behind their decision to intervene here,” said Saguil’s colleague on the file, Frances Mahon. “For me, as a gay person and as a lawyer working on this case, the decision of the Law Society is incredibly important. It suggests to me they chose to be on the right side of history.”

A spokesman for the federal justice department said the government became involved because the case deals with important Charter of Rights and Freedoms issues and declined to comment further.

The Law Society wants Trinity Western’s application dismissed. Society spokeswoman Susan Tonkin deferred to the documents filed with the court when asked for comment.

“While discrimination on prohibited grounds in the practice of law in Ontario should not be tolerated, the LSUC went too far and issued a disproportionately broad remedy to not accredit the TWU Law School that was unnecessary in the circumstances,” reads the government’s factum filed on May 4 with the court.

“Instances of discrimination on a prohibited ground can be effectively dealt with by the LSUC on an individual basis without the need to infringe an entire group’s freedom of religion.”

Unlike other intervenors — including the Criminal Lawyers Association, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Christian Higher Education Canada and the Advocates’ Society — the federal government said it takes no position on the outcome of the case.

Mahon and Saguil, however, said it’s clear from the factum which way the government wants the case to go. A spokesman for Trinity Western said the school was pleased with the government’s stance.

“The submission of the Attorney General of Canada very acutely identifies the heart of LSUC’s error as an unreasonable and disproportionate action that threatens to erode the Charter-protected rights of Canadian people to form authentic communities of faith,” said Guy Saffold.

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The school already won a similar case in Nova Scotia earlier this year, when the province’s Supreme Court ruled that the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society could not deny accreditation to Trinity Western graduates and ordered the society to pay the school $70,000 in legal costs. The society said it intends to appeal.

The British Columbia Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case involving the school and that province’s law society in August.

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