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The school’s call for voluntary abstinence from homosexual activity was challenged in Canadian courts decades ago, and was upheld in a landmark 2001 Supreme Court of Canada decision. It should not be used in the future to deny TWU law school graduates entry to the legal profession, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada concluded in December.

But a number of provincial law societies decided to explore the matter and pass their own judgments. Decisions are expected this month in Ontario and in Nova Scotia, and later this year in New Brunswick.

B.C.’s law society launched its review in January, and received more than 300 letters from lawyers, academics, civil liberties groups and members of the public. It then formulated a motion that, had it passed, would declare TWU’s proposed school “not an approved faculty of law.”

More than two dozen law society members gathered in Vancouver early Friday to vote on the motion. But first, they debated. While many agreed the university’s position on sexual activity is repugnant and may even be discriminatory, they all conceded it is not unlawful.

Some said it isn’t their business to interfere with a law school’s religious-based values and directions. “The law society is not a belief regulator,” argued one bencher, Kenneth Walker. “We are a conduct regulator.”

David Crossin, a prominent Vancouver lawyer and bencher, launched into a personal story, noting he has a gay brother. Their mother left her own church years ago, he recalled, when it still frowned on homosexuality. “But she believed the church had a right to take that position,” Mr. Crossin said. “You don’t meet intolerance with intolerance.”