Trinity Western University has set up a website sending out detailed “prayer requests” to supporters as it awaits the results of appeal hearings in Ontario and B.C.
The B.C. Court of Appeal heard arguments this month from lawyers for the school and from the Law Society of B.C. The university is also appealing to the top court of Ontario.
In both provinces, their law societies objected to TWU graduating lawyers due to the school’s Community Covenant.
The covenant, a document all students and staff must sign, defines marriage as between a man and a woman and forbids sex outside of marriage, among other rules banning everything from gossip to pornography.
TWU has argued that the law societies are discriminating against them on the basis of their faith, while the law societies argue that the school discriminates against gay and lesbian students, denying them to the right to study law on an equal footing.
In B.C., Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled for TWU in a legal opinion earlier this year, while in Ontario, courts found in favour of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
TWU is appealing the Ontario ruling, while the Law Society of B.C. appeals Hinkson’s decision, at each proivnce’s court of appeal.
Regardless of the legal decisions, either party in both cases could appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada next.
