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A Canadian evangelical Christian university will not be permitted to gain accreditation for its law school because it championed a code of conduct that included abstinence from sex outside of heterosexual marriage.

The Supreme Court in Canada, in two 7-2 rulings, found that the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario could deny Trinity Western University accreditation for its law school because of the university's community covenant that included the code of conduct.

The justices ruled that the covenant would impede LGBT students from attending the proposed law school and those who attended would be at risk of significant harm.

The court stated, "In our respectful view, the [law societies] decision not to accredit Trinity Western University's proposed law school represents a proportionate balance between the limitation on the Charter right at issue and the statutory objectives the [law societies] sought to pursue."

As CBC notes, "TWU's proposed law school at its Langley, B.C., campus was granted preliminary approval by the B.C. provincial government in 2013, but that approval was later withdrawn due to legal challenges."

The Supreme Court disagreed with courts in British Columbia and Nova Scotia that ruled it was permissible for the university to act on its beliefs as long as there was no evidence of harm. Ontario's Court of Appeal had disagreed with the B.C. and Nova Scotia courts, ruling the covenant "deeply discriminatory to the LGBT community."

The university's mandatory comprehensive covenant agreement states:
In keeping with biblical and TWU ideals, community members voluntarily abstain from the following actions: communication that is destructive to TWU community life and inter-personal relationships, including gossip, slander, vulgar/obscene language, and prejudice; harassment or any form of verbal or physical intimidation, including hazing; lying, cheating, or other forms of dishonesty including plagiarism; stealing, misusing or destroying property belonging to others; sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman; the use of materials that are degrading, dehumanizing, exploitive, hateful, or gratuitously violent, including, but not limited to pornography; drunkenness, under-age consumption of alcohol, the use or possession of illegal drugs, and the misuse or abuse of substances including prescribed drugs; the use or possession of alcohol on campus, or at any TWU sponsored event, and the use of tobacco on campus or at any TWU sponsored event.
TWU Professor Janet Epp Buckingham responded to the Supreme Court's ruling, saying, "We feel that this is a loss for diversity in Canada. Canada has traditionally upheld values of diversity for a broad array of religious views. So we're very disappointed in the way the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled today."