“I attended Trinity Western as an undergrad. I know first-hand what it’s like to attend school there as a gay student,” said Jill Bishop.
Bishop is president of the University of Saskatchewan’s Gay Straight Alliance. She’s also a third-year law student. Her signature is one of over 1,000 at the bottom of a series of letters from law students across Canada sent to the Federation of Law Societies protesting Trinity Western University’s proposal to open a law school.
Trinity Western University students sign a community covenant with the school, part of which states they will abstain from “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”
For Bishop, this meant spending her undergrad degree with part of her identity hidden from her peers. She said it made her social life at the school challenging, and that she didn’t get involve in her school community.
Despite not being able to come out to her peers, Bishop said she has no problem with the school’s religious roots, and she insisted her academic experience at Trinity Western was excellent. “I had a great relationship with my professors, and the school has a lot of accolades for a reason,” she said.
However, she said by excluding gay students, Trinity Western would be excluding an important part of a legal education. “It would be sort of concerning to have future lawyers come out of that environment. What would you do if a student from there was faced with an abortion issue?” Bishop said.
In a joint press release issued by several student groups from the University of Victoria, York University, the University of Saskatchewan, Dalhousie University, the University of Alberta, the Universite du Quebec Montreal, and the Universities of British Columbia and Ottawa, students also pointed out that the policy violates the values of equality laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Trinity Western University released a statement saying it appreciates how many students have spoken this week for and against their proposed law school.
“Trinity Western University is known as a community built on principles of acceptance, respect and compassion. It is, however, also a private, faith-based community and was chartered by the Legislature of British Columbia to be such. As a faith-based community, TWU does have core religious beliefs and values and, we trust, has the religious freedom in Canada to maintain such without penalty or discrimination,” the release said.
The release also pointed out that while they would be the first faith-based law school in Canada, there are roughly 30 already operating in the United States.
The letter sent from the University of Saskatchewan had 141 student and alumni signatures. They were joined by over 1,000 signatures from across the country.
