Dear George,
The Ontario Divisional Court just issued its ruling in the case of Trinity Western University’s proposed law school.
As you know, anti-Christian bigots at the Law Society of Upper Canada voted to ban any graduates from that school from practicing law in Ontario — in advance, without even meeting them, without any complaints against them.
It is exactly what it looks like: keeping Christians out of the public square.
Trinity Western appealed that ruling, and our friend John Carpay from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms intervened to help. And hundreds of ordinary Canadians helped chip in to cover the costs.
Well, the Divisional Court sided with bigotry. Their ruling was laughable — you can read it here. They claimed they weren’t being anti-Christian — after all, Trinity Western University could still go ahead and operate a law school! It’s just that their graduates couldn’t work in Ontario. Here’s what they wrote, in paragraph 121:
If TWU wanted to operate its law school for purely religious purposes, it would be content to proceed with its view of the proper law school but with the full knowledge that its students would only be automatically eligible for membership in the Bar of some Provinces, while not of others.
So the court is saying, they’re not against religious freedom. They’re not banning the school from teaching law students in a Christian environment. No sir! They’re just banning them from working — a totally different thing!
Imagine telling, say, Jewish medical school students they could still get a degree — so no discrimination! — but they just wouldn’t be allowed to work in any hospitals.
This is outrageous.
And do you see the self-reinforcing cycle here? Anti-Christian law society benchers ban Christian lawyers; that ban is upheld by anti-Christian judges. And so a Christian law school is banned — thus tilting the legal profession even more deeply against Christians.
I’m not even Christian myself — I’m Jewish. Maybe that’s why this makes me so mad. There is no difference to me between this anti-Christian bigotry in 2015, and the anti-Jewish quotas in some Canadian universities from 70 years ago.
As you know, we have committed to helping our friend John Carpay of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Just last week, we sent him our latest cheques — totalling $12,000. Obviously this ruling must be appealed.
The court battle continues in British Columbia and Nova Scotia too — where Trinity Western had a great victory. So all is not lost.
This battle is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court. We’ve got to help make sure that John has the money to fight it all the way to the top. Will you please join with me in contributing to his costs to appeal this outrageous Ontario decision?
Please click here to help. As long as Trinity Western and John keep fighting for us, we’ve got to stand with them.
Yours truly,
Ezra Levant
P.S. Christians around the world are being physically attacked — especially in the Middle East. The least we can do is fight back against this legal persecution of Christians in Canada. Please click here to help.
P.P.S. Please forward this e-mail to all of your friends who care about religious liberty.
