Editor: Tolerance and equality are an important part of our Canadian culture, and that is a good thing. We need a society that allows us the freedom to speak, the freedom to associate together, and the freedom to live our lives based on our faith.
However, these freedoms are being targeted right now, and by two groups that we would think would fight the hardest for them: The Law Society of B.C., and the provincial government.
The advanced education minister, Amrik Virk, has now on allowing Trinity Western University to open up a law school. Why? Simply because of the pressure of the law society, who ironically, say it is about equality.
My question is, equal for whom? Are they really saying that TWU cannot have a law school simply because the students who attend there voluntarily sign a community covenant? Don鈥檛 lawyers swear an oath themselves and agree to uphold the rights and freedoms of all people? It doesn鈥檛 work if they only pick the ones they agree with.
If it鈥檚 only based on the content of that covenant, I ask this question: How can the law society say TWU is discriminating, when the society itself is doing exactly that? It seems to me the law society has forgotten what freedom of religion and freedom of association really means.
Now Bank of Montreal and over 70 other large companies are jumping on board and declaring that they will not do business with any law firm that does not practice diversity. I wonder if they are diverse enough to hire a graduate from TWU?
What about undergraduates from TWU who are now lawyers or doctors, or someone who graduated with a nursing or teaching degree? Do they also fall under this umbrella?
Will these people refuse to be treated by a doctor or nurse who went to Trinity? Or maybe those companies will bar Christians from doing business with them at all.
If we don鈥檛 wake up and realize that these lawyers are being discriminatory under the guise of 鈥渆quality,鈥� we could very well be headed towards a society where no one is really free.
Ang de Boer,
Aldergrove
