{"id":25758,"date":"2017-07-28T14:41:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T18:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=25758"},"modified":"2021-10-07T11:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T15:04:58","slug":"supreme-court-grants-9-but-denies-23-groups-intervener-status-in-landmark-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/intersection\/2017\/07\/28\/supreme-court-grants-9-but-denies-23-groups-intervener-status-in-landmark-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Grants 9 But Denies 23 Groups Intervener Status In Landmark Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 34 of 42 in the series Trinity Western University<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In a decision that has surprised many lawyers, the Supreme Court of Canada has denied 17 applications (comprising 23 groups, as a number of groups filed jointly) intervener status in the landmark case of Trinity Western University (TWU) School of Law. Canadian Council of Christian Charities was among the applications denied.<\/p>\n

An Overview of the Case<\/strong><\/p>\n

The TWU Law School Case has gained national and international attention, as it involves equality rights between religion and sexuality, as well as religious freedom, not to mention administrative law matters. TWU requires its students to sign a Community Covenant Agreement that expects the students to keep the university\u2019s code of conduct, which includes the requirement that they engage in sexual activity only when it is confined to a marriage between one man and one woman.<\/p>\n

This was deemed discriminatory against the LGBT community by the law societies in Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia. TWU won its litigation against two law societies (in Nova Scotia and British Columbia and in both cases winning with a 5-0 margin) but lost in Ontario (3-0).<\/p>\n

The appeals from the decisions of the British Columbia and Ontario Courts of Appeal are now before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Nova Scotia Barristers\u2019 Society did not appeal its loss at the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Canada\u2019s highest court will hear both the BC and Ontario appeals on November 30, 2017.<\/p>\n

9 of 32 Groups Granted Intervener Status<\/strong><\/p>\n

With only one day set for the hearing, the Court did not have the time to hear all 32 groups (26 applications). The Court would want to make sure that there were no overlapping arguments from multiple groups, and that both sides have equal opportunity to have their respective issues heard.  Perhaps the court saw no need to hear the arguments of some groups. In the end, the Court granted intervener status to only 9 groups.<\/p>\n

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There are some common features of those nine groups:<\/p>\n