Starting , the Supreme Court will be hearing arguments in two cases jointly that are of enormous importance to secularism and humanism in Canada.
I have written a detailed background of the case before, so I won’t repeat it. But for the sake of summary: Trinity Western University – a private, evangelical school in BC – wants to open a law school. They would like their graduates to get automatic accreditation as lawyers in all of the provincial law societies across Canada (which most law schools have). The problem is that TWU has a “community covenant”, which all students are required to adhere to, and which is discriminatory toward LGBT students. Thus, a few law societies across Canada refused automatic accreditation, because doing so would be tantamount to supporting discrimination. And thus TWU filed suit claiming religious discrimination.
The case is much more complicated than the brief summary can cover – as most cases are – with the added complexity that it’s not one but two cases, each with its own complicated history. (And there was a third case which didn’t make it to the Supreme Court.) There has even already been drama before the cases even got to the hearing.
![[Logo of the Supreme Court of Canada]](https://www.canadianatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/supreme-court-of-canada-logo.png){kind=logo}
Supreme Court of Canada
If you want to follow the hearing live, there are two webcast streams (one for each case). I’m not sure exactly how this will work – whether both stream links will work for both cases, or whether one link will work for one case and one will work for the other. And if the two cases are in separate streams, I’m not sure which one will start first. But in any case, you can figure things out when the streams start, so here are the links if you’re interested:
http://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/webcast-webdiffusion-eng.aspx?cas=37209http://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/webcast-webdiffusion-eng.aspx?cas=37318
The hearing starts at , and will carry over to a second day . (The dates and times are in the Canadian Atheist calendar if you want to use a calendar app to notify you.)
There’s a chance the court might begin a bit earlier – like 9am. I’ll also be livetweeting from @ibushfield / @bchumanist with #TWUlaw, though given the popularity of the case I’ll most likely be stuck in the overflow rather than in the main courtroom. I’ll also be doing Facebook Live streams with the BCHA legal team (who’ll be presenting our arguments on Friday unless things go blisteringly fast) after the cases each day – so follow us there at http://www.facebook.com/bchumanist