VANCOUVER -- The governing council of the Law Society of British Columbia has voted to uphold the results of a member referendum, and reject accreditation for graduates of a Christian law school.
The vote reverses an earlier decision by the society to recognize law graduates of Trinity Western University.
Students and staff at the school in Langley, south of Vancouver, must sign a covenant that prohibits them from engaging in sex outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
Of the 30 benchers who cast ballots, 25 were in favour of upholding the referendum results against accrediting the controversial Christian school, one was opposed and four members abstained.
The decision follows a mail-in ballot where more than 73 per cent of the members who voted elected not to accredit the law school.
Law societies in Ontario and Nova Scotia have voted against accrediting Trinity law graduates, and New Brunswick's society passed a resolution directing its council not to accredit the law school. The university has launched legal challenges of those decisions in court.
