‘We absolutely have no intention to be viewed as discriminating against religious organizations’: vice-president
OTTAWA (CCN)
Universities Canada’s proposed anti-discrimination bylaw would marginalize faith-based institutions, warns Cardus president Michael Van Pelt.
“When a bylaw explicitly indicates that it is asking members to forego ‘exemptions … otherwise permitted under applicable human rights law,’ warning bells should ring,” said Van Pelt.
“When one civil society institution seeks to unilaterally change the laws regarding what standards of diversity and inclusiveness are legal, the cultural impact is felt by all of civil society.”
In October, Universities Canada will consider changing its bylaws to ensure its members “policies and practices do not discriminate on any grounds, including race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, physical or mental disability, age, place of origin, marital or family status, sex and sexual orientation.”
Universities Canada, formerly the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, presents itself as “the voice of Canadian universities, at home and abroad.”
Although, strictly speaking, it is a voluntary association of universities, it functions more like an accrediting agency, playing an important role in research funding, certification, and membership in related associations, such as athletics.
“If approved by the membership, the new criterion will mean that member universities will not be able to require adherence to a code of conduct that discriminates based on protected grounds, nor to take action based on such a code,” said a Universities Canada overview of the policy sent to its members and posted on the Cardus website.
“We absolutely have no intention to be viewed as discriminating against religious organizations, which form a really important part of the university landscape in Canada,” said Universities Canada vice president of governance and policy Philip Landon.
Membership in Universities Canada, which receives federal government funds, can influence access to athletic associations and better insurance rates, Van Pelt said. The body also facilitates the transferring of degrees and qualifications. Losing membership would make it more difficult for universities to recruit students, he warned.
Van Pelt pointed out the member institutions “need to comply whether or not they are in compliance with applicable human rights codes,” which allow exclusions on religious grounds.
The policy change would affect Trinity Western University and its Community Covenant, which among other requirements, asks both faculty and students to abstain from sexual activity outside traditional marriage.
Van Pelt points out three other evangelical universities are members of Universities Canada, as are many Catholic universities.
Universities Canada’s overview reports it has turned down “several” applications from universities that require a statement of faith or a conduct code.
Trinity Western University is already involved in legal battles with a few provincial law societies that have opposed accreditation of its proposed law school based on the covenant.
Van Pelt said he wondered why Universities Canada is not waiting until the court cases inevitably make their way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Do you want to force these universities to set aside own legal rights to be members?” he asked. “Are they going to set up their own human rights commission to administer this by law and policy?”
“We have no intention of setting up any sort of parallel system [to human rights commissions],” Landon said. “It goes back to the sense that as a voluntary membership organization, it has the right and duty to define what are those attributes and views that make up a member, so we’re putting that to the membership.”
The cases involving Trinity Western and law societies are different because they involve regulatory bodies that impact accreditation and the ability of graduates to find jobs, Landon said. Universities Canada is “a statutory corporation that can choose its members. We don’t have an impact on a graduate’s ability to get a job or work in Canada.”
Non-members have the same rights as any other university in Canada, he said.
“Our hope is that should this criterion pass we wouldn’t lose any members,” he said, noting that he hoped the proposed policy chance would lead to “more clarity around shared attitudes of what it means to be a Universities Canada member.”
Trinity Western’s president Bob Kuhn said in an email statement he believes the first draft of the bylaw “will undoubtedly change.”
“For example, not allowing any of the exclusions that are part of Canada’s human rights law means that First Nations universities could not give hiring preference to indigenous peoples,” he said.
“It means that universities focused on providing an education to women could not limit its admission of students to females. It means French universities would be required to take professors and students who aren’t fluent in French. It means no university will be able to charge premium tuition to international students.”
Kuhn has proposed an alternative policy: “Each member would make a clear commitment to Canadian human rights law. This would respect the complexity of both the law and the issue of discrimination, and avoid the risks and confusion of a separate system.”
Members will decide at a closed door meeting in Ottawa on Oct. 26. It will take a 2/3 vote to implement the policy change, and should it pass, existing members will have until 2020 to bring their policies in line, Landon said.
A clarification has been sent to member institutions noting “if you are a specified institution, primarily serving a group that is among those identifiable grounds, then there is nothing to prevent them from hiring based on those grounds,” Landon said.
He noted religious universities could use this defence, providing they don’t discriminate on other grounds. However, most Christian and Catholic universities do not discriminate against students of other faiths or no religious faith; such students are allowed to attend.
