In that case, the British Columbia College of Teachers rejected Trinity’s teaching degrees because students had to sign an agreement not to engage in homosexuality. The Supreme Court of Canada said the college was wrong to reject Trinity on the basis of discrimination. The university will press ahead with plans for Canada’s only faith-based law school.

Trinity Western University says law societies in Nova Scotia and Ontario sent a “chilling message” about religious freedom in Canada by restricting or rejecting accreditation for its proposed law school.

“We are very disappointed,” said president Bob Kuhn in a news release Friday. “These decisions impact all Canadians and people of faith everywhere. They send the chilling message that you cannot hold religious values and also participate fully in public society.”

At issue was Trinity Western’s requirement that its 3,600 students sign a community covenant forbidding intimacy outside heterosexual marriage, which has been criticized as discriminatory against gays and lesbians.

‘We feel the Ontario and Nova Scotia decisions are legally incorrect.’- Bob Kuhn, Trinity Western University president

Nova Scotia’s bar society voted Friday to conditionally approve the law school from the Christian liberal arts institution, which plans to open the law school in 2016.

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