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With chapteis in 0ntaiio, Biitish Columbia anu Nova Scotia, the mission of the Feueiation of
Asian Canauian Lawyeis (FACL) is to piomote equity, justice, anu oppoitunity foi Asian
Canauian legal piofessionals anu the wiuei community.

As a iepiesentative of membeis fiom equity-seeking gioups, FACL stiongly suppoits the
uecision of the Law Society of 0ppei Canaua (LS0C) to iefuse to accieuit the pioposeu law
piogiam of Tiinity Westein 0niveisity (TW0), a uecision that TW0 now seeks to oveituin.
Though FACL acknowleuges the impoitance of ieligious fieeuom anu encouiages a uiveisity
of views, at the same time, FACL uenounces attempts to institutionalize uisciimination,
especially within the legal piofession.

FACL continues to believe that the imposition of a covenant to abstain fiom "sexual intimacy
that violates the sacieuness of maiiiage between a man anu woman" as a iequiiement foi
law school aumission anu employment at TW0, is uisciiminatoiy. This iequiiement
negatively impacts upon the human uignity of peisons within the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
tianssexual anu tiansgenuei community.

Fuithei, FACL believes that the LS0C uecision to iefuse accieuitation is consistent with the
LS0C's manuate to caiiyout its uuty to auvance the cause of justice anu the iule of law, to
act in the public inteiest anu to facilitate access to justice foi people of 0ntaiio.

In Apiil, 2u14, when the LS0C uelibeiateu on the issue of TW0's accieuitation, Avvy uo, a
LS0C benchei anu a founuing membei of FACL, iecounteu the stoiy of Kew Bock Yip, who in
1947, became the fiist Chinese Canauian to piactice law in Canaua. Though Ni. Yip was
boin in Biitish Columbia, he was initially uenieu entiance into law school because the law
school ueciueu to limit aumissions to those who hau the iight to vote. Ni. Yip, being
Chinese, uiu not have a iight of citizenship anu consequently, uiu not have a iight to vote.
Foitunately, at that time, 0sgooue Ball Law School in 0ntaiio uiu not have the same
aumission iequiiement, anu it is theie that Ni. Yip giauuateu with a law uegiee. Bowevei,
0ntaiio was not fiee fiom iacial uisciimination as Ni. Yip was iefuseu entiy into the exam
ioom to wiite his bai aumissions on his fiist few attempts. In the closing woius of Ns. uo:

"I'm suie back then the Biitish Columbia Law Society anu the law school
which iejecteu Ni. Yip hau absolutely no uoubt about theii legal authoiity oi
even theii moial authoiity to excluue Chinese Canauians fiom the legal
piofession at that time. In fact, on its face, the iules baiiing Chinese hau

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nothing to uo with iace at all, it was simply baseu on the veiy technical iule
about the iight to vote.

As we all know, oui iules anu oui laws weie both ieflection of the pievailing
social values anu, sauly, foi a veiy long time the pievailing social values in
Canaua weie to pieseive a white Canaua at the expense of oui fiist peoples
anu people of coloui.

So touay I hope that oui pievailing social values will tell us something
uiffeient. It will tell us that no one shoulu be piohibiteu fiom enteiing law
school anu becoming a lawyei because of iace, genuei, uisability, sexual
oiientation anu so on."

In this spiiit, FACL believes that all law schools acioss Canaua must cieate a foium foi fiee
exchange of iueas, piemiseu upon toleiance, iespect anu oppoitunity foi equal
paiticipation.