SPOTLIGHT
Help us stop censorship on Canadian campuses
Freedom of expression remains under aggressive attack at universities across Canada. Students at these taxpayer-funded institutions are deprived of opportunities to listen, to learn about different perspectives, to consider different opinions, to think, to speak and to debate.
Since 2010, the Justice Centre has defended campus free speech across Canada.
In Wilson v. University of Calgary, we successfully sued the University of Calgary over having disciplined students for having peacefully expressed their opinions on campus. The court ruled that it was unreasonable for the university to have found students guilty of “non-academic misconduct” just because their pro-life speech was unpopular. In fact, the students had obeyed the university’s rules and regulations.
Six years later, we secured another victory for campus free speech in UAlberta Prolife v. University of Alberta. The court ruled that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applied to on-campus student expression and that the University of Alberta had unfairly and unjustly censored speech by demanding that students pay a $17,500 “security fee” just to be allowed to set up a stationary display.
Our work is far from over.
In 2019, the University of British Columbia (UBC) cancelled an event of the Free Speech Club, “Understanding Antifa Violence,” indicating that it would not allow the Club to host supposedly controversial events. Fearing Antifa violence, the university cancelled a talk about the problem of Antifa violence! UBC also cancelled the event out of concern for people’s “emotional and psychological safety” and “sense of belonging.”
The Justice Centre has provided lawyers to the Free Speech Club to sue UBC, in order to hold this university accountable to its own mission – and its promise to students – of pursuing truth through open inquiry. If we win, we could secure a court ruling such that students at BC universities have their freedom of expression protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In Alberta, the University of Lethbridge (U of L), students and faculty (and the taxpayers who are required to fund these institutions) are no better off. In January 2023, U of L President Mike Mahon cancelled Dr. Frances Widdowson’s talk, “How Woke-ism Threatens Academic Freedom,” after caving to pressure from a woke mob demanding that she not be allowed to speak on campus. A very courageous woman, Dr. Widdowson came to the U of L anyway, and tried to speak in the lobby of a large building on campus. She was drowned out by hundreds of angry protestors and driven off campus.
The cancellation occurred despite the fact that (1) we had previously won a 2020 decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal holding that the Charter does apply on Alberta university campuses, and (2) the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Charter protects unpopular, uncomfortable, and disturbing expression.
If there is no freedom of expression on university campuses, democratic discourse and the search for truth are at serious risk. Especially when you consider that today’s university students will be running Canada in a few decades ... I want to be governed by leaders and guided by experts who can listen, consider different opinions, think, reason and debate. I do not want my kids or grandkids to be governed by fragile snowflakes who lack the capacity to hear perspectives they disagree with.
Thanks to your support, the Justice Centre is fighting back against the woke tyranny that seeks to silence any and all disagreement. Speakers have a right to speak. Listeners have a right to hear, listen and consider alternative viewpoints, regardless of how popular or unpopular those opinions might be. Neither university administrations nor student unions should interfere with the expression of opinions on campus in a peaceful manner.
Will you partner with us in defence of freedom of expression across the country? Your donation makes it possible for our team of lawyers, paralegals, researchers, and advocates to defend freedom in Canada.
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Canadian universities
need to honour
their own mission
In 2019, the University of British Columbia (UBC) cancelled an event of the Free Speech Club, “Understanding Antifa Violence,” to be presented by respected journalist Andy Ngo, who had himself been attacked by Antifa when reporting on a violent protest. The university cancelled this event, which it had agreed to host on campus, without providing Free Speech Club members a real opportunity to address the supposed “safety” concerns that UBC was concerned about.
Our lawyers issued a demand letter to the UBC President in December 2019, warning of legal action if the event was not reinstated. UBC refused.
With help from the Justice Centre, members of the Free Speech Club sued UBC.
Unfortunately, on June 4, 2024, the Supreme Court of BC essentially ignored significant new circumstances and followed 34-year-old caselaw holding that universities are not government entities. It also found that, when delivering post-secondary education, universities are not delivering a government program.
This decision does not square with the fact that the government of British Columbia allotted nearly $7 billion in funding to provincial universities in its 2024 budget and describes provincial universities as “service delivery agents for the provision of services on behalf of the government.”
As a result of this June 2024 court ruling, universities in British Columbia remain immune to the Charter.
“It’s troubling that this massive government program, of such importance to our constitutional order, should be left to largely operate in a constitutional black hole. Wherever government is present, so too should our constitutional freedoms–including the right to speak freely and search for truth.”
― Lawyer Glenn Blackett
This battle is far from over. In 2025, our lawyers will argue at the BC Court of Appeal that provincial universities are government entities carrying out a government program and that the Charter must apply to them. If the Court finds that the Charter applies to UBC, its cancellation of the 2019 Free Speech Club event would have violated the students’ Charter rights.
Will you support our legal work in BC? A donation of $1,000, $500, or even $250 will help provide us with the legal resources to put freedom of expression back on campuses in BC and across Canada.
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Canadian universities
should welcome
debate and dialogue
Universities in Alberta are subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when it comes to regulating the speech of students on campus. Unfortunately, this has not stopped rogue universities from censoring expression on campus!
Dr. Frances Widdowson was a tenured professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies. Her work focused on public policy in relation to Indigenous people, including the causes of significant socioeconomic disparities between Indigenous people and other Canadians.
She believes that “identity politics” suffocates open inquiry at institutions of higher learning.
In November 2022, philosophy professor Dr. Paul Viminitz invited Dr. Widdowson to speak at the U of L on the topic of “How Woke-ism Threatens Academic Freedom.” The university approved the event booking, scheduled for February 1, 2023.
On January 25, however, senior officials in the Department of Indigenous Studies demanded that the event be cancelled. Many other faculty, students and staff joined the chorus. President Mike Mahon initially refused to cancel the event but quickly caved to the pressure, citing concerns about the “safety” of the campus community.
Despite the cancellation, Dr. Widdowson chose to travel from Calgary to Lethbridge anyway, and share her opinions on the U of L campus. In spite of clear U of L policies that guarantee academic freedom, U of L students launched a large and noisy counter-protest. It was next to impossible for anyone to hear her presentation. Dr. Widdowson described the crowd as “an enormous mob of protestors, which I understand to have been several hundreds.”
Dr. Widdowson moved to a nearby area to continue her talk, but the crowd followed her, shouting, drumming, and chanting.
“Instead of encouraging faculty and students to engage with my ideas in order to reach a better understanding of totalitarian identity politics’ impact on the academy, the University of Lethbridge created an ‘unsafe space’ for critical thinking and open inquiry.”
– Dr. Frances Widdowson
With help from the Justice Centre, Dr. Widdowson, Dr. Viminitz, and U of L student Jonah Pickle filed a constitutional challenge against the university on July 26, 2023.
In that challenge, they argue that the university violated their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly – protected by the Charter. Their court action also seeks an injunction requiring the university to permit the event to proceed on campus.
“Increasingly, universities are in the business of interfering with the search for knowledge, on the premise that the truth is already known and that dissenting voices are somehow dangerous. It is, in other words, dogma, which is the opposite of science. If we can’t save our universities, there’s no telling what scientific, social, and economic progress we’re denying future Canadians.”
– Lawyer Glenn Blackett
This legal battle is far from over. In February 2025, our lawyers will be in court arguing that the Charter protects Dr. Frances Widdowson and her right to speak on campus. Will you support our legal work in Alberta?
A donation of $1,500, $750, or even $250 will help provide us with the resources to protect speakers and listeners on Canadian campuses.
Yours sincerely,
John Carpay, B.A., LL.B.
President
Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
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