UBC Academic Freedom challenge

Four professors and a former graduate student, supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, have launched a legal challenge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Their petition demands UBC’s administration comply with provincial law requiring universities to remain politically neutral.

Section 66(1) of British Columbia’s University Act explicitly states: “A university must be non-sectarian and non-political in principle.”

UBC has a clear statutory requirement to remain non-political, which it has very obviously failed to uphold despite years of behind-the-scenes advocacy from professors and alumni who feel UBC’s political stances have impacted their freedom of expression and academic freedom.

The evidence is undeniable:

• • Job advertisements requiring candidates “strongly commit” to D.E.I. values.
  • The April 2024 UBC Okanagan Senate Resolution condemning “the occupation, siege, and invasion of Gaza by the state of Israel” as genocide.

We are awaiting a court date.