VANCOUVER, BC: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that lawyers will appear before the British Columbia Court of Appeal on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, for a preliminary hearing in a lawsuit that argues universities receiving public funding must be bound by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The legal challenge arises from a case launched by members of the Free Speech Club after the University of British Columbia (UBC) cancelled their 2019 event, Understanding Antifa Violence, citing concerns about “emotional and psychological safety.”
Students organizing the event were not given any opportunity to respond before the cancellation was issued.
The appeal challenges a June 2024 ruling of the Supreme Court of British Columbia that appeared to strike all Charter-based claims from the students’ civil claim, effectively finding that the Charter does not apply to public universities “as a matter of law.”
This conclusion is troubling given the Province’s 2024 budget, which allocates nearly $7 billion annually to public universities and describes them as “service delivery agents for the provision of services on behalf of the government.”
Lawyers funded by the Justice Centre argue that universities therefore must respect Charter-protected freedoms when delivering post-secondary education as agents of the government.
Constitutional lawyer Glenn Blackett said the issue goes beyond a single event cancellation.
“It’s troubling that a massive government-funded program like our public universities, which are so important to Canada’s constitutional order, should be left to largely operate in a constitutional black hole,” he said.
“Wherever government is present, so too should our constitutional freedoms — including the right to speak freely and search for truth,” he added.
The procedural hearing on November 19, 2025, concerns the wording of the lower-court order, which UBC and the Province seek to frame in a manner that could prevent an appeal on constitutional grounds.
The main appeal on the Charter issue is expected to be heard in spring 2026.
