UBC Profs’ perverse interpretation of the University Act lays bare a hidden agenda – BCCLA
April 16, 2025
Universities are a crucial social space of free expression, exchange of ideas, and academic debate.
Universities are not meant to be sanitized from political thought or discourse. The recent lawsuit brought by UBC professors and one former graduate student in the name of free expression is a perverse interpretation of the prohibition of political activity under the University Act that cannot be justified from a civil liberties lens.
The University Act requires that universities be “non-sectarian and non-political in principle.” In our view, this is to create a buffer between government and university. It functions to ensure that universities do not become tools of indoctrination for state-sponsored religions or ideologies.
