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In Quesnel, B.C., after Pat Morton, the wife of Mayor Ron Paull, circulated a controversial book about Indian residential schools, members of the Indigenous population said that the book offended, disrespected, and traumatized them.

CFE Intervener Factum – British Columbia Supreme Court. The issue is whether Vancouver Island University’s request for an injunction should be granted against the encampment on campus. After a review of the legislative context and of Canadian jurisprudence on the applicability of the Charter to specific actions of universities, the factum suggests that the University’s rights as a “property owner” and its statutory powers in the “management of its privately owned land” are not unlimited or absolute; that the University’s statutory power does not necessarily pre-empt or extinguish the Charter freedoms of those using its property for expressive purposes. Finally, the factum submits that, in acting as a singular arbiter for expressive rights on campus, VIU must inform its decisions with a view to the values that underlie Charter rights.

The 2023-24 CFE Annual Report provides a detailed overview of our work in the past year with links to more details about specific initiatives.