Richard Moon

Senior Fellow, Blogger
Professor of Law
University of Windsor

Richard Moon is Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor. His research focuses on freedom of expression and freedom of conscience and religion. His most recent books include  The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression  (U of T Press, 2024), Freedom of Conscience and Religion (Irwin Law, 2nd  edition 2024) and a co-edited volume,  Indigenous Spirituality and Religious Freedom( U of T Press, in press). He is currently co-editing an open access constitutional law casebook. 

He is also the author of Putting Faith in Hate: When Religion is the Source or Target of Hate Speech (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018), Freedom of Conscience and Religion (Irwin Law, 2014), and Report to the Canadian Human Rights Commission Concerning Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Regulation of Hate Speech on the Internet (CHRC, 2008), editor of Law and Religious Pluralism in Canada (UBC Press, 2008), co-editor of Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority (Hart/Bloomsbury, 2016) and is contributing editor to Canadian Constitutional Law (3rd, 4th, and 5th editions) (Emond-Montgomery, 2006, 2010, 2016). 

He has been the recipient of both the law school and university-wide teaching awards as well as the Mary Lou Dietz Award for contributions to the advancement of equity in the university and community. He has held a number of academic positions including President of the Canadian Law and Society Assn. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice. 

Related

Blog September 4, 2024

Should the Celebration of Terrorist Acts be Criminalized?

In the last few months several groups in Canada have called on the federal government to enlarge the scope of the Criminal Code ban on speech that counsels others to engage in acts of terrorism to include an explicit prohibition on the “glorification of terrorism”. A ban on the glorification of terrorism might extend to speech that celebrates the murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7 or the 9-11 attacks in the United States.
Richard Moon
Freedom of Expression & Its Limits
Blog July 23, 2024

What to Make of the Controversy over the University of Windsor Agreement to End the Encampment

Earlier this month the University of Windsor reached an agreement with the occupants of a pro-Palestinian encampment on the university’s grounds. The agreement brought a peaceful end to the protest. Several of the leading Jewish organizations in Canada have been harshly critical of the agreement. Their principal complaints (listed 1 to 5) are that: 
Richard Moon
Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression & Its Limits
Blog May 21, 2024

The Ontario Government Extends Constitutional Protection to University Encampments

There is an ongoing debate about whether universities, when regulating speech on campus, are subject to the Charter of Rights. The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a 2020 judgment that concerned a prolife demonstration on the University of Alberta campus decided that the university was bound by the Charter and that the students had a constitutionally protected right to engage in protest. However, the courts in other provinces, including Ontario, have reached the opposite conclusion, deciding that the Charter does not apply to a university, even when it is regulating speech on campus. 
Richard Moon
Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression & Its Limits