Universities, human rights codes, and the charter: declarations of students' rights as a mechanism for protecting fundamental freedoms at Canadian universities

Abstract

University campuses have historically served as spaces in which individuals are free to participate in critical thought and unrestricted inquiry. The marketplace of ideas is fundamental to higher education, but is increasingly under threat. Anti-discrimination initiatives of public law have failed to sufficiently protect students from the discriminatory actions of university administrations. The judiciary’s liberal constitutional interpretation of the application provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has deemed the Charter applicable only to government activity, while human rights legislation suffers from a lack of consistency and has proven unreliable in the context of private entities engaged in public interests. To solve the dilemma, the author argues that universities ought to reconfigure internal policy that seeks to respect, protect, and uphold the rights and freedoms of students. Properly enforced, this improved human rights framework provides a stable alternative to abstract applications of public law.