A group of teachers and a graduate student are taking the University of British Columbia to the courts to prevent the school from participating in “political activity”, which affirms that it limits academic freedom and violates the legislation that requires that it is not political.
The request presented in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Monday says that the school is violating university law through the use of indigenous land recognition, promotion of equity and inclusion initiatives and taking positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A section of the law requires that universities are not sectarian and non -political, but the group affirms that UBC is participating in activities that violate the legislation.
“Academic freedom includes rights to follow the evidence that leads, study, investigate, write, publish and teach without administrative interference and participate in political discourse,” says the petition.
The petitioners, which include the professor of philosophy Andrew Ivine, the English teacher Michael Treschow and others, affirm that the university must have the prohibition of declare that it is in “indigenous people without houses”.
“The use of the term ‘without giving in’ is inherently political,” says the petition. “The declaration that the Earth is not often considered to be synonymous or closely affiliated with meaning with the statement that the territory of Canada is” stolen lands “and that the speaker, at least to some extent, already this respect, does not recognize Canada as a legal or legitimate state.”
The petitioners also affirm that the University has taken “naked” lists on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the resolutions approved by the Senate of UBC Okanagan and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies that condemns Israel’s actions in Gaza.
They affirm that employment applicants must adhere and believe in the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion and recognize “that people, institutions and societies are inherently patriarchal, colonialists and racist.”
“Imposing the contracting requirements of (equity, diversity and inclusion) is to demand the applicants of the Faculty that they expressly compromise with a set of specific political beliefs as a condition of employment,” says the document.
UBC did not immediately respond to the emails that requested comments on legal action.
‘Pressure’ to conform
The petition alleges that the school takes positions that exert “pressure” to the faculty, the students and others to conform to the public statements of the university.
They claim that it is a threat to academic freedom, if the faculty or students do not agree that the university is in indigenous lands without yielding, that hiring decisions should not be based on the “merit” or that the actions of Israel or Hamas “are political or morally justified.”
The judicial action is supported by the foundation of the Canadian Constitution based in Calgary, and lawyer Josh Dehaas said that the teachers involved have been “working behind the scene to try to make UBC cease to be a politician, stop taking political statements as administration.”
“It reached a critical point as a result of the Israel-Palestine conflict,” he said. “The British Columbia University is a public university. It is a university aimed at being for all British Colombians.”
Dehaas said that the faculty and staff with conservative or classic liberal views are “being suffocated by the University Administration repeatedly taking progressive or left views and expressing those in the name of the university.”
He said that demanding that possible employees declare their adherence to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, is a reminiscence of the anti -communist promises of the cold war era to universities.
He said that the requirements suffocate “academic discourse” and that the university should refrain from “taking a side even in very controversial matters.”
The petitioners want the court to order the University to declare that it is in indigenous lands without giving in, to make statements about the morals or the legality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and demand that employment applicants declare to declare support for “doctrines of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
