After a three-year legal battle, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ruled on Oct. 12 that two students from the University of Calgary had every right to criticize their professor on Facebook without punishment.
Nearly four years ago, twin brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen ran into controversy after creating and commenting on the discussion board of a Facebook group that criticized one of their professors. The group was called “I no longer fear Hell; I took a course with Aruna Mitra.”
Mitra reported the students, and the university gave the brothers an official reprimand and put them on two years’ probation for non-academic misconduct.
Disagreeing with the university’s reaction, the Pridgens appealed their punishments to the courts.
“When I posted the comments I did not think there would be any retribution at all,” Steven Pridgen said in a Facebook message. “The realization that, if Keith and I won, there may be a precedent forming which could be used to protect unwanted speech on campus, I believe [is what] caused this [case] to continue so far,” he said.
The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench ruled that universities can now be considered government bodies in some situations, meaning that the University of Calgary is obliged to respect its students’ Charter rights to freedom of expression, whether students exercise these rights by criticizing professors or not, said Noah Sarna, a Vancouver-based education lawyer and blogger who has writtwn about the case.
However, Sarna said, this decision is, as of now, unique to the province of Alberta.
“[The decision] can have a persuasive effect on other courts and other provinces, but it’s just important to keep in mind that this is from an Alberta court, so it applies to Alberta in dealing with a particular statute that’s governing the University of Calgary,” Sarna said. “Other statutes govern other universities, especially in other provinces.”
According to Sarna, Canadian universities must now take into account that when punishing students, it is possible that the punishment could be subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Sarna said this means in some situations a university could be considered a government entity, and would therefore be expected to respect the rights of students in the same way that the country respects the rights of citizens.
The university had little to say in response. “We are reviewing our options in light of the ruling and assessing the impact of the decision on our operations,” said senior communications manager James Stevenson in an email.
As for the Pridgens, Keith said they are extremely happy with the court’s ruling.
“I expected the University of Calgary to see the negativity from this and try to end things quickly and quietly,” Keith said in a Facebook message.
“I am glad that they chose not to do this and to fight back because now there is a ruling with their name on it that ensures that universities across Canada know that when they punish students, the Charter can apply to them,” he said.