Courts in Ontario and Alberta have recently considered lawsuits
by students who claimed universities breached their rights under
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In April, the
Ontario Divisional Court held in AlGhaithy v University of
Ottawa that the Charter does not apply to internal
disciplinary decisions by universities.1 In a decision
released on May 9, 2012, however, one of the judges on the panel in
the Alberta Court of Appeal's decision in Pridgen v
University of Calgary came to the opposite
conclusion.2 This suggests that this issue will not be
resolved without guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Factual background to Pridgen
In 2007, students who were unhappy with a professor at the
University of Calgary joined a Facebook group called "I no
longer fear hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra." Professor
Mitra complained to the university's dean of the Faculty of
Communication and Culture. The dean concluded that the student
members of
