Noah Sarna on the issues, cases and events of interest to British Columbia's educational community
Posts tagged university of british columbia
Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear appeal of UBC ticket case
Jul 12th
The Supreme Court of Canada recently dismissed (CanLII) an application by Daniel Barbour – the accountant who claimed UBC had no right to issue parking tickets – to hear an appeal to the decision (CanLII) of the BC Court of Appeal rejecting his claim. This brings his lawsuit to a final close. Here is a press release by UBC’s Office of the University Counsel.
There are many interesting elements of Barbour’s story – see my previous posts here and here.
Supreme Court of Canada issues final word on UBC discrimination case
May 6th
The University of British Columbia celebrated last week’s decision by the Supreme Court of Canada refusing to hear an appeal from Cynthia Maughan, a student who alleged discrimination by the university and several professors on the basis of her Christian beliefs (see here for a previous post on this issue).
In 2008, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed Maughan’s claim on the basis that there was no evidence to support one or more of its critical elements. This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal. The rulings are available at CanLii here (BCSC), here (BCCA), and here (SCC).
Maughan has had ample opportunity to have hear claim heard at considerable expense to the university and to the court system. If she failed to convince the Court of Appeal that had enough evidence to support her claim (which, even if the court was wrong, would still be a far cry from deciding in her favour), then it is a good idea to let the top court in the country focus on other matters.
