{"id":4241,"date":"2026-05-26T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:28:43","slug":"lisa-bildy-activist-tribunal-rules-classical-liberalism-is-not-a-political-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/lisa-bildy-activist-tribunal-rules-classical-liberalism-is-not-a-political-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Bildy: Activist tribunal rules classical liberalism is not a political philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another month, another egregious decision by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Par Lisa Bildy, Sp\u00e9cial National Post<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published May 16, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does anyone understand what \u201cclassical liberalism\u201d is anymore? The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal certainly doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, it tossed out a complaint filed by a former political science professor against Simon Fraser University (SFU). He argued that he was passed over for a tenure-track position because his classical liberal beliefs did not align with the university\u2019s demand for ideological conformity to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His case didn\u2019t even get past the gate-keeping stage. Four years after his complaint was filed, the tribunal ruled, without a hearing, that his beliefs were not grounded in a cohesive and recognized political philosophy and that the complaint had \u201cno reasonable prospect of success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the philosophy that shaped the modern West. But it\u2019s apparently not one that the tribunal, or SFU, recognizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the\u00a0decision<\/a>,<\/strong> Joshua Gordon\u2019s early research focused on the sort of class-based concerns for social justice that used to preoccupy the political left: affordable housing for the working poor, the \u201crole of labour unions in building a robust welfare state\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not what passes for acceptable research in today\u2019s academic environment: \u201cactivist EDI\u201d requires the use of critical\u2011theory frameworks that sort people into identity groups and demand adjusted outcomes based on group hierarchy rather than individual merit or economic class. In a pluralistic society like Canada\u2019s, this sort of thinking is corrosive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In setting out the parties\u2019 positions, tribunal member Devyn Cousineau noted that Gordon \u201cdescribes himself as a \u2018classical liberal,\u2019 who supports \u2018mild EDI,\u2019 meaning \u2018a liberal commitment to eliminating overt forms of discrimination and systemic barriers.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the sole mention of classical liberalism in the entire decision. She could not properly characterize Gordon\u2019s opposition to \u201cactivist EDI\u201d as classical liberalism \u2014 a coherent political tradition with centuries of scholarship \u2014 because she appeared to have no conception of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that\u2019s not surprising. Universities have spent decades marinating students in identity-based theories, and those graduates now populate the institutions that shape public discourse through media, law, education and the public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Marxist educator\u00a0Paulo<\/strong> Freire\u2019s<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0revolutionary praxis \u2014 drawn from his book, \u201cPedagogy of the Oppressed\u201d \u2014 has seeped into K\u201312 education, mobilizing students to view and transform society through the\u00a0lens<\/strong> of oppression<\/strong><\/a>. Classical liberalism, which is seen by critical theorists as an \u201coppressor ideology,\u201d is no longer on the syllabus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classical liberalism emerged during the Enlightenment as a political philosophy centred on individual rights, freedom of conscience and expression, equality before the law and limits on state power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on earlier traditions of rational inquiry and constitutionalism, it dismantled hereditary privilege and group\u2011based legal hierarchies by insisting that each person possesses inherent dignity and must be treated as a rights\u2011bearing individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the only political philosophy that treats the right to free speech as inviolable. These principles became foundational to modern western institutions and offered a way to restrain our tribal impulses by grounding political order in universal legal equality rather than in the claims of groups or castes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But group rights are all the rage today, and along with them comes an intolerance for any expression to the contrary. Despite Gordon\u2019s strong teaching evaluations, his \u201cresponses with respect to EDI\u201d were deemed insufficient by the activist faculty group \u2014 five faculty members who opposed his appointment and held enough votes to sink it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their concern was that Gordon\u2019s EDI statement indicated that he treated people equally, without regard to race, gender or sexual orientation. That is no longer acceptable. Under activist EDI, one must not treat people equally; one must treat them unequally, according to a shifting hierarchy of \u201cmarginalized\u201d identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This hierarchy is unstable and often incoherent. Gay men who do not identify as \u201cqueer,\u201d or non-white individuals who hold conservative or classical liberal views, can find themselves reclassified as \u201coppressors.\u201d The logic is\u00a0political<\/a><\/strong>, not principled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critical theory\u00a0rejects<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the core assumptions of the classical liberal legal order: equality before the law, individual rights and rationalism. Within this framework, disagreement is treated as harm, and dissenters are viewed not as interlocutors but as obstacles to justice. The result is an ideology that\u00a0cannot tolerate<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0dissent and that must correct, exclude or sanction those who reject its premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon described his worldview as prioritizing equality over equity, colour-blindness, individualism over group rights and open inquiry over ideological policing. That political worldview has a name: classical liberalism. But according to Cousineau, it lacks \u201cthe necessary cohesion and cogency\u201d to qualify as a protected political belief under Sec. 13 of the B.C. Human Rights Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, she concluded that the activist EDI orthodoxy embraced by the faculty group is not a cohesive political belief, either. When an ideology becomes so pervasive that it is simply \u201cthe water everyone swims in,\u201d its political nature can become invisible to those enforcing it. When everything is political, nothing is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have argued\u00a0in<\/strong> these pages<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that human rights tribunals across Canada have outlived their usefulness. This case is yet another example of institutions that no longer defend rights but instead enforce ideological conformity. How many more examples do we need?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Bildy is a lawyer and executive director of the Free Speech Union of Canada. She can be found on X at @LDBildy.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Public outrage is growing, and politicians are being pressured to act. Reining in these star chambers is no longer good enough. Legislatures must abolish them, along with the human rights codes that they enforce. That requires political backbone, so don\u2019t hold your breath. Instead, call, write, or sign a petition like ours at the Free Speech Union<\/strong><\/a> to let your political leaders know how many Canadians oppose financial ruin for expressing opinions on issues affecting themselves and their children<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last month, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal tossed out a complaint filed by a former political science professor against Simon Fraser University (SFU). He argued that he was passed over for a tenure-track position because his classical liberal beliefs did not align with the university\u2019s demand for ideological conformity to equity, diversity and inclusion.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":532,"featured_media":4084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,38],"tags":[57,46,69],"subject_status":[],"casename":[],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigns","category-opinion","tag-censorship","tag-national-post","tag-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4245,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions\/4245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"subject_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject_status?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"casename","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsucanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/casename?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}