Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Charter - Provincial civil rights - Torts - Courts - Evidence - Universities - Charter applicability - Freedom of Religion - Equality rights - Whether Charter applicable in university context - Whether Charter values applicable to provincially protected civil rights - Whether tort arising from prohibited conduct of promoting hatred or inferiority on basis of religion - Whether university owed duty of care - Whether absolute immunity in a university’s quasi-judicial proceeding of a student grade appeal - Effect of lower courts’ failure to refer to mcuh of the plaintiff’s direct evidence on the critical issues - Whether alleged error brings the judiciary into disrepute.

Ms. Maughan, an unrepresented litigant, unsuccessfully appealed through UBC's academic appeal system the grade received from Dr. Weir in a graduate course in literary criticism and brought an action in the Supreme Court of British Columbia pursuant to Civil Rights Protection Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 49 (arising from prohibited discriminatory and harmful treatment on the basis of her Christian belief), and in negligence (arising from the professor’s alleged bad faith). She had joined a debate on a graduate student “list serv” before the seminar began, stated her view that an opinion expressed there reflected a disrespectful stereotyping of Christians and, when the class decided to hold a Sunday colloquium at the author’s home, declined to attend. Ms. Maughan emailed Dr. Weir twice, asking if it were possible to ask the class if the colloquium needed to be on a Sunday, but she did not mention her religion or her religious observances as a reason. Ms. Maughan attached her colloquium presentation paper to an email; the paper, through oversight, was marked at the end of term. The professor’s comments on the paper noted that “the seminar challenged everything you hold dear” and mentioned that “your agenda of resistance” made it even more difficult to assess in the context of overall performance in the course.