UBC Law School Faces Fresh Allegations of Discrimination

In December 2019, Brenna Bhandar interviewed for the position of associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia—one of the most prestigious law schools in Canada. Despite a recommendation from the appointments committee, the dean at the time decided not to hire her. Bhandar uses the lens of settler colonialism to understand how Israel’s legal system has been used to dispossess Palestinians of their land—a framework some members of the department argued was antisemitic. When twelve faculty members wrote a confidential letter to the dean, asking for transparency around the decision, they said they were shunned by their colleagues and bullied by senior leadership. In an investigation for The Walrus in November, I reported on the fallout from the letter, as well as on other allegations of systematic discrimination and harassment at Allard, including allegations from female professors that they were being paid less than their male colleagues. The investigation was shared widely in the legal community, but students and professors say that instead of using the opportunity to address long-standing issues, the administration has doubled down on its refusal to reckon with its workplace culture. The day after the investigation was published, Ngai Pindell, the current dean at Allard, emailed faculty saying he was concerned by the breach of confidentiality but admitted that sharing information with a journalist “is not a crime.” He added, “This is a grave undermining of faculty governance, collegiality, and a respectful workplace,” he wrote. He didn’t address any of the allegations in the article. In another instance, students say they received mixed messages about whether they could attend a meeting where faculty would be discussing the article. Members of the Law Students’ Society typically attend monthly meetings with Allard’s faculty council, the body that oversees the academics department. Students see this as a form of transparency in their relationship with faculty, as well as a means for them to present student concerns. However, students say they were told the meeting was cancelled, then later that it would be open only to faculty. When they tried to enter, they were asked to leave. After their departure, Pindell did not discuss the contents of the article. Instead, he said he was proud of the institution, even if it was imperfect, and that he wouldn’t be the dean who initiates multiple investigations to pick the winners and losers. Pindell did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Since then, several groups have published statements in support of those who spoke to The Walrus. One open letter called for Pindell and UBC to make systemic changes, such as committing to transparency and re-evaluating leadership practices, and to protect racialized professors from any retaliation. As of this writing, the petition has been signed by 123 people, including Canadian law professors, lawyers, and Allard law students and alumni. Another letter, by the Third World Approaches to International Law scholars, a group of international legal academics, criticized Allard’s treatment of its faculty and garnered the signatures of fifty academics from seventeen countries. “The experiences shared by racialized professors at Allard School of Law evidence systemic failure and undermine academic freedom,” they wrote. The UBC Graduate Students 4 Palestine published a statement on social media calling for the university to “immediately and unequivocally” address the issues of systemic discrimination at Allard. The UBC Black Law Students’ Association also issued a statement, stating they were “disappointed, saddened and dismayed to read the detailed accounts about the long-standing systemic prejudices within the school. . . . We urge Allard leadership to take proactive steps to understanding and addressing the events in the article, to ensure a thorough unbiased examination of issues raised.” Despite all these calls for reform, the only formal response from Allard has been a statement from Pindell on December 2. But the statement did not mention any of the items listed in these petitions. Students and faculty say the department is once again sweeping its biggest problems under the rug.

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Since November, other professors have also come forward with their experiences of a lack of transparency in the department. Kristen Thomasen, a former assistant professor at Allard and associate professor at the University of Windsor faculty of law, decided to sign the Canadian open letter to Pindell. She joined Allard in 2021 and learned about the controversy regarding Bhandar’s hiring. She says other professors questioned Bhandar’s credentials and whether she was a good fit for the faculty. During a faculty discussion about academic freedom, Thomasen put her hand up and asked when they would talk about Palestine. She says the meeting ended abruptly and there was no follow-up. Patricia Barkaskas, a Metis professor, believes she faced retaliation because she tried to discuss Bhandar’s hiring process. Barkaskas says she received an offer from another Canadian university, a few years ago, to continue her work in Indigenous legal studies. Barkaskas asked Pindell for a counter offer so she could have the option to remain at Allard. She was concerned about her partner being able to find a position in a new city. Counter offers are common in academia, but it didn’t go smoothly for Barkaskas. She requested the option to move from her tenured education leadership stream, where she focuses on teaching in legal clinics, to a traditional stream where professors are expected to publish research and where she would be teaching less. But, Barkaskas says, Pindell made it clear she would lose her tenure if she pursued and was successful in securing the new role—a move Barkaskas found unusual. After months of discussions with several offices, she negotiated a special application process, in which she would be considered separately from other candidates but would still lose her tenure. Barkaskas then learned that Pindell had planned to collect commentary from other faculty about her application. Under typical hiring circumstances, the dean would not have direct access to faculty comments about an applicant and would rely only on a recommendation from the hiring committee. However, in Barkaskas’s case, Pindell and the chair of the committee would review the comments themselves. Barkaskas argues that this was discriminatory and a violation of the collective agreement. Barkakas asked for help from the UBC Equity and Inclusion Office. The office agreed that the hiring process was discriminatory and told Pindell to check with the faculty relations office to create a better process. Barkaskas decided to ask the faculty association for help. They were unsuccessful in convincing UBC to let her keep her tenure in the new research-track position and encouraged her to follow up with Pindell. The issue remains unresolved. (Barkaskas had to go on medical leave in 2024 due to health issues unrelated to the situation.) “The university said they were wrong, but no one offered me an apology,” says Barkaskas. “I’m so disillusioned by this whole process.” Law students are caught in the middle of this ongoing conflict. Some chose to speak to me anonymously for fear of reprisal from the Allard administration, afraid that they won’t get reference letters for employment or have trouble finding articling positions, a one-year work term needed to become a lawyer. “If the administration is bullying people at their job, who’s to say they wouldn’t ruin a student’s career,” says one Allard law student. Some Indigenous students say the university’s response reminds them of what happened with Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. In October 2022, the CBC published an article about Turpel-Lafond’s false claim of Indigenous identity. Five days later, Pindell emailed students asking them to exercise caution when approaching the media to talk about the article. Some Indigenous students felt Pindell was trying to silence them and prevent them from discussing the issue. Turpel-Lafond left Allard in December 2022. One law student says that the administration’s inaction is only amplifying the harm to racialized staff and students. “The same thing is happening again,” he says. A former law student, who is also Indigenous, says she felt validated by The Walrus article. “On the one hand, I’m disappointed and embarrassed,” she says. “I got my law degree from Allard, and they are a public disgrace. On the other hand, based on my experience, I know there are really big problems at the school, and it makes more sense that the problem is top down.” Pindell emailed faculty on December 10 outlining his next steps. He said he would work with the Equity and Inclusion Office to find an external consultant to create a restorative process. Supriya Routh, associate dean of EDI at Allard, would be in charge of developing a plan for an equity audit, examining existing retention and hiring policies, encouraging professional development in inclusive curriculum, and strengthening relationships with marginalized groups. The email didn’t mention many of the calls to action from the open letters, including protecting those who spoke out from retaliation, creating a process to deal with systemic discrimination issues, developing comprehensive anti-racism programs, creating support structures for racialized faculty, and making a public commitment to next steps. Stepan Wood, a professor and Canada research chair at Allard, has been critical of Pindell’s response. He was one of the twelve professors who signed the letter criticizing the hiring process in Bhandar’s case. He says Pindell seems to be using a divide-and-conquer approach, giving students the impression that the issues are based on faculty infighting. “Dean Pindell is not the right person to lead this process,” says Wood. “He is implicated in [the issues addressed in] The Walrus article and there’s a clear conflict of interest. His approach is the same tactics the university has been using for years, a top-down approach that they can control.” Several people I spoke to expressed doubt that anything would change at Allard, and a few people have said Pindell should be removed as dean. A faculty member said Pindell had inherited a dumpster fire, and instead of putting it out, he added fuel to it. It’s unclear how long this fire will burn and what will remain once it goes out. The post UBC Law School Faces Fresh Allegations of Discrimination first appeared on The Walrus.