Tim Haggstrom doesn’t just promote theory. He bears the personal scars of legal practice. He leads an organization focussed on legal theory, while fighting (personally) for free speech.

This caught me off guard. I thought Tim was simply an exemplary leader of a noteworthy organization. I had no idea that he was also personally up to his neck in litigation about the legitimacy of race-based scholarship.

You won’t meet a nicer, more thoughtful guy. Tim goes out of his way to ring-fence his own case from the organization he represents. You need to know about the Runnymede Society. The Society appears even more worth, and necessary, when you hear about Tim’s case, at the end of the episode.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks again

Shawn

Chapters and AI Summary:

Host Shawn Whatley interviews Tim Haggstrom, National Director of the Runnymede Society, about whether freedom of speech exists in Canadian law schools and how students learn “no-go zones” on contentious issues. Hagstrom explains Runnymede’s founding in 2016 amid concerns about insufficient debate over constitutional change, citing the Supreme Court’s 2015 Saskatchewan Federation of Labour decision on a Charter right to strike, and outlines the Society’s mission to promote constitutionalism, the rule of law, and fundamental freedoms through debates it does not adjudicate. They discuss taboo topics, civil discourse, and competing views of the rule of law, interpretation, legal neutrality, and substantive equality (including the 2020 Fraser case). Hagstrom then recounts his personal judicial review against the University of Saskatchewan after being found guilty of non-academic misconduct following letters defending dialogue and critiquing race-based policies, linking the dispute to university commitments to decolonization and anti-racism training.

00:00 Free Speech in Law School

00:22 Meet Tim Haggstrom

04:23 Why Runnymede Started

07:10 Tim’s Path to Runnymede

09:47 Campus No Go Zones

13:42 Staying Relevant and Civil

16:28 Sacred Cows Debate Example

19:05 Tim’s Lawsuit Teaser

21:53 Why Institutions Matter

25:24 Network Formation and Skills

31:03 Rule of Law Explained

37:26 Law Without Translation

38:53 Bridge Norms Example

41:33 Courts Versus Legislatures

44:13 Thick Rule of Law

45:57 Rodriguez To Carter

48:46 Living Tree Origins

50:19 Can Law Be Neutral

51:09 Substantive Equality Debate

56:05 Runnymede Student Plug

56:59 Saskatchewan Case Begins

01:05:41 Critical Social Justice Claims

01:10:11 Campus Speech Outlook

01:13:09 Protect Legal Tradition