Your Charter Rights. Your Story. Your Campus.
Discover how students coast-to-coast are exercising their fundamental freedoms and shaping Canadian campuses through informed advocacy.
Takes 10-15 minutes · Anonymous & Secure · English/Français
Canada's post-secondary landscape is uniquely ours. This research provides the evidence institutions need to understand student experiences.
Research designed for and by Canadians, grounded in our constitutional framework
Grounded in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Sections 2 & 15
Follows Canadian privacy law, data stored on Canadian servers
Your identity is protected, participation is completely anonymous
Open methodology and findings shared with all participants
Respects OCAP principles and Indigenous data sovereignty
Built by students, for students, with student voices at the centre
Accessible in both English and French
Distinctly Canadian. Multi-stakeholder. Solution-oriented. Building environments where diverse perspectives coexist productively.
Understanding Canadian Student Advocacy Through a Rights-Based Lens
We're documenting how Canadian campus environments impact students' and staff's ability to exercise their Charter rights while maintaining mental health and well-being.
By sharing anonymous experiences, you're helping create campuses where every voice can be heard safely and effectively. Join thousands of Canadian students and staff mapping the advocacy landscape—not just documenting problems, but building pathways to improvement.
The Student Advocacy Project is a national research initiative listening to student experiences. We're building the first comprehensive picture of how Canadian post-secondary students understand, exercise, and experience their Charter rights in campus settings.
Do you feel safe using your Charter rights on campus? Understanding how Section 2 freedoms play out in real campus life—not American-style debates, but Canadian solutions.
Advocacy shouldn't cost your well-being. We're documenting how campus environments affect mental health when speaking up, and identifying supportive cultures.
Your experience has the power to create change. Transform personal stories into institutional insights and national benchmarking for Canadian institutions.
Your voice is primary. We're not studying students; we're learning from students.
We follow Canadian privacy laws (PIPEDA) and research best practices.
You'll know how your data is used, stored, and protected. No surprises.
Research conducted in English and French, culturally adapted not just translated.
Designed for students at all stages of engagement with campus advocacy.
Findings are shared back with participants and institutions in accessible formats.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms isn't abstract—it shapes your campus experience every day.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of our Constitution. It guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms to all people in Canada—including on campus.
Since most Canadian post-secondary institutions are publicly funded, the Charter applies to them. This means your institution must respect your Charter rights, with limited exceptions under Section 1 (reasonable limits).
On campus, several Charter protections are particularly relevant to your student experience.
Section 2(a)
You have the right to hold religious beliefs (or no beliefs) and practice your religion or philosophy.
On campus, this means:
Section 2(b)
You have the right to express your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas, including unpopular or controversial ones.
Important limits:
Section 2(c)
You have the right to gather peacefully with others, including organizing protests and demonstrations on campus.
Institutions can ask you to:
Section 2(d)
You have the right to form groups and join organizations of your choice, including student unions and advocacy groups.
On campus, this means:
Section 15
Every individual is equal before and under the law without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.
Provincial human rights laws may include additional grounds like sexual orientation, gender identity, and family status.
Do you feel safe using them on campus? Share your experience and help us understand the reality of student advocacy across Canada.
Share Your StoryWe're documenting how campus environments affect mental health when speaking up, and identifying supportive cultures.
Using your voice on campus shouldn't come at the expense of your mental health. Yet many students report feeling anxious, exhausted, or isolated when engaging in advocacy.
This research explores the intersection between exercising Charter rights and maintaining well-being. We're asking questions like:
Which campus practices support well-being during advocacy, and which create barriers?
What resources and support systems help students maintain mental health while engaged?
How can institutions create cultures where advocacy and well-being coexist?
If participating in this survey brings up difficult feelings, support is available. Your well-being is more important than completing our research.
Participating takes 10-15 minutes. Your voice helps shape campus advocacy across Canada.
Read about how your data will be used, stored, and protected. We follow PIPEDA and OCAP principles. You can withdraw at any time.
Answer questions about your campus experience, Charter rights awareness, advocacy participation, and well-being. All questions are optional—answer only what feels comfortable.
Decide if you want to stay updated on research findings or participate in future phases. Completely optional—you can participate anonymously and never hear from us again, or stay connected.
Your anonymous response contributes to national benchmarking and institutional reports. Findings will be shared openly (no paywalls) with students, institutions, and the public.
Your perspective matters. Join students from across Canada in building a comprehensive picture of campus advocacy.
Start the Survey10-15 minutes · English or Français · Completely anonymous
Everything you need to know about participating in the Student Advocacy Project.
Yes. We collect no identifying information unless you opt in to receive updates. We don't track IP addresses, and all data is stored anonymously on Canadian servers.
Your institution will NEVER see your individual responses—only aggregated data showing overall trends.
This research is led by a team of Canadian students and researchers committed to understanding student advocacy.
We're not funded by any institution seeking to suppress student voices—this is independent research designed to improve campus experiences.
Most participants complete the survey in 10-15 minutes. All questions are optional, so you can skip anything that doesn't apply to you or makes you uncomfortable.
Absolutely! We want to hear from students at all levels of engagement—from those deeply involved in campus activism to those who have never participated in advocacy.
Your perspective on why you're not involved (if that's the case) is just as valuable as active participants' experiences.
They won't. Your participation is completely anonymous. Even if we create an institutional report for your school, no individual responses are shared—only aggregated data.
There is no way for your institution to know you participated or what you said.
Yes! The survey is available in both English and French, with questions culturally adapted (not just translated) to reflect Canadian bilingualism.
Yes. You have the right to withdraw from the research at any time, for any reason, without penalty. Contact the research team and we'll remove your data. You can do this up to 1 year after participation.
Findings will be shared openly and accessibly (no paywalls):
We're committed to making this research useful for students and institutions, not just academics.
Not at all! Part of this research is understanding how much students know about their Charter rights. If you've never heard of Section 2(b), that's valuable information. Answer honestly—there are no wrong answers.
Your well-being is more important than our research. You can stop at any time, skip questions, or take breaks.
We provide links to mental health resources (crisis lines, campus counselling) throughout the survey. If you need support, please use them.
We're here to help. If something's unclear or you have concerns about the research, reach out.
Contact UsBut do you feel safe using them on campus?
Share your anonymous experience and help us understand the reality of student advocacy across Canada. Your voice contributes to creating campuses where every perspective can be heard safely and effectively.
5-10 minutes · Anonymous & Secure · English/Français
PIPEDA compliant, Canadian servers, completely anonymous
Contribute to the first comprehensive Canadian research on student advocacy
Your experience shapes institutional policy and student advocacy
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