By: Ella Pendlington, SFU Student, and Petra Chase, Features Editor
In June 2021, the Student Press Freedom Act was created by student journalists Spencer Izen and Jessica Kim, then editor-in-chief and managing editor of The Griffins’ Nest, a high school student newspaper. In response to their work investigating the Vancouver School Board’s transparency and operations in May 2021, the school’s administration informed Izen and Kim they needed the principal’s “blessing” to publish said article. Following this, Izen and Kim wrote a letter to the BC Civil Liberties Association. Eventually, with their support, the Canadian Youth Journalism Project, and the Canadian Association of Journalists, the article was published. Izen and Kim drafted the Student Press Freedom Act with the help of lawyers, journalism professors, and civil liberty advocates to protect student publications’ right to freedom of the press through legislation. The campaign received endorsements from various civil society organizations and student publications. It was also reported on by media outlets including The Vancouver Sun and The Tyee.
The Student Press Freedom Act seeks to clarify section 2 (b) in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the “freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication” for students. Though the Charter includes schools, the Student Press Freedom Act website notes there is no clear understanding of how this applies to student journalists: “Unlike the US, Canada does not have any case law” regarding the rights and freedoms specifically of student journalists. In the US, the Student Press Law Centre and the New Voices Movement aim to protect student press freedom with state laws.
Izen and Kim sent a draft of the act to BC Premier David Eby in 2022, and met with him soon after. While Eby recognized its importance, he said there were greater priorities. Today, the act has yet to be enshrined.
Currently, Izen is a managing editor at University of British Columbia’s independent student newspaper The Ubyssey. He uses his experiences to teach incoming student journalists the importance of press freedom and advocacy. The Peak corresponded with him to learn more. Izen said, “The first time I heard an administrator remark that they had the ability to direct the content of the newspaper, I was confused.
“When I was that age, I assumed that adults were a little bit more in tune with the principles of democratic life,” he added. “The experience of censorship was one that pushed me to take on a radical amount of responsibility.”
Institutional challenges
Izen and Kim’s experiences of advocating for press freedom as student journalists are not isolated. Student journalists across Canada continue to navigate institutional pushback, a lack of support, and censorship attempts. “I think the first thing we need to do is actually shift the way we think about the proper relationship between an administration and between student journalists,” Izen said.
In the Western region of Canada, The Voice, Langara’s student newspaper, produced by journalism students, has shut down alongside the 60-year-old journalism program. The Runner, Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s newspaper, came under attack in 2024. While The Runner was reporting on Kwantlen Student Association mishandling student funds, they were threatened with a petition to dissolve the paper and “destroy all articles related to the Kwantlen Student Association.”
The Peak also experienced censorship by SFU’s student society, the SFSS. In September 2025, when the 2025/26 Council began, The Peak encountered various issues while trying to report on biweekly council meetings. In March 2026, the SFSS passed a motion banning recording at meetings. This motion significantly impacted The Peak’s news team who rely on recordings for fact-checking, and thus haven’t been able to report on council meetings. The news editor at the time, Hannah Fraser stated, “If meeting minutes aren’t actively updated for the community to reference, then the 2025/26 SFSS team has not allowed the students they represent to understand their operations and future plans effectively.”
While Izen shared that The Ubyssey hasn’t had significant issues with censorship from their student society, they’ve had their fair share of harassment, both online and with papers being removed from stands. He added, university publications are a place to “demonstrate the right relationship between journalists and politicians from the beginning of our careers as journalists and their careers as politicians.”
The Peak also reached out to the current managing editor of The Griffins’ Nest, Zak Tucker, to ask his thoughts regarding student press freedom, and how The Nest’s history has impacted their understanding, value, and approach to student journalism.
“The basis for student press freedom lies in a key principle that guides all of my work at The Nest: student journalists are real journalists,” Tucker said.
Tucker expressed that student journalists are obligated to tell the truth, which may sometimes hurt the reputation of others. He shared that a special report containing criticism of the Vancouver School Board underwent difficulty in publication. The piece was originally supposed to be published in March 2026, but wasn’t published in its entirety until April 2026. Tucker wrote, “My school’s principal, under direction from his superiors, [phoned] our commercial printers and [told] them not to print our newspaper until he approved it — because the newspaper contained a story that included criticism of the school board.”
The state of journalism today
“Throughout history, people in positions of power have sought to prevent the dissemination of factual information, often in the name of advancing the public interest by combatting mischief and unrest. But suppressing truth is never the right answer. Rather, it is journalists who work in the public interest, since our work serves to hold politicians accountable and promote the kind of educated discussion that raises awareness about important issues.”
— Zak Tucker, Editor-in-Chief, The Griffins’ Nest newspaper
When asked how and why student press freedom is relevant in Canada in 2026, Tucker responded, “Throughout history, people in positions of power have sought to prevent the dissemination of factual information, often in the name of advancing the public interest by combatting mischief and unrest. But suppressing truth is never the right answer. Rather, it is [putting trust in] journalists who work in the public interest, since our work serves to hold politicians accountable and promote the kind of educated discussion that raises awareness about important issues.”
Izen added that Canada has an “increasingly problematic communications culture.” He noted that public relations professionals outnumber journalists. As of March 2025, Canada’s Government Communications and Public Engagement team has over 300 employees. According to the book Manipulating the Message by journalist Cecil Rosner, “public relations consultants outnumber journalists 14–1 in Canada.”
“Student journalists themselves are now more responsible for taking on a lot of the work that professional news media are no longer able to do because there are fewer professional journalists than there were a few years ago,” said Izen, who also noted over 600 closures of news outlets in Canada since 2008 reported by the Local News Research Project, the large number of layoffs by Bell Media Canada and Postmedia. Tucker shared this sentiment, expressing, “With the death of local media, student journalists are often the only ones left to [ . . . ] hold elected trustees accountable.”
“For the few journalists that are still out there, it’s very difficult to talk to people,” Izen explained. “The institutions [politicians are] elected to observe, to keep accountable, are not giving us the time of day, whether it’s the City of Vancouver, whether it’s the Government of BC,” which have “a responsibility to be transparent.”
“A journalist is a gatekeeper. What we want is democratic gatekeeping. We want someone who’s going to stand in the middle and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know if that’s true.’”
— Spencer Izen, managing editor, The Ubyssey newspaper
Izen also criticized “the way politicians represent how democratic life could be.” He mentioned Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increasing reliance on his own YouTube channel to share announcements. “Speaking directly to constituents, while it might be convenient in the short term, that’s bad democracy,” he said. “A journalist is a gatekeeper. What we want is democratic gatekeeping. We want someone who’s going to stand in the middle and say, ‘Hey, I don’t know if that’s true.’” This goes for politicians in the Government of Canada, as well as student politicians.
Further, Izen noted that as student journalists, we have a duty to stand up for our own publications in the face of unjust censorship, and other publications.
“We absolutely have to be the foremost advocates for press freedom in the country. We cannot rely on anyone else to be fluent as much as us,” he said.
Today, press freedom — in both student and non-student publications — remains critical.
Izen shared his belief that “the relationship with expertise that we’re discarding in society is really disturbing. You can’t be an expert on everything,” he added. “None of us do anything without speaking to sources because those are the objects that people are responsible for knowing stuff. That disposition towards knowledge is so, so valuable.”
Izen concluded that student journalism is a “nation building project,” and “there’s a reason that the second provision of the Constitution was dedicated to the protection of journalism, because we all recognized many a century ago how important this was and how at risk it is at any given moment.”
