Education

UBC law school grad Amir Attaran wants to renounce his degree because of university's vaccination policy

by Charlie Smith on August 28th, 2021 at 9:17 AM
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      A second UBC law school graduate in less than five months has decided that he no longer wants this degree.

      Amir Attaran, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Ottawa, declared on Twitter today (August 28) that he would like to officially renounce his diploma.

      It's due to UBC's refusal to require students to be vaccinated to enter classrooms.

      "I still have my diplomas from Berkeley, Caltech, and Oxford to fall back on," Attaran declared.

      As a law student in the late 1990s, Attaran was one of four students who filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court challenging ancillary-fee increases on domestic students and tuition-fee increases in excess of 400 percent imposed on international students at UBC.

      After graduating from UBC, Attaran was called to the bar in 1999. That same year, he wrote an article for the UBC Law Review about civil injunctions.

      Back in April, former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh revealed that he wanted to burn his UBC law degree after an Indian journalist was prevented from speaking on campus.

      In a commentary posted on Straight.com at the time, Dosanjh said that due to environmental considerations, he chose instead to recycle the degree.

      Henry's announcement generated anger

      On August 24, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters that nonvaccinated students would be allowed to attend classes this September in B.C.'s public postsecondary institutions as long as they wore masks.

      That triggered a great deal of outrage in academia, with some professors threatening to teach from home.

      UBC president Santa Ono subsequently stated that the university will require all unvaccinated faculty, staff, and students to undergo rapid testing for COVID-19.

      You can read Attaran's Twitter exchange with UBC physiologist and medicine professor Jim Johnson regarding Attaran's wish to renounce his degree. Johnson's Twitter feed emphasizes that his tweets do not reflect the views of his employer.

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