William F. Flanagan (born 1960) is a Canadian academic. In March 2020, his appointment was announced as the next president of the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

, succeeding David H. Turpin in July 2020. He previously served as the dean of the faculty of law at Queen's University from to 2005 to 2019. Flanagan is married to his husband Saffron Sri, who is originally from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Early life and career

Flanagan was born in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, the son of two teachers. In his teen years, he worked as a page in the Canadian House of Commons, where his maternal uncle

Jack Horner Jack Horner may refer to: *"Little Jack Horner", a nursery rhyme People * Jack Horner (activist) (born 1922), Australian author and activist in the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship * Jack Horner (baseball) (1863–1910), American professional ba ...

was a Member of Parliament. He attended

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

where he earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree, then the

University of Toronto Faculty of Law The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (U of T Law, UToronto Law) is the law school of the University of Toronto, located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Downtown Toronto. It is the top ranked common law facu ...

, earning a J.D. degree in 1985. He also earned a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

in 1986 and a master's degree in law from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in 1989. In 1987, he served as a law clerk for

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

justice

Willard Estey Willard Zebedee "Bud" Estey (October 10, 1919 – January 25, 2002) was a Canadian justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Estey was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was the son of James Wilfred Estey, a puisne justice of the Supreme Co ...

. He joined Queen's University's faculty of law in 1991. He taught international trade and investment, property law and corporate law, and founded the International Law Spring Program at the International Study Centre in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

at Queen's University.

Response to 2024 pro-Palestinian protests

On May 9, 2024, an encampment was organized by The People's University for Palestine was established on the University of Alberta main quad in solidarity with international student protests against the Israeli actions during the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

(and since the 1948 Nakba) which has been characterized as a

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

. A May 9th communication by President and Vice Chancellor Bill Flanagan reinforced the university's commitment to

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

including non-violent protest and dissent as “foundations of the university”. This memo also indicated that the university would not tolerate any violation of law or university policies, such as hate speech or violence. On May 10th, Campus Security visited the encampment and read a notice of trespass and eviction. Video evidence shows that Frank Page, head of Campus Security, announced a ban of all encampment participants from the University of Alberta campus for the period of a year. In the early morning of May 11th, a day after the encampment participants had been given notice of trespass and eviction, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) was deployed against the encampment. Protestors alleged violence on the part of the EPS officers. Shortly after the dispersal of encampment-goers, Bill Flanagan released a May 11th statement citing the possibility of “serious violence” instigated by counter-protestors. Criticism from across the University of Alberta community against Bill Flanagan were launched as a result of these events. In response, Bill Flanagan released a May 12th communication acknowledging the criticism but reiterating his belief that the action taken had been necessary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Bill 1960s births Living people Carleton University alumni Columbia Law School alumni Academics from Edmonton Presidents of the University of Alberta Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston University of Paris alumni University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni Canadian expatriates in France Canadian LGBTQ academics 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people