Canadian lawyer, civil liberties advocate, and the Executive Director of the Free Speech Union of Canada. She is prominent for her legal and public advocacy surrounding free speech, parental rights, and sex-based rights, frequently challenging institutional policies on gender identity and diversity mandates.
Free Speech Union of Canada
As inaugural executive director of the Free Speech Union of Canada, Bildy leads a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization dedicated to the defence of free speech, partnered with Free Speech Unions in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.
Her path to the role was shaped directly by her casework: having represented nurse Amy Hamm through years of disciplinary proceedings for gender-critical advocacy, and having witnessed professional regulatory bodies used as instruments of ideological enforcement, she has described the fight for free speech in Canada as her personal hill to die on.
In her role, she oversees the organization's mandate to defend individual Canadians in free speech cases — providing direct representation, retaining outside counsel, or assisting with fundraising — including in non-governmental settings such as universities and human rights tribunals where Charter protections do not apply. caWsbar + 2
Professional Bodies Have Become a Major Threat to Free Speech — Free Speech Union of Canada
In this essay, Bildy argues that professional regulatory bodies have become tools of ideological enforcement, citing the disciplinary case against nurse Amy Hamm — found guilty of unprofessional conduct for her gender-critical advocacy — as evidence that it is now effectively impossible to advocate for sex-based rights in Canada, respectfully or otherwise, without facing professional sanction. wisc
Biography
Lisa Bildy graduated from Western Law School in 1993 and practiced as a trial lawyer before an unexpected hiatus to raise and homeschool her sons. On her return to practice in 2017, she led the successful StopSOP campaign to elect to the Law Society of Ontario a slate of lawyers committed to repealing the compelled Statement of Principles requirement. She then worked for two years as a staff lawyer with the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, before resuming her private practice, Libertas Law, where she focuses on defending civil liberties and individual freedoms. Fresh Magazine + 2
Her notable cases include representing nurse Amy Hamm before the BC College of Nurses and Midwives throughout her lengthy disciplinary proceedings, and representing Ontario physician Dr. Kulvinder Gill. She is the inaugural executive director of the Free Speech Union of Canada, a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization dedicated to the defence of free speech in Canada, partnered with the Free Speech Unions of the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. caWsbar
