THE ADVOCATE 251
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
Brandon was entrusted to lead his first court case in 2020, in which he
challenged the decision of the City of New Westminster to cancel an immigrant
church’s youth conference, without notice, on the unfounded
assumption that it would “promote racism, hate, violence, censorship,
crime or other unethical pursuits”. Brandon fought back against the city’s
unjustified attack on the church’s constitutional freedoms with his written
and oral submissions. On July 19, 2021, Justice Maria Morellato agreed with
Brandon’s submissions that the city violated the Charter-protected freedom
of expression. In a statement that would uplift the spirits of any constitutional
lawyer, Justice Morellato rejected the city’s argument that expression
at the church’s conference would be “low value”, stating:
In a free and democratic society, the exchange and expression of diverse
and often controversial or unpopular ideas may cause discomfort. It is, in
a sense, the price we pay for our freedom. Once governments begin to
argue that the expression of some ideas are less valuable than others, we
find ourselves on dangerous ground.
At the Justice Centre, Brandon’s colleagues greatly valued his keen legal
insight, thorough legal research and objective perspective.
The fall of 2021 saw Brandon engaged in defending Canadians against
government COVID measures said to violate their fundamental freedoms to
gather for worship or to protest peacefully. He was making court appearances
up until September.
Over 2020 and 2021, Brandon had frequently gone to the hospital to try
and address health challenges he was experiencing, but the underlying
issue was missed. Finally, in September 2021, a CT scan was administered
and Brandon was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Brandon never left the
hospital.
Within a few weeks, Brandon’s situation grew very grim. But Brandon
held out hope and was actively speaking to medical staff and looking for a
means to extend his life. He was at one point given a degree of hope that he
would be able to come home and possibly receive treatment. However,
Brandon ended up in the ICU, where he was intubated.
Brandon died in the early hours of Monday morning, October 25, 2021.
Brandon held pro-life views and despised the utilitarian view of life
whereby some people’s lives are held to be of less value. In a 2018 report
recapping a legal conference held in New Westminster, Brandon expressed
his view that it was “essential … to prevent the expansion of assisted suicide
from sending our country sliding downward toward a utilitarian view of
human life”. As a person born with a disability, he was ever aware of the attitude
of some in society that his life was less valued.