The deadline for Canada's most exciting essay contest is fast approaching: Sunday, October 26, 2025.
Do you care about rights and freedoms in Canada? Do you enjoy discussing controversial topics?
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has a scholarship just for you!
This year, their Brandon Langhjelm Essay Contest invites Canadians aged 15 to 25 to develop their writing skills and explore Canada's most critical freedom issues:
- 1. The value of privacy, and its proper balance against public safety
- 2. The value of religious freedom, and its proper balance against state neutrality
Don't miss your chance — enter the contest to contribute to a national conversation, defend rights and freedoms in Canada, and win $2,000!
About the Brandon Langhjelm Essay Contest
Contest Deadline:
October 26, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. MT
Essay Length:
1,200 to 1,500 words
Sources and Bibliography:
Essays should include a variety of sources
Eligibility:
Canadians aged 15 to 25 (Citizens, or permanent residents)
For a full list of essay requirements, check out the Essay Contest criteria and guidelines.
Win your prize
The Brandon Langhjelm essay contest seeks to support young Canadians just like you, with its lucrative scholarship.
Join the contest to win your prize!
- First prize: $2,000
- Second prize: $1,000
- Third prize: $500
Essay questions
This year's essay contest features two critical topics. Choose one, and submit your essay.
Privacy and public safety:
With the stated goal of increasing public safety and security, governments have in recent years expanded their use of data-gathering technologies, including CCTV cameras, biometrics, AI-powered predictive analytics, digital IDs, and even central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). While they may help prevent some crime , they can violate citizens’ privacy by allowing governments to peer into citizens’ behaviours, beliefs, habits, and financial transactions, and use this information against citizens.
What makes privacy valuable? How important is privacy in a free society? Under what conditions, if any, should the government be permitted to interfere with individual privacy in the name of public safety? What is the proper balance between privacy and public safety?
Freedom of religion and secular spaces
Framed as an effort to preserve secularism, Quebec's Bill 21 prohibits public employees in positions of authority — such as teachers, police officers, and judges — from wearing religious symbols at work.
Do policies like Quebec's Bill 21 violate the fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion or expression? Does the state have a right to declare that public spaces are to be neutral or even secular? How should we balance religious freedom and freedom of expression against the principles of the separation of church and state and of the religious neutrality of the state?
What makes a good essay?
Writing an essay can be daunting when you don't know where to start. Luckily, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms provides helpful guidelines for what makes a good essay:
Strong theory engagement: Strong essays do more than present facts or opinions; they interact with ideas and theories. This could include referencing key thinkers and academics, assessing their ideas and theories, and applying these to the issues at hand.
Practical policy proposals: After exploring the theoretical aspects of the problem, strong essays provide practical policy proposals.
About Brandon Langhjelm
Despite being born with a significant disability, a connective tissue disorder called Loeys-Dietz syndrome, Brandon Langhjelm went on to earn a law degree and join the Justice Centre team to fight for freedom. Brandon carried a deep passion for academic excellence, love of freedom, and compassion for the vulnerable.
After his passing due to cancer in 2021, the Brandon Langhjelm Essay Contest was established in his honour to celebrate academic excellence and fuel the ambitions of the next generation of scholars and leaders in Canada.
The power of writing
Watch this video of Nigel Hannaford, speechwriter to a former Prime Minister of Canada, talk about the power of good writing.
So join the contest, and submit your essay. Your essay could change the way we think about freedom in Canada.
Don't forget: the submission deadline is October 26, 2025!
Get started on your essay today so you can truly nail it. Good luck!
About the Justice Centre
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is a registered, national charity committed to defending the constitutional freedoms of all Canadians through litigation and education. Founded in 2010, our vision is a free society where governments uphold human dignity by respecting fundamental rights and freedoms and where Canadians can realize their potential and fulfil their aspirations. Learn more about the Justice Centre here.
Get started on your essay today