A former Canadian student activist best known for his role during the 2012 Quebec student protests won an appeal reversing his contempt of court conviction after the Quebec Court of Appeal held that individuals have the right to hold strongly held convictions even in the face of a court order.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the former spokesman of the major student organization CLASSE, was found guilty three years ago of inciting students during a television interview to strike and ignore a court order that guaranteed students access to their classrooms during the student conflict in the spring of 2012 when thousands took to the streets to protest planned tuition fee increases. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which was thrown out.

“Now we have a ruling which says that one of the things to be considered when it comes to verbal contempt of court is whether freedom of expression is threatened, and it is particularly important in matters where a person expresses disagreement with a judgment,” said Julius Grey, a leading civil libertarian and human rights advocate.