Can you record lectures at Canadian universities? The rules

Short answer first: at most Canadian universities you can record a lecture on your own device only if the instructor has agreed beforehand, and a yes covers your own private study and nothing else. The rule is usually written into the course syllabus, and where it is not, the university's default is that you ask. Recording without asking is treated as academic misconduct, a conduct breach, or a copyright infringement, depending on which university's wording you read.

Two things hold across the country. The instructor is the decision-maker, and an approved accommodation from the accessibility office changes who has to say yes but not what you may do with the file. Ask before the class, in writing, keep the reply, keep the recording to yourself, and delete it when the course ends. That puts you inside every policy below.

Who decides whether you can record?

The instructor, at every university here that publishes a rule. The wording differs, and so does what happens if you skip the asking.

• University of Toronto (Ontario). The academic integrity office says: "If a student wishes to digitally-record, photograph, video-record or otherwise reproduce lecture presentations, course notes or other similar materials provided by instructors, they must first obtain the instructor's consent to do so." Then: "Otherwise all such recording or reproduction is an infringement of the instructor's copyright, and is prohibited."
• UBC (British Columbia). The Provost's ten things students should know puts the syllabus first: "Even where recording a class for personal academic study is technically easy or not contrary to any laws, at UBC you must follow what your course syllabus and instructor determine regarding student-made recordings." The Principles for recording classroom activities, updated in April 2025 with the Office of the University Counsel, add a default for a silent syllabus: students "may make recordings for personal academic use and may share them with other students enrolled in the course for their personal academic use", and should not post or distribute them anywhere someone not enrolled could reach them.
• McGill (Quebec). The Student Accessibility and Achievement office requires students to "obtain consent from each course instructor prior to recording the lecture, conference, tutorial, or other course content", and warns that "McGill University cannot guarantee that all professors will consent to the use of recording devices or computers in their classroom."
• Concordia (Quebec). Policy PRVPA-2, in force since 6 November 2015, is the clearest: "Students shall not make any recording (audio or video) of a classroom lecture without having obtained the prior written permission from the instructor." Permission "may be granted to a student at the discretion of the instructor and normally for the sole purpose of accommodating a student's particular needs and only for the purposes of private study."
• Queen's (Ontario). The School of Rehabilitation Therapy's policy, revised in September 2021, says: "Students may not independently record any portion of a lecture, class discussion or course-related learning activity without the prior and explicit written permission of the course instructor."
• Calgary (Alberta). The Provost's page on recordings in learning environments says: "Unless the audio recording of lectures is part of a student accessibility requirement, permission must be sought by the course instructor to audio record lectures", and points to a Permission Form to Audio Record Lectures. The 2022-23 Calendar, section E.6, allows audio recording for private study "at the discretion of the instructor" and says recordings "other than audio recordings, as outlined below are not permitted."
• Waterloo (Ontario). The academic integrity office says: "A lecture is the intellectual property of the instructor. The instructor has discretion as to whether their lecture is recorded." Its privacy guidance for remote teaching is looser, saying students "are permitted to record course activities for personal use to facilitate their learning and preparation of personal course/lecture notes", but even there the link or a copy may not be disclosed to anyone without the instructor's permission.
• Dalhousie (Nova Scotia). The library's copyright guide for students says: "Check with your instructor and verify that you have permission to record a lecture before doing so, including using artificial intelligence for note-taking." Copyright in the lecture "would belong to your instructor and any presenters (if applicable) as they would own their 'performances' under copyright law."

Note what none of them say. There is no general right to record because you pay tuition or because the material is on the exam. The closest thing to a general permission is UBC's default, and it only applies where the syllabus is silent. The safe working assumption everywhere else is Concordia's wording: written permission, private study, nothing shared.

When and how do you ask?

Before the class, by email, to the person teaching it. A recording that already exists when you ask is exactly what the misconduct clauses are written for. Calgary's non-academic misconduct policy lists as prohibited conduct to "record lectures without appropriate authorization", and separately to "use recordings of lectures, presentations, or other intellectual property for anything other than their own learning without the express permission of the owner." Calgary's Calendar says any use beyond private study "constitutes academic misconduct and may result in suspension or expulsion." Queen's rehabilitation policy says recording without permission "is considered a violation of Copyright and will be subject to sanctions for academic misconduct", and that students "may be subject to disciplinary actions under the Queen's University Student Code of Conduct." Concordia routes a breach through its Code of Rights and Responsibilities and Academic Code of Conduct.

The request itself

Keep it short and specific.

1. Write to the instructor of the course, not a department office. McGill's wording is consent from "each course instructor", so one email per course.
2. Send it before the first lecture you want to record. A request in the first week covers the term.
3. Say what you want to record. Audio only is the version the Calgary Calendar allows and the version most likely to get a yes.
4. Say what it is for. Your own private study, which is the permitted purpose everywhere.
5. Say what you will not do. Share it, post it, or pass it to anyone outside your own devices.
6. Keep the reply. Dalhousie's guide says an email will do, and it is right.

Check the syllabus first. UBC's principles tell instructors they "may establish specific permissions and restrictions in their course syllabus", and Concordia recommends that instructors "include, in their course outlines, information for students as to the rules regarding the recording of lectures." Many Canadian syllabi already answer the question, and an instructor who wrote "no recording" on page two is unlikely to enjoy the email. Check as well whether the course is already recorded by the university, which is often the case in large classes. What Canadian lecture capture actually records is worth reading before you put a phone on the desk.

What does a yes cover?

Studying from it. Every policy separates permission to record from permission to distribute, and treats the second as a breach.

• Concordia. "Recordings of lectures made by students shall not be shared, reproduced or uploaded to any publically accessible web environment or used for any purpose not specifically authorized by the instructor." They also "shall not be made, used, distributed for any commercial purposes or compensation."
• Calgary. The Calendar's own words: "Students may not distribute, email or otherwise communicate these materials to any other person."
• UBC. Permission "is limited to your own academic use in this course and does not include sharing, reposting, or repurposing it." Improper sharing, editing or circulating "can violate course expectations, academic integrity, copyright law, privacy law, and the standard of conduct required of students."
• McGill. Accommodation recordings "must be used solely for the individual study purposes of the student with a disability", and "Disclosure, further use, or distribution of these materials in any way are subject to discipline."
• Queen's rehabilitation therapy. A recording made for an accommodation "cannot be shared with others in the class or outside the course without additional permission from the instructor. This includes posting to the internet or any social media or other location or on any device to which electronic/digital access can be obtained by any other person."
• Waterloo. The lecture is the instructor's intellectual property, and "violating IP rights is an academic offense."

Two of these matter for anyone who uses software on the file. Dalhousie's line about "using artificial intelligence for note-taking" names the practice directly, and it puts it inside the permission you ask for, not outside it. And UBC's list of what improper sharing can violate includes privacy law, because a recording of a class captures other people. Where you upload a file, the processing happens somewhere, and what happens to it is covered in your study data and privacy law in Canada.

How does an accommodation change the answer?

The route changes. The conditions do not.

The duty sits in provincial human rights law. The Ontario Human Rights Commission's fact sheet says: "Education providers have a duty to accommodate students with disabilities up to the point of undue hardship." Its policy on accessible education says the same in statutory terms: "Under the Code, education providers have a legal duty to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities." Every province has an equivalent code, and every university here has an office that turns it into a plan.

• Toronto. "In the case of private use by students with registered accommodations, the instructor's consent will not be unreasonably withheld." The Faculty of Law's handbook shows what that looks like in practice: "Students whose disability requires access to recordings receive, through Accessibility Services, an accommodation to make their own recordings."
• UBC. "Accommodations granted under this Policy take precedence over any restrictions on recordings imposed by the instructor in the course syllabus, or as may generally exist or arise under the academic unit's policies." The office is the Centre for Accessibility at UBC Vancouver and the Disability Resource Centre at UBC Okanagan. The Provost's page adds that some students "have approved accommodations that specifically allow recording and / or transcription as an alternative to traditional note-taking, even in courses where other students are not generally permitted to make recordings."
• Calgary. The strongest wording in the set. Audio recording that "is part of a student accessibility requirement" needs no instructor permission. Student Accessibility Services says students "with documented disabilities, conditions, or injuries which impact note taking may be eligible for an accommodation to audio record lectures", and "must comply with the terms set out in the Audio Recording Agreement."
• Waterloo. AccessAbility Services tells instructors about every student whose plan includes "capturing course content in alternate format (such as through audio-recording the lecture for personal use)", and the instructor is expected to accept it unless doing so would cause undue hardship.
• Queen's rehabilitation therapy. "If recording is being requested for disability accommodation, the instructor's consent must not be unreasonably withheld." The procedure "must be agreed upon by the instructor and the student, and may require that the instructor controls the recording device."
• McGill and Concordia. The accommodation gets you the equipment and the letter, and you still ask. McGill students borrowing recording equipment sign a loan agreement that includes the consent requirement. Concordia's guidance for instructors says: "It is at your discretion whether to share their slides or to allow students to record their lectures", and directs both sides to policy PRVPA-2.
• Western. Accessible Education lists "Permission to tape record lectures" among its academic accommodations. The Office of the Ombudsperson's guide for students registered with Accessible Education explains the standard: "The University is obliged to accommodate your disability unless, to do so, would result in undue hardship or unless, to do so, would relieve you of performing essential tasks or compromise the essential requirements of the course."

The plan has different names. Letter of accommodation, accommodation plan, Audio Recording Agreement. The route is the same everywhere: register with the accessibility office, provide the documentation, and get recording written into the plan before term gets busy. Western's guide says to check no later than three weeks after classes begin that your instructors have agreed to each accommodation. It is not something an instructor can grant on the university's behalf in week six.

Ontario's AODA, and what it does and does not do

Ontario students often hear the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act mentioned alongside the Human Rights Code. They are different instruments. The AODA sets accessibility standards in five areas, including information and communications, that government, businesses, non-profits and public sector organizations must follow. It is why lecture capture systems come with captions and why course websites have to meet accessibility guidelines. The individual duty to accommodate you, up to undue hardship, comes from the Human Rights Code, and that is the law your accommodation plan rests on.

What does an accommodation still not cover?

Less than people expect. The plan is written around lectures, and the other rooms have other rules.

The seminar where the discussion finally gets good is often exactly the session nobody may record. Those rooms need a different method rather than a microphone, which is what notes for tutorials and labs at Canadian universities is about.

What law sits underneath?

Three pieces, and it helps to know which one you are arguing with. Canada is federal, so two of them are provincial and change at the border.

• Human rights and the duty to accommodate. Provincial. Ontario's Human Rights Code, quoted above, and its equivalents in BC, Alberta, Quebec and every other province. The duty runs to undue hardship, and it is owed by the institution, which is why the accessibility office, not the instructor, is the right door. The OHRC fact sheet describes the process as a shared one in which "each party has a duty to co-operatively engage in the process, share information, and canvass potential accommodation solutions."
• Copyright. Federal. Section 29 of the Copyright Act says: "Fair dealing for the purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire does not infringe copyright." Students read that as a licence. It is a defence about how you use material that already exists, and the universities treat the act of recording as a separate question. Toronto calls recording without consent "an infringement of the instructor's copyright". Section 15 gives a performer "a copyright in the performer's performance", including the sole right to fix a performance that is not yet fixed, which is the right Dalhousie is pointing to when it says instructors own their "performances". UBC's principles nod at fair dealing from the other direction, telling instructors who restrict recording to "consider the 'fair dealing' rights that students are entitled to exercise under the Copyright Act." That is why permission is the whole question, and why a fair dealing argument after the fact does not get you far.
• Privacy. Split. The federal PIPEDA does not apply to "any individual in respect of personal information that the individual collects, uses or discloses for personal or domestic purposes and does not collect, use or disclose for any other purpose." Your own study recording, kept to yourself, sits inside that exclusion. Post it to a class group and the personal purpose is gone. Universities themselves are not under PIPEDA at all. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's summary says "Municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals are generally covered by provincial laws." In Ontario and BC that law is called FIPPA, which is why Queen's, Waterloo, UBC and the University of Ottawa all cite it when they talk about recordings of a class. Quebec's Law 25 adds duties for any business that sends personal information outside the province, which matters for the app you upload to rather than the recording you make.

The University of Ottawa is a useful reminder that the university's rules and your rules are different documents. Its guidelines for media recording of students say "A classroom (physical or virtual) is not a public space; therefore, students have an expectation of privacy", and then note that "This operating standard does not address recordings by students." Your recording is governed by the syllabus and the instructor, not by the guideline the university wrote for itself.

What if the instructor says no?

Arguing about your entitlement rarely works. Finding the objection usually does.

1. Ask what the concern is. Queen's rehabilitation policy lists what instructors are told to weigh: "sensitive material being discussed; potential inhibition on students' participation if it is recorded because of the nature of the topic; little educational value to the recording." UBC's principles name "the nature of the material and discussion topics" and workload. Calgary's Calendar worries that recording "discourages the development of these important skills" and may "inhibit frank and open discussion of course material in the classroom."
2. Offer a narrower recording. Audio only, paused during the discussion. Queen's builds instructor control of the device into its accommodation procedure, and that is a reasonable offer from a student too.
3. Ask what else is available. Slides, the official capture, a note-taker. Concordia's accommodation guidance encourages instructors to share slides because "many students experience barriers related to note-taking", and suggests recording the class themselves as an alternative.
4. If the real reason you want to record is that you cannot listen and write at the same time, go to the accessibility office. That is an accommodation question, and the university has a legal duty it does not have towards a general request. Western's guide says instructors may ask Accessible Education to reconsider an accommodation "only on the ground that the accommodation compromises the essential requirements of the course or program", and that while an accommodation is under appeal "the accommodation will be provided on an interim basis."

Where Notibo fits

Getting permission is the hard part. The easy part to get wrong is what happens afterwards, which is usually nothing, because a folder of hour-long audio files is not exam material. Notibo records a lecture, or takes an uploaded audio file, and returns a transcript, structured notes and flashcards with spaced repetition, in 89 languages including Canadian English and French. Long recordings are split into 30-minute files on the phone and joined back into one transcript. The free plan covers 30 minutes of recording a month, Pro is EUR 9.99 a month with a seven-day trial on the monthly plan or EUR 99.99 a year, prices are in euro with the local amount shown at checkout, and uploads are capped at 50 MB. Two things to know before you point it at a lecture. Files are stored in the EU on Supabase in Frankfurt, but the audio is transcribed by speech-to-text providers in the United States and the notes are produced on US processors, under standard contractual clauses. So treat a recording of a class discussion the way your university's policy treats it. If in doubt, record the instructor only, and there is more on how the recording works on AI lecture note taker.