The University of Manitoba and the provincial government are being sued after a Winnipeg woman was denied entrance to medical school.

A statement of claim has been filed with the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench by lawyer Shawn Olfman, whose daughter, Henya Olfman, applied to the university's faculty of medicine in 2009.

Henya Olfman had high marks in her pre-med university courses, scored well in the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and provided great references, according to the claim.

But Shawn Olfman said the university breached a contract it had with students who applied to the medical school by changing its interview criteria without notice.

As well, he said the interviews violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the school's own policies because they are based too much on the personal opinions of the applicants and not their abilities.

"They breached their own rules, they breached their own contract and they breached the Charter to keep her out," he told CBC News on Thursday.

"The person is to be judged on their merit, but a person's thoughts, political beliefs, opinions, religion are irrelevant to whether a person should be advanced or denied advancement."

Olfman also accused the university of giving preference to rural applicants, further impairing his daughter's chances of being admitted.

University officials declined to comment on the case. The allegations contained in Olfman's statement of claim have not been proven in court.