Campus free speech a growing concern

Re. “Poilievre's pitch that universities need a `guardian' is misguided,” Opinion,

June 23

James Gacek astonishingly declares that Poilievre's wish to link university funding to guarantees of free speech and academic freedom is dangerous. The only danger will be to persons like the good professor and left-leaning ideologues dominating campuses.

Accountability by universities receiving operating funding is more critical to issues surrounding free speech than research funding is.

A recent Nanos Research poll indicated that free speech is a growing concern. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, in its 2020 Campus Freedom Index on the state of free speech at Canada's 61 public universities, awarded far more F grades than A grades to Canadian universities and student unions. It is not unusual for speakers at universities to be shouted down, threatened or “de-platformed.”

Prof. David Haskell of Wilfrid Laurier University, drawing on copious academic research and personal experiences, concludes that conservatives on Canadian and U.S. campuses, especially conservative Christians, are “likely to experience hostility and discrimination.”

Jordan Peterson, Canada's foremost public intellectual, said that faculty promotions at his former university had more to do with equity, diversity, and inclusion agendas than with meritocracy.

It was only last month that a Mount Royal University professor was fired for questioning “wokeism,” an autocratic demand to replace objectivity with identity politics.

Tony Vogrincic, Edmonton