Universities must transcend echo chambers

Bishop’s sets an example that others would do well to follow, Michael Kennedy and John Carpay say.

Our society is becoming increasingly atomized. Social media enables us to spend all day long in an ideological bubble, in which our own views are fed back to us. While making us feel good, our echo chamber also polarizes, alienates and leads us to see those with whom we disagree as stupid or evil.

Now more than ever, these new realities require universities to step up and educate the next generation of Canadians about how to have a civil and intellectual conversation with those with whom we disagree.

Too many universities fail to understand this mission. Worse yet, many universities allow young people to interrupt, obstruct, intimidate and silence their ideological opponents, rather than using reasoned debate.

A case in point was an incident earlier this year, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., involving University of Toronto professor Jordan B. Peterson, who had famously clashed with his own university after having opposed political correctness and compelled speech. Peterson had been invited by a student group to speak as part of a panel on free speech. The panel ended up including only him after McMaster’s President’s Advisory Committee on Building an Inclusive Community issued a statement condemning Peterson for his views, and encouraging protests to stop the event. Loud protesters physically disrupted the event by clanging cowbells, blowing air horns and chanting vulgarities, while university security did nothing to stop the disruption. McMaster’s president issued a statement three days later, asserting that “protesters” are entitled to shut down events and silence speakers they disagree with, as long as they do so without overt violence.

The University of Toronto and McMaster University both earned F grades in the 2017 Campus Freedom Index, which measures the state of free speech at public universities.

In Montreal, McGill University also earned an F. It claims that free expression “means the right to communicate one’s thoughts, beliefs and opinions, and to comment on any issue, including the right to criticize society at large,” yet failed to defend its own professor Andrew Potter when he penned a controversial opinion piece critical of what he considered Quebec’s “pathologically alienated and low-trust society.” Rather than refuse Potter’s resignation from the directorship of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada over the controversy, McGill stated that Potter had “failed to uphold mission” and accepted his resignation. Potter remains at the university as a professor.

In total, the index awarded 38 F grades to universities and student unions across the country.

These universities forget that the pursuit of their missions depends entirely on freedom of expression and academic freedom. Universities should be working overtime to foster a culture of discourse and debate, openness to new ideas and a willingness to be offended.

Sadly, only one university received a perfect score of two A grades in this year’s Campus Freedom Index: Bishop’s University, in Sherbrooke. It unequivocally reinforces the rights of professors, students and guests to criticize the university, to engage in peaceful discourse, and to learn by discovery and challenge.

It was refreshing to see Bishop’s president Michael Goldbloom publicly and staunchly defend the university’s decision to welcome criminal defence attorney Marie Henein to speak on campus earlier this year. The invitation drew criticism from students and women’s groups, who opposed Henein’s “aggressive treatment of women” during her legal representation of former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, and worried that her speaking at Bishop’s would “traumatize” victims of sexual violence. In response to the criticism, Goldbloom issued a public statement wherein he concluded, “no one is required to be at her lecture, but whether their views are reinforced or changed, I am confident that everyone who attends will learn something.”

We hope that more universities will follow the Bishop’s example and return to their core function: fostering open minds, critical inquiry and intellectual discovery.