Yet another power grab
Last week was rough for the premier. His big announcement about the Honda plant was overshadowed by dissension in his caucus and bad press surrounding the kaffiyeh ban. And then there was Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act.
Bill 166 purports to address student safety by requiring that all post-secondary institutions have policies outlining how they address mental health and anti-racism, which they do already based on extensive research, community-consultation and best practices.
At first blush, the bill seems like needless duplication — at worst, an attempt to make up for last month’s funding announcement, which will result in devastating cuts to programs and services across the sector.
But something hidden in the bill should give Ontarians pause. By introducing “ministerial directives,” Bill 166 gives the minister of colleges and universities sweeping power to determine specific topics and elements of post-secondary institutions’ policies on anti-racism and mental health. The bill does not indicate the directives’ nature or scope, or whether they will be determined through research and consultation or through lobbying and electioneering.
The bill further allows the minister to take unspecified action against institutions if the minister believes they have not followed these directives, and there is no mechanism for accountability or even warning should a directive cause harm. The bill also suspends the Legislation Act, suggesting the minister can issue these directives without registering them with the clerk — potentially in a phone call to a university president that never even appears on the public record.
This is unprecedented political interference in a sector that is supposed to be protected from partisan control. For over 100 years, the internal affairs of Ontario universities have been governed by the University Acts, which recent court decisions have unequivocally upheld. Such institutional autonomy is recognized internationally as a cornerstone of democracy because it ensures a separation of powers that prevents universities and colleges from becoming merely venues for government propaganda and indoctrination.
Even by this government’s market-based standards, if Ontario is to attract industry and business on the strength of its well-reputed post-secondary institutions, weakening the internationally recognized safeguards that maintain the sector’s integrity seems ill advised.
Notably, the government hasn’t presented anything approximating the strong case, based on independent research and systematic consultation, that we would expect to justify such a change. We’ve seen no evidence that a move away from democratic checks and balances and toward governance by ministerial fiat is the only or best way to improve anti-racism and mental health services on campuses — as opposed to, say, adequate funding of the sector.
Ontarians shouldn’t be surprised, of course, given this government’s record of curtailing oversight mechanisms, making questionable appointments and other breaches — not to mention the Greenbelt scandal.
Bill 166 should be understood in this context: it’s not only about colleges and universities, and it’s not a sudden commitment to anti-racism or mental health. It’s yet another power grab by a government that just doesn’t seem to think the rules of democracy apply to it.
As the grossly inappropriate kaffiyeh ban reminds us, Ontarians should not be giving this government unchecked power over post-secondary institutions’ policies on anti-racism or anything else. At this point, I wouldn’t trust this government with my car keys, let alone give it a green light to start controlling the institutions that produce and disseminate knowledge in our democracy.
HONOR BRABAZON IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE SOCIOLOGY AND LEGAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT AT ST. JEROME’S UNIVERSITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO.