WLU should study the Charter

There, in the opening sentences of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are stirring words for everyone in this country — including everyone at Wilfrid Laurier University — to read and savour.

“Everyone has … freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression,” the highest law in the land declares in its robust guarantee of a fundamental liberty as important to individuals as society at large.

Those words have guided and protected Canadians since being formally approved in 1982. They remain as relevant now as when they were passed.

And we can think of no better words for a Wilfrid Laurier task force to ponder as it drafts a statement on freedom of expression for the university community.

Creating this task force was an appropriate response to the shoddy treatment of graduate student Lindsay Shepherd late last year.

Shepherd was disciplined by two, overzealous members of faculty and an equity and diversity official for showing her tutorial students a TVO video debating the pros and cons of gender-neutral pronouns.

An independent investigation launched by the university concluded Shepherd had done nothing wrong.

After that embarrassing revelation, WLU’s president and vice-chancellor, Deborah MacLatchy, not only apologized to Shepherd but reaffirmed the university’s commitment to “the abiding principles of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

Then, MacLatchy announced a task force would explore how Laurier would uphold those rights while respecting other human rights and diversity.

That was a wise move. In this era of powerful, polarized opinions expressed in powerful, polarizing language on social media, university campuses can be fraught places.

Laurier’s task force should bring clarity to how free speech coexists with other rights.

At the same time, this task force should not feel inclined to attempt the equivalent of reinventing the wheel — or redefining basic rights.

Our Constitution doesn’t say people have free speech except when that speech hurts someone’s feelings, is unpopular or objectionable.

On the contrary, it upholds free speech with no “ifs,” “ands” or “buts.”

To be sure, the university cannot offer greater latitude to free speech than the state already ensures.

Laws against defamation or hate speech, for instance, are specific though limited restrictions on what can be said or written. The university can’t change these.

But neither should WLU attempt to offer less free speech than what is already enshrined in the Charter.

Not only would such an attempt be legally questionable, it would be inappropriate for an institution dedicated to opening minds, not closing them, to promoting the broadest possible discussions that broaden understanding.

It should be a bastion of free speech.

To a large degree, what is required is for the WLU community to uphold free speech and offer the greatest exchange of ideas possible while teaching its members to disagree agreeably.

With this in mind, we see the need for mandatory, half-day seminars on our constitutional rights, especially free-speech rights, for all incoming WLU students, faculty and employees.

In a centre of serious study, it’s time to seriously study the Charter of Rights.