Conservatives accused of free speech double standard
OTTAWA • Amid controversy over the cancellation of a film screening at an Ottawa Catholic university, the federal Liberals are attacking the Conservatives for being selective about the ideas they’re choosing to defend in campus battles over free speech.
Science Minister Kirsty Duncan demanded Monday that the Tories react to news that Saint Paul University last week cancelled a film festival event featuring a documentary about abortion. The Conservatives, who have publicly defended free speech in other cases, hadn’t immediately commented on the cancellation. But a spokesman said Monday the party believes in the free exchange of ideas in academic settings, including on such issues as abortion.
Liberals have already confronted Conservatives on abortion this fall and Conservatives have tried to provoke Liberals on campus free speech. Politicians appear poised to continue floating attack lines on both issues as the clock ticks closer to a federal election campaign.
“You can’t pick and choose the issues, the free-speech issues that you stand up for,” Duncan told reporters Monday outside the House of Commons. “The Conservatives speak up when it’s politically convenient and we haven’t heard from the Conservatives or from (leader) Andrew Scheer. I think their silence speaks volumes.”
The Choice Birth and Baby Film Festival is screening Vessel, an award-winning film about abortion, at a wellness centre near Saint Paul University after organizers were told they could not show the film on campus.
“Free speech intersects with the right to access safe abortion care,” says a weekend post on the festival’s Facebook page, linking to a Global News report about the cancellation.
The festival is still scheduled to hold other screenings on campus. The university did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Campus free speech has increasingly become a political football on Parliament Hill. Last week, the Tories chastised the Liberals for failing to condemn the recent censure of a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University. Lindsay Shepherd was reprimanded after showing students a clip of a televised debate on gender pronouns featuring professor Jordan Peterson. The university’s president has since apologized to her.
While Duncan ducked away from questions Monday, her office provided a statement that press secretary Ann-Marie Paquet said applies to all such issues, including what happened at Wilfrid Laurier.
“Our government is committed to creating open spaces for Canadians to debate and express their views. We also firmly support a women’s (sic) right to choose,” the statement reads.
“In a free society, we may disagree with a person’s views, but we must defence (sic) their right to hold them — unless those views promote hate.”
During his campaign to become Conservative leader, Scheer proposed a policy to restrict federal funding from universities that don’t do enough to foster students’ free speech.
In August, the University of Toronto barred the “Canadian Nationalist Party,” accused of promoting white supremacy, from holding an event. The same week, Ryerson University cancelled an event themed around free speech, which featured Peterson and other personalities associated with right-wing politics.
These events prompted Scheer to clarify his policy would not infringe upon administrations’ rights to choose what events can be held.