U of O dean faces backlash after warning staff against ‘politically charged sentiment’
The Canadian Association of University Teachers is calling on the dean of the University of Ottawa’s faculty of medicine to retract comments he made in a recent memo and reassure faculty that “no action” will be taken against those who exercise their academic freedom.
“One of the key components of academic freedom is the right of faculty to exercise free speech without the university’s censorship or reprisal,” said CAUT executive director David Robinson in a statement.
Dr. Jacques Bradwejn, the faculty of medicine’s dean, recently warned faculty members, in a memo obtained by the Citizen, against using their roles as educators to make “personal or demeaning attacks on celebrities or politicians.
“While most of our faculty members are demonstrable champions of professionalism, it has come to light” that some members of the faculty have been “using material or presenting information that may be considered inappropriate in the context of the educational values that we as a university uphold,” he wrote in the memo.
He also warned faculty against expressing “politically charged sentiment” in social media accounts that identify them as a member of the university’s faculty of medicine.
It is not clear whether a single incident prompted the dean’s message. But some faculty at the university said they believe the memo is both inappropriate and an infringement on academic freedom.
The issue also caught the attention of Timothy Caulfield, a Canadian academic who has become well known for speaking up about celebrities and their influence on health.
Caulfield, author of the book Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything? and Canada Research Chair of Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, said it is more important than ever for academics to speak out in “fearless pursuit of ideas.”
Caulfield said when he read the memo “it almost sounded like it was written for me,” because he comments on politicians and celebrities.
“One of the privileges and one of the responsibilities of being an academic is to speak up and to comment when you think comment is required,” he said. “That does not mean that you should be disrespectful, but I don’t think academics should feel like there is any constraint. On the contrary I think that is one of the roles that academics have in liberal democracies.”
A spokesperson for the university said Tuesday they would have no further comment on the issue.
I don’t think academics should feel like there is any constraint.