Over the past several years, questions of free speech on campus have become a flashpoint in the culture wars, in the United States and then in Canada. The Kenney government, following in the footsteps of Ford in Ontario and Trump in the US, ordered Alberta’s post-secondaries to adopt policies embracing the ‘Chicago Principles.’
While there may not have been joy about being ordered to develop another policy, this didn’t appear to cause huge ripples on Alberta campuses. Post-secondaries in Canada have already come to terms with the idea that Charter protections of free speech apply there. At my institution, the annual display of graphic posters from pro-life groups has been a regular reminder of this.
Academic freedom is a fundamental value that universities protect. Heck, this substack is brought to you by academic freedom!
But academic freedom and free speech are not the only principles that institutions embrace. Many Canadian universities — including the University of Lethbridge — have made sincere commitments to engage in partnerships with Indigenous peoples, as part of a broader journey of reconciliation. Trust is the essential element in building these partnerships, and trust isn’t easily built in the aftermath of Canada’s history of residential schools.
This brings us to the incredibly difficult choice that the leadership of the University of Lethbridge had to make last week. It could fall back on the principles of free speech, and keep the provincial government happy. The talk could take place; protesters could protest. But the response from community evidently caused the leadership to take a second look at that decision. It appears to me as an outside observer that they were confronted with the cost of prioritizing free speech: betraying the trust of Indigenous partners and students.
I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot in the coming days about how “woke” students need to learn to tolerate and engage with ideas they don’t like. But the videos from yesterday’s protest tell a different story: the faces in the front were Indigenous students whose very attendance at university is an act of defiance against a state that subjected their families to trauma in pursuit of assimilation. “Snowflakes” they are not.
Great post. As with almost everything 'conservatives' do, this will have nothing to do with the subject they claim it does; freedom of speech. It's about giving bigots the privileged and legitimated platform of an academic setting for their bigotry and ignorance. It's about letting 'pro-life' protestors wave large, color, pictures of dismembered fetuses in young people's faces. It's about discrediting and further marginalizing Aboriginal and other marginalized people. Ultimately it's about ensuring 'academic freedom' means freedom to teach only what and how they approve
Coming from the province where the Premier plaigirized an essay then had his Cabmins intimidate academics when he got caught, and a province that's doing it's level best to shutter AU, this is rich.