Quebec Higher Education Minister Danielle McCann tabled Bill 32 in the National Assembly on Wednesday morning, defining academic freedom as “the right of every person to participate freely and without any dogmatic, ideological or moral restraint” in all activities related to the school. McCann said “any word” can be said in a university classroom, provided it is used in an academic context. “The issue of academic freedom is fundamental,” McCann said in a statement. “In recent years, several disturbing events have brought our attention to this issue and one thing is clear: censorship has no place in our ranks.” The bill gives universities one year to adopt a policy to enforce this definition and set up a grievance council to oversee policy implementation. They must also nominate someone who will be responsible for the whole process. If they do not do enough, the law would allow the minister to order schools to strengthen their policies on academic freedom. The debate that sparked the bill began in October 2020, when Prime Minister François Lego criticized the University of Ottawa for suspending a professor who had used the word N during a lecture. One student had complained that the derogatory word for blacks was used by the teacher, who explained how certain communities had regained certain terms over time. Legault blamed the suspension on the “censorship police”. More than 30 of the professor’s French-speaking colleagues wrote a letter claiming that the punishment violated her academic freedom, sparking a lively Quebec media debate – a debate in which members of the black community said whites were dominant.
Questionnaire
In March 2020, the CAQ set up a committee on academic freedom that held public consultations from August 24 to September 1, in response to reports by teachers who had stopped teaching controversial topics to avoid offending students. A report filed last December concluded that classrooms at the University of Quebec should not be safe and that high schools should not impose so-called activation warnings – statements that warn students of malicious or in the class. The bill submitted today follows all the recommendations of the committee report and is largely based on the results of a survey of 1,079 teachers and 992 students. Sixty percent of the teachers who completed the questionnaire said they had engaged in self-censorship and avoided using specific words, and 82 percent of those teachers said they were in favor of lifting all restrictions on what they could teach or say. in the class . However, almost 20 percent of the students surveyed said they had at some point felt that they had been personally attacked by the comments of a professor or assistant professor. In its statement on the methodology, the committee said that 13 percent of the students surveyed identified themselves as members of a minority group. It is not clear how many of the teachers who responded to the survey were members of a minority group. McGill law student Wisaal Jahangir says the concept of academic freedom implies that government should not impose regulations on universities. (CBC News)
Different views
McGill University law student Wisaal Jahangir says she finds it ironic that, in an effort to protect academic freedom, the Quebec government is imposing regulations on universities.
“Personally, I feel the whole issue of academic freedom, which means that universities must be completely separate from the political and philosophical views of the administration, of the politicians,” he said. “And the bill fully offsets this.”
Jahangir says teachers should be responsible for creating spaces that promote learning and where students feel comfortable expressing themselves, but says they also have a responsibility to these students.
“This teacher who says the word N in a class will have a different impact on black students in the classroom than on non-black students. Especially coming from a white teacher.”
Myrna Lashley, an associate professor of psychiatry at McGill, says that academic freedom and academic responsibility go hand in hand, although the latter is significantly absent from the new legislation.
“If I’re going to teach something, especially if it’s something that has offensive words, I have to put it in a context,” Lasley said. “Preferably in a historical context, so that students understand why the words were written and why they are repeated today.”
Lashley says the wording of the bill leaves a lot of room for interpretation. He hopes that the councils set up by universities to address the issue are different in terms of nationality and gender.
He also says it will be important to monitor the government to make sure it does not overdo it.
“Once you start letting the government get its hands on what you teach and what academic freedom is and how it is defined, you have to be careful not to go down a slippery slope,” Lashley said.
Myrna Lashley, an associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University, says teachers need to be “compassionate” with their students. (Naskademini)
Jean Portugais, president of the Quebec University Teachers Association, says the university’s spirit is to create a place where professors and students are confronted with every possible point of view, even one that is contradictory.
He believes that teachers are capable of dealing with difficult issues with respect.
“I have confidence in our teachers,” said Portugays. “They show evidence of good judgment every day, with a sense of rigor and morality. They know how to choose the right words so that people are not hurt.”
Portugais said he was pleased with the bill, but wished Quebec had gone further, for example protecting teachers and students from possible research-related lawsuits.
He says the demand for trigger warnings in the classroom is “unmanageable” because it would force teachers to systematically review every text and all the work they do to teach to look for words that could potentially frustrate their students.
