A recent study by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute found what most of us already know: that Canadian universities are more politically left-wing than the rest of Canadians. But it also found something new: that the increasingly homogeneous “woke” campus culture poses a growing threat to freedom of speech and thought on campus. Marching under the banner of diversity, Canadian academics are providing less and less diversity of viewpoints for their students, our children..According to the study, 88 percent of faculty members were “left-leaning,” while only 9 percent self-identified as conservative. For this conservative “minority,” 57 percent reported that they “self-censored” what they said and published, for fear of negative retributions from the administration, other faculty members or students. It also turned out that their caution was prudent: 33 percent of the of the “left-leaning” faculty told the study that they supported limiting the freedom of speech of those who challenged the new norms of “social justice.”. Ted MortonTed Morton .This should come as no surprise to Albertans. In February, the University of Lethbridge cancelled a talk scheduled to take place on campus by Dr. Francis Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor entitled, "How wokeism threatens academic freedom.” Both students and other faculty members had protested that Professor Widdowson had been invited to speak on their campus..Dr. Widdowson is a “former” professor because Mount Royal fired her last year for criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement and defending the educational benefits that residential schools had provided for Aboriginal Canadians. Less serious sanctions have been imposed on faculty members at other Alberta universities for “micro-aggressions”— saying something that offends someone else, regardless of whether it’s true or not..These incidents are serious, and not just because of the injustice done to the individuals who are silenced or punished. Such censorship also undermines a central purpose of our universities — a forum for full and free debate and discussion. This isn’t just bad for universities..What happens on campuses matters, because it doesn’t stay on campus. Look at Calgary’s proposed new city bylaw that would prohibit “specified protests” within 100 yards of city libraries, pools and other public recreation facilities. Its supporter claim that it will make Calgary ”a city that is free from harassment and hate.” As one-time New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan has pointed out, “we all live on campus now.”.Attacks on freedom of speech at universities is not just a Canadian problem. It has become common on campuses in the US and England. In the new “progressive” or “woke” worldview, equity has replaced equality as the measure of social justice. Justice is no longer about equality of opportunity, but equality of result. Racial and sexual quotas, not individual merit, become the new standard for hiring faculty. Existing faculty members are required to embrace these new diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, and/or required to attend sensitivity training sessions. What we used to call toleration— agreeing to disagree — is no longer tolerated.. Frances WiddowsonFrances Widdowson .The woke activists defend this as social justice. But justice for whom? The working class? The many poor? Not any longer. Now it is for “historically disadvantaged minorities.” Women and “BIPOC” — Black, Indigenous and people of colour — all of whom are alleged to have unjustly suffered from sexism and the “white supremacy” that is now said to define Canadian and American “colonialist” societies..Heterosexism — the term invented for prejudice against homosexuals — fit comfortably into the new war against racism and sexism and was soon expanded to include transexuals and bisexuals — the new LGBTQ “minority.”.The advocates of this new world view pose a clear and present danger to our freedom of speech. Here’s why. We — us old fashioned small-L liberals — think the new woke crusaders are wrong. But we listen to their arguments and facts, and then we try to demonstrate why they are wrong, because our facts and arguments are better..The new progressives, by contrast, are not interested in dialogue and debate. They think that we are not just wrong, but harmful. Harmful, because our facts and counterarguments offend and thereby harm vulnerable minorities and so should be censored or “cancelled.” Any disagreement with the official view — what used to be known as a difference of opinion — is now deemed a heresy..In free societies, the remedy for false speech is more speech: rebuttal. Show me your facts. I’ll show you mine. May the best argument win. And note: this exchange is never over. The science is never settled. Today’s “loser” can come back tomorrow with new facts and new arguments and challenge the status quo..This is particularly true with respect to government policies. In dynamic societies such as ours, the realities on the streets — economic, social, demographic, environmental, national security — are always changing. There are always new facts that must be weighed and accounted for. This is why freedom of speech is so essential to a democracy. And nowhere is this more essential than on university campuses..New ideas — especially ideas that challenge reigning orthodoxies — are almost always unpopular. Look what happened to Galileo when he announced that the Earth revolves around the Sun, not vice-versa. The Catholic Inquisition found him guilty of heresy, and he spent the last decade of life under house arrest. But Galileo — and Copernicus before him — were able to make their revolutionary discoveries because they enjoyed the freedom of thought made possible by universities, even 400 years ago.. Lethbridge universityIn February, the University of Lethbridge cancelled a scheduled campus engagement by Dr. Francis Widdowson. Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor was to speak about "How wokeism threatens academic freedom.” Both students and other faculty members had protested that Professor Widdowson had been invited to speak on their campus. .In the evolution of what we now know as the Western democracies, universities have played an important role in defending freedom of speech and thought. When I was a student in the sixties, university campuses were islands of freedom in a sea of conformity. Today, it’s becoming the opposite: universities are islands of woke conformity in a sea of diversity. Even as recently as 1994, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) awarded me with the Bora Laskin Fellowship in Human Rights Research. Given my subsequent public advocacy for due process of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and parents’ rights, it is guaranteed that I would never receive such an award today..In some respects, this is a new version of an old problem. Over a century ago Alexis de Tocqueville warned us of the risks that the “tyranny of majority opinion” poses to democracies. The silencing of unpopular minorities and their views is not new. But it is now enhanced and made more dangerous by the new technologies of social media and the “cancel culture” that it has spawned..In other respects, the public censorship we are currently experiencing is very new. It is a “revolution from above.” It is not the masses mobilizing to challenge powerful elites. It is powerful elites using their influence to force change on the people. The battle cry is no longer “Power to the People!” For todays’ progressives, the people are now the problem. Consciously or not, “we the people” are seen as the carriers of “systemic discrimination,” and so we must be “re-educated” or silenced..Think about the agencies that have been the primary promoters of the new woke agenda..• State bureaucracies — especially human rights commissions.• The courts — especially final national appellate courts such as the Supreme Court of Canada.• Universities and colleges — especially law schools.• Public school systems, run and staffed by graduates of universities and colleges.• United Nations and other supra-national organizations.What is the common denominator of these institutions?.First, the people who run them have more post-secondary education than the rest of Canadians. Secondly, they are all unaccountable to those of us who have to live with the consequences of their policies. They do not have to answer to voters like the elected branches of government. In the US and UK, their woke agenda is aided and abetted by national media that are run and staffed by the graduates of the same universities..A recent study confirmed that “social justice and wokeness have infiltrated Canadian news media” as well..There are alarming similarities between this new woke revolution from above to other authoritarian regimes. Today’s woke censors look a lot like the Jesuit Inquisitions of the Middle Ages. Both share the same goal: to identify heresy and heretics and eradicate them. Or the “thought police” and “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s prophetic novel, 1984. Written in 1949, Orwell anticipated the coming of the real-world thought police in Soviet Russia and Communist China today..This “brave new world” is not a place we want to go. So what is to be done? The Macdonald-Laurier study makes four recommendations..• That provinces adopt academic freedom acts that protect and promote freedom of speech on campuses. The good news: In Alberta, the UCP government has already done this..• That universities be politically neutral in their public statements, hiring and and rules. The bad news: the University of Calgary recently announced a new, three-year DEI hiring initiative for 45 new faculty positions that are only open to members of “equity deserving groups.” I.e.Heterosexual, white males need not apply..• Prohibit mandatory DEI declarations as a condition of employment, promotion and research funding..• Require faculty unions to defend the rights of their members against DEI-driven sanctions..I would recommend a fifth. To provide funding for new institutions on university campuses that ensure students have access to the ideas and facts that rebut and disprove the new pseudo-progressive orthodoxies. Fight false speech with true speech. The historical facts are on our side..F.L. (Ted) Morton is professor emeritus and an Executive Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is also a former minister of energy and minister of finance in the Government of Alberta
