COLUMN: Think Again – Universities must do better at protecting freedom of speech

Every democracy needs freedom of speech. Without it, people resort to violence, as we saw in last month’s horrific murder of American political activist Charlie Kirk.

Freedom of speech is uniquely important on university campuses. University classes should be places where students and their professors vigorously debate the merits of differing theories, ideologies and ways of interpreting the world.

Unfortunately, Canadian universities suffer from a dearth of viewpoint diversity and free speech. According to a recent Leger survey of 1,200 university students in Canada, politically right-leaning students feel significantly more constrained in sharing their opinions in class. For example, 42 percent of right-leaning students said they experienced a classroom environment that limited discussion and questions on controversial topics to only one side of the argument.

Significantly, most right-leaning students and most left-leaning students agree there’s a “safe” political view on controversial topics discussed in university classes. And many right-leaning students expressed concern about having their grades lowered if they expressed the “wrong” opinion in class. This leads to self-censorship, which is antithetical to the free and vigorous debates that should happen in university classes.

When universities become places of censorship, they cease to be institutions of higher learning.

Giving lip service to freedom of speech is not enough. Universities must take concrete steps to ensure all students can share their opinions without fear of reprisal from their professors.

Fortunately, some university leaders are taking action. In 2014, the University of Chicago formally adopted a free speech policy, which states it’s “not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.” Since then, more than 100 universities across the United States have signed on.

The free speech movement is also gaining some traction in Canada. Last year, Queen’s University issued a media release endorsing Chicago’s free speech policy and made it clear that it would avoid taking institutional positions on political and moral issues. In addition, starting in 2019, the Alberta government required post-secondary institutions to adopt a free speech policy as a condition of their provincial funding.

However, it’s unlikely that free speech policies alone will be enough to change the culture on Canadian university campuses. That’s because there’s significant lack of viewpoint diversity among university professors. For example, a 2022 survey published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found that 88 percent of Canadian university professors vote for parties of the left and only nine percent support parties on the right.

The same survey also found that almost no left-leaning professors expressed concern about their political views becoming known. In contrast, 44 percent of right-leaning professors were either somewhat or very worried about having their views known.

Obviously, it would be better if there was more viewpoint diversity on campus. Not only will this help students become better critical thinkers, it will also make them better citizens. Democracies function best when people freely express, and vigorously debate, competing ideas. This is why universities should also take a close look at their hiring practices.

According to a recent study published by the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, 98 percent of academic job postings for the largest university in each province contained criteria (such as requiring applicants to include a diversity, equity and inclusion statement) that discriminated against candidates based on political beliefs.

If universities are serious about promoting viewpoint diversity on campus, they should revamp their hiring and governance practices to ensure intellectual and ideological diversity.

All students, regardless of political affiliation, should feel free to express themselves in their university classes. They deserve concrete action from university leaders, not mere lip service.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.