President Donald Trump threatened to cancel the funding of certain universities, unless they accept his requests for modifying ideological policy, similar to a commitment that Pierre Hairy made for Canadian post -secondary schools.
But so far, the conservative chief has been rare on the details of the type of action he could take.
Trump’s requests, who sparked the interference in academic freedom, made the headlines this week after the White House said it was frozen more than $ 2.2 billion in grants and $ 60 million in contracts with Harvard University.
It came after the president of Harvard Alan Gerber refused to comply With the white demand, saying in a letter that the university “will not give up its independence or will not renounce its constitutional rights”.
Hairy, on the other hand, has also threatened to undo universities about what he perceives as their ideological inclination. In a Christmas Eve, Tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hairy said that he would “swept wokism and fight against anti -Semitism”.
“Put an end to the awakened ideology”
This tweet was linked to a telephone interview He gave Winnipegjewishreview.com in which he was quoted saying that he will not tolerate and that “all those who have an anti -Semitic program were awake”, including universities that receive federal funding and all museums funded by the federal government.
He reiterated a similar commitment on March 26 when the party published its Quebec platform, claiming that a conservative government “would end the taxation of the awakened ideology in the Federal Public Service and in the distribution of federal funds for university research”.
The commitment prompted the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) to publish a declaration “expressing the alarm” on the Promise de hairy to interfere in the allocation of federal research funding.
“It is worrying that a political party leader in Canada is trying to dictate how research funds will be granted,” said David Robinson, executive director of Caut. “We have seen the impact of this political interference in the south of the border where the Trump administration has launched a large -scale assault against universities and the scientific community. This type of American style of culture war has no place in Canada.”
From Columbia University, the Trump administration reprimanded post-secondary establishments through the United States over their treatment of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement which grouped campuses last year after the attack led by Hamas in 2023 in Israel and the following Israeli attacks against Gaza.
Trump called the anti-American and anti-Semitic demonstrations, accused the universities of peddling Marxism and the radical ideology of the left “, and promised to put an end to federal subsidies and contracts to universities that do not accept requests from his administration.
On April 3, the White House published a list of requests to Harvard who included a ban on facial masks, Limitations on campus demonstrations and an examination of the prejudices of university departments. About a week later, these requests were extended to include leadership reforms, changes in the admission policy and the end of the university recognition of certain student organizations.
The president of the school said that Harvard had already made in -depth reforms to respond to anti -Semitism, but that most of the government’s requests do not relate to anti -Semitism and are rather an attempt to regulate the “intellectual conditions” in Harvard.
The roots of “alarm clock”
Although Hairyvre has published no details of his proposed plans, he still seems to take lessons from the United States with threats to finance, said Patrick McCurdy, an associate professor of communication at the University of Ottawa.
“I would take him seriously in the same way as he doubled and is serious about his threats to finance the CBC,” said McCurdy. “This is something that people should pay attention to.”
McCUNDY was also part of a research study which examined the evolution of anti-revealing discourse in the debates of the House of Commons from 2019 to 2023.
Their examination of Hansard files revealed that in 2019, there were only two mentions of the word “awake”. By 2023, the use of the word conservatives had increased to 63 times, with hairy responsible for 33 cases that year, according to their study.
As McCUNDY noted in a recent article, he co-wrote political options, the term “awake” is rooted in the African-American experience of racialized violence and originally meant being aware of racial injustice. The progressives then adopted it to include wider societal injustices linked to feminist, LGBTQ + and intersectional concerns, he said.
But the word has since been co -opted as a derogatory term used against some who promote such concerns of social justice and are accused of being fixed or authoritarian on questions such as identity policy and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
McCurdy’s article, entitled The many dangers of the Stone Hairy War on ‘Woke“maintains that its promises of policies such as the financing of universities on ideology are” partly an exploitation strategy designed to stir up fears and resentment, animated divisions and legitimize extreme positions in dominant policy “.
A “threat to academic freedom”
“I would be interested in reading how he could offer this … [and] How it is campaigning against the freedom of researchers, academics and universities to do their research, “McCurdy told CBC News in a telephone interview.” It is certainly a threat to academic freedom. “”
The conservatives have spoken in the past of universities funding on their campus policies. During his leadership campaign in 2017, Andrew Scheer said he would draw federal funding from universities that have failed to maintain freedom of expression, “close the debate and cannot support different points of view”.
This came in response to cases where anti-abortion and pro-Israelis events were diverted from university campuses after demonstrations broke out.
Hairyre would later be following a similar commitment during his management campaign in 2022 in which he declared that if universities wanted to keep their federal research subsidies, they will have to protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of expression on the campus. He also declared that he would call a “Guardian of freedom of expression” to ensure that universities followed these principles.
Universities should promote debate, not suffocate it. As Prime Minister, I will defend freedom of expression on the campus.
If universities want to maintain their federal research subsidies, they will have to protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of expression on the campus.https://t.co/ontdtk7ieo
As for its current policies, the Conservative Party has not answered CBC News questions requiring more details.
Stéphane Sérafin, assistant professor of law at the University of Ottawa who thinks that the awakened ideology is a problem in universities, said that the liberal government has been very aggressive in the imposition of ideological requirements for research which includes EDI initiatives.
But he said he didn’t know exactly what Hairyvre is considering.
“I suppose that at least, they would seek to remove the type of EDI requirements which have been added to these research funds. Beyond that, I can only speculate.”
Serafin wondered if a conservative government would add requirements in accordance with their ideological preferences, or if it would simply end universities.
“Does he want to undo everything, or does he only want to target specific programs?” Serafin asked for hairy intentions.
“He never explicitly stated a plan on how it would be done,” he said. “It’s a bit like one of those problems where the devil is really in detail.”
