Ontario’s government announced on Aug. 30 that universities and colleges in the province have until the new year to develop, implement, and comply with a free speech policy, according to a press release. Colleges and universities that do not comply will see reductions in their provincial funding.
Free speech policies on Canadian campuses were one of Premier Doug Ford’s campaign points in this year’s Ontario provincial election.
“Colleges and universities should be places where students exchange different ideas and opinions in open and respectful debate,” Ford said in a press release. “Our government made a commitment to the people of Ontario to protect free speech on campuses. Promise made, promise kept.”
According to the release, this policy will not only protect free speech on campus, but ensure that hate speech, discrimination, and other illegal forms of speech are not allowed on campus.
The policy must apply to faculty, students, staff, management, and guests. It must also meet a minimum standard by including a definition of freedom of speech, principles based on the University of Chicago Statement on Principles of Free Expression—and disciplinary measures for students whose actions are contrary to the policy, such as “disruptive protesting that significantly interferes with the ability of an event to proceed.”
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), an organization that aims to defend constitutional freedoms through litigation and education, welcomed the response of the Ontario government, but acknowledged that it’s “imperfect.”
“The Ontario government still needs to address the problem of security fees being used as a tool to censor controversial speech on campus, at Wilfrid Laurier University and elsewhere,” the statement reads.
According to the statement, following protests from students, the university gives event organizers “ a large invoice” for security costs.
The JCCF is also asking for the Ontario policy to clarify the ban on “hate speech, discrimination, and other illegal forms of speech.” According to the statement, universities ban “broad swaths of speech just because they are denounced as ‘hateful’ by the likes of Antifa and other ‘social justice warriors.’”
Matt Pelletier, vice-president (internal) of the Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG), said the association has done a lot of advocacy to strike a balance between facilitating free speech and preventing hate speech.
He said the Ontario government’s move is “a bit of a disruptive change” for all post-secondary institutions across Ontario.
“We’re monitoring the debate closely right now,” Pelletier said. “What we’re also doing is we’re going to be following what the university’s interpretation of the policy is going to be—and more important—how the government is going to enforce it.”
To monitor universities and colleges’ compliance with their policies, the Ontario government is requiring institutions to report annually on their progress to the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) starting in September 2019.
HEQCO would then review and assess each institution’s report, and will provide advice to Merrilee Fullerton, the Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
The announcement, “will help protect free speech and foster learning environments that encourage freedom of thought, by making sure that all universities and colleges have a strong, clear and consistent free speech policy,” Fullerton said in the release.
Universities and colleges must implement the new free speech policies by January 1, 2019.
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