On June 7, 2022, the National Assembly of Quebec adopted Bill 32, An Act Respecting Academic Freedom in the University Sector. The bill was introduced by the Coalition Avenir Québec government of Premier François Legault in reaction to a 2020 incident at the University of Ottawa where a professor was suspended for using the N-word in an academic context. According to CBC News, Premier Legault called the suspension “censorship police.”
Bill 32 defines academic freedom as the right to “engage freely and without doctrinal, ideological or moral constraint, such as institutional censorship.” This includes the freedom to discuss, teach, research, and create. It also includes the right to express opinions about society and institutions, as well as any “doctrine, dogma or opinion.”
Section 4 of the bill obliges educational institutions to adopt a singular policy respecting academic freedom, including the establishment of a committee of students and staff to oversee its implementation and handle complaints. The policy must not prevent ideas and topics that may offend from being discussed at a university, nor can it provide for “trigger warnings” before discussing these topics. The committee should also develop sanctions for violations of the policy.
The university must report annually on the number of complaints received and what measures were applied in response to those complaints. Should a university fail to comply with its obligations under the bill, the minister of higher education may appoint someone to make corrections at the expense of the university.
Before the introduction of the bill, the government of Quebec held public consultations and issued a report, which included a survey of 1,079 professors and 992 students. 60% of the professors surveyed said that they had engaged in “self-censorship,” while 20% of students noted that they had at one point felt personally attacked by a professor. Only 13% of respondents surveyed self-identified as belonging to a minority group.
An open letter signed by 130 university professors in Quebec in opposition to the bill states that “[o]ne of the most basic pillars of academic freedom is autonomy from state control. The proposed law acknowledges this in its preamble, yet it contains an ominous threat to this principle.” Others speculated that the bill was an attempt to import the American debate on academic freedom to the Canadian context despite Canadian universities not being subject to the same constitutional freedom of speech guarantees, as the Supreme Court of Canada has previously ruled that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, by extension, Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms do not apply to universities.