The Alberta government has announced that post-secondary institutions will be required to provide reporting annually on their efforts to protect free speech directly to Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides.
Nicolaides told The Epoch Times it became apparent after the University of Lethbridge (U of L) cancelled a planned public lecture by guest academic Frances Widdowson that it was “important to ensure there is adequate compliance to policies.”
“In a situation where speakers are cancelled, it becomes headline news, as we are seeing,” he said.
Nicolaides said he had a conversation with the U of L’s board chair earlier this week, and “took the opportunity to reaffirm” that the province’s priority is protecting free speech on university campuses.
Widdowson was invited to speak at U of L by a resident philosophy professor and intended to cover the topic “How Woke-Ism Threatens Academic Freedom.”
She said she has been “fighting hard” to promote her view that “universities are academic institutions where you should be able to discuss a diversity of viewpoints and critically analyze contentious topics.”
![Demetrios Nicolaides, minister of Advanced Education, is sworn into office in Edmonton on April 30, 2019. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F11%2F16%2FrCP184397-e1675392125611-600x359.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
However, as pressure from students and faculty mounted, on Jan. 30 Mahon reversed the decision to welcome Widdowson, stating the university received “considerable input” and decided against providing space for the former Mount Royal associate professor’s lecture.
Later that evening, Widdowson provided the same speech via videoconference without incident.
Nicolaides said the university’s decision to cancel Widdowson’s talk went against the province’s position regarding free speech on campus, even if she made past comments that are “controversial.”
“It should be for students, not university administrators, to make the final decision about whether to listen to a speech or not,” he said.
‘More Needs to be Done’
Although all 26 of Alberta’s post-secondary colleges and universities have been required since 2019 to create or implement policies to protect free expression on campuses, Nicolaides said the cancellation of Widdowson’s talk made it “abundantly clear that more needs to be done.”![Frances Widdowson, a former associate professor in the department of economics, justice, and policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Frances Widdowson)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F01%2F11%2Fwiddowson-safs-meeting-saad-432x420.png&w=1200&q=75)
The new annual reporting requirement “will monitor compliance,” said Nicolaides, who holds a Ph.D. in political science.
“It will ensure that Alberta universities are strong bastions of free speech.”
He said that during his own 10-year academic journey, he found it was “a necessity to ask questions, look at different viewpoints, and explore different topics” to formulate a final position on a topic.
“It’s an essential skill, and I have some worry that if we don’t provide an environment that promotes free speech and academic freedom, our students won’t develop important critical thinking skills, communication skills, and debate abilities,” Nicolaides said.
In a Feb. 3 news release, the government noted that the MacDonald Laurier Institute released a study in 2022 in which 34 percent of university professors in Canada reported that, regardless of political leaning, they self-censored “because they are concerned about negative consequences if their true opinions on certain topics become known.”
Nicolaides said the details are still being worked out, and the government will be “working collaboratively and carefully” to develop the new reporting system. He said he does not want something “convoluted, complicated, or that adds red tape.”
UK Model
Nicolaides noted that the United Kingdom has moved forward with a type of “free speech ombudsman” which he understands to be a “quasi-independent office of the government with investigatory power to explore instances of free speech violations on campuses.”Under the law, student unions will have legal duties to take reasonable steps to also “ensure lawful freedom of speech.”
“Other countries are actively engaged in the conversation of free speech on university campuses and developing solutions,” Nicolaides said.
He said that for now, the focus in Alberta is on developing of the annual reporting requirement as a first step, although the government may look at other options in the future “if necessary.”
“It’s foundational to the mission of higher learning. Going back to the first formations of a university in ancient Greece, the primary purpose was a place where different ideas come to be debated and discussed.”