Quebec City’s Laval University has dismissed a professor critical of COVID-19 vaccination after handing him several suspensions, in what critics call an attack on academic freedom.
Patrick Provost was up until recently a full professor in the Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of Laval University.
The comments led to complaints being filed against him, resulting in two suspensions without pay. Other complaints piled on, and while Mr. Provost and his union are challenging the first suspension before a labour arbitrator, he was dismissed.
Laval University confirmed Mr. Provost is no longer employed there but declined to comment further, citing privacy reasons.
“At this time, Patrick Provost is no longer employed by Laval University,” spokesperson Andrée-Anne Stewart told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Provost told The Epoch Times he believes an arbitrator ruling in his favour regarding his first suspension could reverse the decision. “A bit like dominoes,” he says.
Mr. Provost added he was not surprised to be fired considering the university’s “stubbornness and blind dedication to silence me.”
Mr. Provost’s union did not respond to a request for comment, but the larger federation of university unions it falls under called the firing an “unacceptable attack against academic freedom.”
“If the theses defended by a professor are upsetting or erroneous, it’s the duty of other specialists in the field to criticize or contradict them on a scientific level and certainly not for managers to establish the limit between what is valuable or not on a scientific standpoint,” Madeleine Pastinelli, president of the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université, said in a statement.
The ruling CAQ party in Quebec passed a bill in June 2022 to protect academic freedom.
The Epoch Times contacted Quebec’s Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry for comment but didn’t hear back.
Quebec Conservative Party Leader Éric Duhaime said in a statement he urges Ms. Déry to apply the law and reinstate Mr. Provost.
“It’s not normal for professors to fear retaliation when they speak publicly against government directives,” said Mr. Duhaime. “In democracy, universities must remain independent from political interests.”
Mr. Provost was suspended without pay by Laval University for eight weeks in 2022 and four months in 2023. The professor and his union have filed formal grievances for both suspensions. Mr. Provost says a decision on the first suspension could be handed down in December.
