The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has threatened to cancel funds for some universities unless they access their demands to change ideological policy, similar to a commitment that Pierre Poilievre has done for Canadian postsecundaria schools.
But so far, the conservative leader has been scarce in the details of exactly what type of action could take.
Trump’s demands, which have caused the sentence for interference in academic freedom, were the holders this week after the White House said it is freezing more than $ 2.2 billion in subsidies and $ 60 million in contracts for Harvard University.
This occurred after Harvard president Alan Gerber, refused to meet the demands of the White House, saying in a letter that the university “will not deliver its independence or will resign from their constitutional rights.”
Pailievre, meanwhile, has also threatened to disburse universities about what he perceives as his ideological inclination. On a Christmas eve of X, previously known as Twitter, Pailievre said that “Wokismo and fighting anti -Semitism would disburse.”
‘End to awaken ideology’
That tweet was linked to a telephone interview that gave Winnipegjewishreview.com in which he was summoned by saying that he will not tolerate and desire “all those with an anti -Semitic agenda awakened, including universities that receive federal funds and all federal museums.
He reiterated a similar promise on March 26 when the party launched its Quebec platform, saying that a conservative government “would end the ideology of awakening in the Federal Civil Service and in the allocation of federal funds for university research.”
The promise led to the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) to publish a declaration “expressing alarm” for Pailievre’s promise to interfere in the allocation of federal research funds.
“It is worrying that a leader of a political party in Canada tries to dictate how the research funds will be granted,” said David Robinson, executive director of Caut. “We have seen the impact of this political interference to the south of the border where the Trump administration has launched a large -scale assault on universities and the scientific community. This type of American cultural warfare does not take place in Canada.”
Starting with Columbia University, the Trump Administration has rebuked postsecundaria institutions in the United States for its management of the pro-palestine student protest movement that swept the campus last year after the attack led by Hamas 2023 within Israel and subsequent Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Trump has called on anti -American and anti -Semitic protests, universities accused of selling Marxism and the ideology of radical “radical” “”, and promised to end federal subsidies and contracts to universities that do not agree with the demands of their administration.
On April 3, the White House issued a list of demands to Harvard that included a prohibition of facial masks, the limitations in the protests of the campus and a review of the prejudices of the academic departments. Approximately a week later, these demands were extended to include leadership reforms, changes in the admission policy and the end of the University of certain student organizations.
The president of the school said that Harvard has already made extensive reforms to address anti -Semitism, but that many of the government’s demands do not relate to anti -Semitism and, on the other hand, are an attempt to regulate the “intellectual conditions” in Harvard.
The roots of ‘Woke’
While Pailievre has not published any detail of his proposed plans, he still seems to be taking lessons from the United States with threats when he defused, said Patrick McCurdy, associate professor of communication at the University of Ottawa.
“It would take me seriously in the same way that it has doubled and takes its threats to discourage the CBC,” McCurdy said. “It’s something that people should pay attention.”
McCurdy was also part of an investigation study that examined the evolution of anti-desepper discourse in debates within the 2019 Common Chamber to 2023.
His Hansard Records examination revealed that in 2019, there were only two mentions of the word “awakened.” By 2023, the use of the word by conservatives had increased 63 times, with Poilievre responsible for 33 cases of that year, according to their study.
As McCurdy pointed out in a recent article that co -written for policy options, the term “awakening” is based on the African -American experience of racialized violence and originally meant being aware of racial injustice. Then, the progressives adopted it to cover broader social injustices related to feminist concerns, LGBTQ+ and intersectional, he said.
But since then, the word has co -opted as a derogatory term used against some that promote such social justice concerns, and are accused of being fixed or authoritarian on issues that include identity and equity policies, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
McCurdy’s article, entitled The many dangers of Pierre Poilievre’s war in ‘Wake‘, he argues that his political promises, such as defense universities on ideology, are only “an exploitation strategy designed to enliven fears and resentment, strengthen divisions and legitimize extreme positions in general policy.”
A ‘threat to academic freedom’
“I would be interested in reading how I could propose this … [and] How this militates 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 about the breakdown of universities about the policies of their campus. During his leadership campaign in 2017, Andrew Scheer said he would extract the federal funds from universities that failed to maintain freedom of expression, “close the debate and cannot support different points of view.”
This occurred in response to cases in which the anti-abortion and Pro-Israel events were rejected from the university campuses after the protests broke out.
Poilievre would later continue with a similar promise during his 2022 leadership campaign in which he said that if universities want to maintain their federal research subsidies, they must protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of expression on the campus. He also said that he would appoint a “Guardian of the letter of expression” to ensure that universities follow these principles.
Universities should encourage debate, not to quell. As Prime Minister, I will defend freedom of expression on the campus.
If universities want to maintain their federal research subsidies, they must protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of expression on campus.https: //t.co/ontdtk7ieo
As for its current political promises, the conservative party did not answer the CBC News questions requesting more details.
Stéphane Syrafin, a law assistant professor at the University of Ottawa who believes that the ideology of awakening is a problem in universities, said the liberal government has been very aggressive in imposing ideological research requirements that includes EDI initiatives.
But he said he is not sure what Pailievre is contemplating.
“I suppose that, at least, they would seek to eliminate the type of EDI requirements that have been added to those research funds. Beyond that, I can only speculate.”
Sérafin questioned whether a conservative government would add requirements that meet their ideological preferences, or if it would simply disburse universities.
“Do you want to define everything, or do you just want to address specific programs?” Sérafin asked about Pailievre’s intentions.
“He has never explicitly presented a plan on how this would be done,” he said. “It’s like one of those issues in which the devil is really in details.”
