EDMONTON – A University of Ottawa professor has threatened to take legal action in favour of defunding the University of Alberta if the school decides to forgo its DEI hiring policy. "So please take this as a polite notice that if the University proceeds on the path you intend, I will be examining all available steps to have it defunded," reads an email sent from Prof. Amit Attaran to U of A President Bill Flanagan. Attaran's email came in response to the U of A's proposed new recruitment policy, which plans to eliminate DEI policies and commitments to hire disadvantaged groups, as reported by the CBC on Monday. "Where candidates are determined to be similarly qualified for a position, the final hiring decision will favour the selection of person(s) historically under-represented at the University, especially in the discipline, field and/or employment or job category of focus," reads the U of A's current policy. The policy proposal follows a January 2025 move by the university that shifted its language away from DEI and towards Access Community + Belonging (ABC). The U of A receives funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program, which is part of the federal government's initiative to bring world-class researchers to Canadian universities. The CRCP requires that schools apply DEI policies when appointing research chairs. It is on these grounds that Attaran, who helped establish the CRCP DEI requirements, intends to defund the U of A from the program. .The Government of Alberta has long been looking to shift the province away from DEI policies, which it argues can place deserving individuals in majority communities at a disadvantage because of their race, gender, sexuality, religion, or political beliefs.This has been a particular focus among Alberta's post-secondary institutions, which the Ministry of Advanced Education has strongly encouraged to shift away from such policies, following a June 2025 committee report that suggested that schools should be expected to maintain institutional neutrality.“I just think it's a reflection of the reality that a lot of people are beginning to question some of these things that have been taking place, the lack of neutrality in some cases, and post-secondary institutions and DEI policies, which can be discriminatory,” said Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall in an interview with the Western Standard in December. McDougall said he believes individuals should be rewarded based on merit, not a DEI policy.Although McDougall and the provincial government have their own views on DEI policies, he told the Western Standard that moral suasion was the only tool the ministry intended to use to get institutions on board with its messaging.“Indicating that we, as a government, are not supportive, and that we will be questioning those institutions that deviate from the direction that the Mintz report reflected,” McDougall said..Attaran recognized that the U of A may have been under political pressure to make these changes, but he does not believe that it justifies abandoning such policies."I am not given to sympathetically parse the University's poor excuses, because you are pandering to the lowest common denominator (or should one say the greatest bigot denominator?) of the Danielle Smith government, which is neither legally wise nor morally interesting," Attaran wrote in the email."Show some courage, would you please? A worthwhile university, of which Alberta's may or may not be one under your leadership, draws on all the best brains society has to offer, including those in black, brown, female, Indigenous, or disabled bodies.""Excellence is not achieved by systemic discrimination which places barriers before those brains. It is folly and un-Canadian to think otherwise.".McDougall said in December that many minority groups he spoke with support moving away from DEI policies, believing their implementation can be "a little bit demeaning to them.""What are we trying to say is ‘that your ability to have the merit for a position is somehow compromised because of your race or religion or ethnicity, etc.’ I think what most people want is fairness and equality of opportunity,” McDougall said.“I think that when you have a conversation with people, that they should be judged as individuals, as opposed to any particular identity group. I think most people come to agree that that actually is a better way to manage things, is my observation.” The U of A's proposed policy has not gone into effect, and will be voted on by the university's board of governors.
