Liam Ferguson is a graduate student in Political Philosophy at Saint Mary's University, Halifax.Academic freedom, which can be defined as the ability to say what one wishes in the pursuit of truth and knowledge, remains under attack at Canadian universities. The latest case involves multiple instances of academic censorship. In 2021, Frances Widdowson was fired from her tenured position at Mount Royal University in Calgary for “breaching academic freedom.” The firing was ruled disproportionate by an arbitrator, and the labour board in Alberta is currently reviewing the case. In 2025, Widdowson was arrested as she stepped onto the University of Victoria campus to deliver a speech. Her offence? Saying something that the university administration deemed unacceptable for a topic of conversation. Widdowson dared to critique the assertion made by the Canadian government, without evidence, in 2021 that 215 unmarked graves of indigenous children had been discovered in Kamloops. However, comments directed towards Widdowson by an indigenous individual that she would like Widdowson to be raped and beaten were not condemned by another academic institution. Another case of academic censorship was the years-long court case in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, which was decided in April 2025. The “human rights” case originated from an article written by a professor at Saint Mary’s University, in which the preferential treatment given to indigenous students at the university was questioned. The plaintiff argued that “harm” had been experienced because of the article. The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) assisted with the defence of the case, and in April 2025, Justice Denise Boudreau quashed the case on the grounds that the reasons given for the case were “either irrelevant, erroneous, or insufficient.” Academic freedom continues to be rare within universities, unless one is discussing something that is approved by the bureaucracy. This is not the freedom required to pursue truth and knowledge. Further, topics that relate to indigenous matters are often the taboo topics, and therefore not acceptable for debate. The debacle with Widdowson, which includes her firing from Mount Royal University, and the recent court case in Nova Scotia highlight that in the current university environment, the marketplace of ideas is present only insofar as it abides by the increasingly narrow boundaries of acceptable topics. .If Widdowson was incorrect or malicious in her remarks, it should take little to convince people of the correct view. After all, the basis for cultural liberalism and its universities is the ability of rational people to debate ideas and agree on those that are worthy of their merits, and those that are not. However, for activist ideologies that pervade modern academia, there is little need for people to defend their ideas. Of course, there is the question of why academic freedom is relevant to the public. First, the same reason any academic research is relevant to the public is that it should further knowledge. Items such as scientific developments in the twentieth century prove this point. Likewise, the liberal arts, when they were directed at things such as the pursuit of truth, were also relevant to furthering knowledge. The Enlightenment period and egalitarian political thinking are unlikely to have developed without academic freedom allowing people to challenge prevailing views of the time. However, the current censorship trend in academia has left the university at large, but especially the liberal arts, trying to justify their existence. Things like hiring on the grounds of everything except merit and conformism have taken hold in universities and contributed to the increasing censorship of academia. Another reason is that things may start inside academia, but they certainly do not stop there. For example, take the practice of DEI. Something that was once a mostly academic phenomenon is now mainstream. The idea is that people should not be considered by their individual merits, but instead by their group characteristics (e.g., ethnicity). Deviance cannot be tolerated in DEI circles, so it becomes obvious why DEI is detrimental to academia and society alike; there is no room for free thinking. Academic freedom is no different. As free inquiry and the pursuit of truth are set aside for conforming to narratives, the ability for people to think freely and express themselves in broader society shrinks as well. The continued problem of academic freedom in universities is a sample of a broader societal issue; academic freedom and freedom of expression are both at stake.Liam Ferguson is a graduate student in Political Philosophy at Saint Mary's University, Halifax.
