Universities are supposed to be the one place in our society where we can put every idea on the table, examine it, argue over it, and either strengthen it or tear it apart. That's the whole point of them. A university isn't a church, a political party, or an activist group. It's an arena. And an arena only works if the people running it don't pick a team.That's why I think Alberta's Bill 38 is a good thing.Tabled by Advanced Education Minister Myles McDougall, the Advanced Education Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 would require every public post-secondary institution in Alberta to adopt an institutional neutrality policy and a freedom-of-expression policy. In plain terms, the institution itself stops taking official positions on political and social issues that have nothing to do with its academic mission. Professors can still say what they like. Students can still protest what they like. But the president's office stops speaking for everybody.Why does that matter? Because when a university takes an official position, it tells every student and every faculty member which side is the safe side. And we've seen in Alberta what happens to people who end up on the unsafe side.Look at Frances Widdowson. Mount Royal University fired her in 2021 after a firestorm over her comments on residential schools and Black Lives Matter. You don't have to agree with a word she says. But a tenured academic losing her job over her views should make everyone who values open inquiry nervous.It got worse. In early 2023, a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge invited Widdowson to give a talk titled "How 'Woke-ism' Threatens Academic Freedom." At first, the university said the talk would go ahead under its free-expression policy, though it made a point of saying her views conflicted with the university's own stated commitments. Then, after petitions and pressure, it pulled the room..Widdowson showed up anyway. Hundreds of protesters packed the atrium, chanted, and drowned her out. Security escorted her out, and she ended up giving the talk over Zoom.And what did the university president say that night? He thanked the crowd for conducting themselves in a "peaceful and powerful manner", and said the evening was "a reflection of the values of the University of Lethbridge."Think about that. A lecture on academic freedom was shut down by a mob, and the institution's official response was to applaud the mob. That's not neutrality. That's an institution picking a side and then cheering when the other side is silenced.That is exactly the kind of thing Bill 38 is supposed to end. A neutral university doesn't issue statements that put the whole institution behind one side of a political debate. And a neutral university doesn't cancel the room when the pressure gets hot. Its job is to keep the room open, keep the doors secured, and let people hear what they came to hear, while protesters protest outside without shutting it down. That's not too much to ask from institutions that live largely on taxpayer money.But here's my problem with the bill. Right now, it doesn't have teeth.I was on the phone at the minister's press conference on Tuesday, and I asked him directly: if an institution breaks its neutrality policy, will there be consequences, like funding holdbacks, or is this just a set of suggested guidelines?His answer: "There have to be some consequences if you don't follow the rules and the law." Good. So, what are they? He wouldn't say. Penalties, he said, "will be done by regulation", worked out with the post-secondary stakeholders to figure out "what would be reasonable."The stakeholders. In other words, the very administrations that created this problem get to help decide how much they'll be punished for it..I followed up. What about the tricks universities already use, like hitting controversial speakers with security fees, cancelling events over threatened protests, or letting protesters shut a lawful event down? Would that be an offence? He didn't say yes. He said the expectation is that institutions will provide a neutral environment, and "we will leave it up to institutions" to manage that.Leave it up to institutions. That's how we got the Lethbridge atrium.A law without consequences is a press release. If Bill 38 is going to mean anything, the penalties need to be written down and clear before this passes, not left to closed-door regulations later. Tie compliance to funding. Give students and faculty who are silenced a way to appeal outside their own institution. Make it plain that shutting down a lawful speaker isn't a "peaceful and powerful" display of values. It's a failure, and it has a cost.The government has the principle right. Now it needs to show us it's serious. Because neutrality you can't enforce is just one more thing for university administrators to ignore.
