[Fdu] YUFA Exec rejects government attack on academic freedom, democratic debate

Thu Oct 29 11:22:44 EDT 2020

*YUFA Exec rejects government attack on academic freedom, democratic debate*

Dear colleagues,

The YUFA Executive Committee voted to endorse the following statement in 
an emergency vote that took place from October 25 to 26, 2020. The 
statement, which has been endorsed by a number of Ontario faculty 
associations, encourages individuals and faculty associations to contact 
the provincial government with their views on how 
establishing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) 
working definition of anti-Semitism as law might affect academic freedom 
in the province.

Nearly 2,500 people have already sent emails to Members of Provincial 
Parliament about the matter, calling on them to reject the IHRA 
definition or, at least, to drop its harmful "illustrative examples."

Despite the widespread public interest in this issue, the IHRA 
definition was quietly approved by an Order in Council 
<https://www.ontario.ca/orders-in-council/oc-14502020> on Monday, 
October 26, 2020--abruptly ending any further discussion or debate. 
Astonishingly, the move came just as Bill 168--a Private Member’s Bill 
to adopt the working definition--was about to be reviewed by the 
Standing Committee on Justice Policy. The deadline to submit a request 
to participate in public hearings before this Standing 
Committee was Monday, October 26, 2020, and the deadline to 
submit written material was Friday, October 30, 2020.

The government has over-ridden its own judicial process.

On October 28, 2020, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty 
Associations (OCUFA) issued this statement: "OCUFA opposes Ontario 
government circumventing democracy and public debate on Bill 168 
<https://ocufa.on.ca/press-releases/ocufa-opposes-ontario-government-circumventing-democracy-and-public-debate-on-bill-168/>."

The statement that the YUFA Executive Committee endorsed following its 
emergency vote is below:

*Appeal to Ontario faculty associations regarding threat to academic 
freedom*

Dear Executive Committee members,

We are writing to you as concerned academics who fear the prospect of an 
Ontario Provincial Bill 168 “Combating Antisemitism Act.” It passed 
second reading in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on February 27, 
2020 and *the Standing Committee on Justice is accepting public hearings 
*/*this week*/*, in anticipation of what we believe is a move to pass 
the bill to the third reading quickly and quietly.*

Bill 168 seeks to re-define the province’s definition of antisemitism, 
guided by the working definition of antisemitism and the list of 
illustrative examples of it, adopted by the International Holocaust 
Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). This new definition is the product of a 
growing movement that seeks to redefine antisemitism to include any 
criticism of the Israeli state.

Coinciding with this apparently small piece of legislation, President 
Trump has threatened to withhold funding from Amnesty International and 
Human Rights Watch on the grounds that they are antisemitic 
organizations, and two Ontario universities have been the site of false 
and destructive charges of antisemitism against respected international 
human rights scholars.

These attacks are deeply troubling for us as scholars and teachers. The 
potential adoption of IHRA in Ontario is a direct attack on /academic 
freedom/, raising issues of our freedom to conduct critical scholarship 
and teaching that contains facts and perspectives critical of a foreign 
state. If passed, it will place even more Ontario academics at risk of 
being falsely accused of being antisemitic, resulting in intimidation, 
censorship, job precarity, and costly litigation.

Where it comes to higher education, the Ford government is dramatically 
out of touch with the views of most Canadians. No Ontario University has 
adopted the IHRA. According to a poll released earlier this month, 80% 
of Canadians do not believe that criticisms of Israel are anti-Semitic 
<https://www.cjpme.org/survey2020_r3>. The government has shown 
themselves willing to back down on reactionary legislation when it meets 
with robust public opposition. With robust intervention in defense of 
academic freedom and the necessary autonomy of university governance, we 
can prevent this neo-McCarthyist legislation from being enacted.

When a provincial government aims to set the terms for what is legal and 
admissible in university research and teaching, we are confronted with 
/governmental over-reach/. Modern universities have been defined and 
governed as /autonomous institutions/ of learning for a reason. 
Expectations of institutional autonomy and collegial governance, like 
that of /academic freedom/, protect universities from governments or 
private interests wishing to set the limits of what can be researched 
and what can be taught. Human rights research is as vulnerable to such 
intrusion as research in pharmaceuticals, energy, white collar crime, 
foreign relations, or any other potentially contentious research subjects.

Our faculty associations are mandated and entitled to protect their 
members’ rights to pursue their research and research dissemination free 
of such intrusion.

We strongly urge your Executive Committee to pass a motion this week 
condemning Bill 168 on the grounds of /academic freedom./

Sincerely,

The Ad Hoc Group of Ontario Scholars Concerned About Academic Freedom

Read this post online 
<https://www.yufa.ca/yufa-exec-rejects-government-attack-on-academic-freedom-democratic-debate/>.

-- 

*York University Faculty Association*

YUFA is the professional association and certified bargaining agent for 
approximately 1,500 faculty, librarians and archivists, and 
post-doctoral visitors at York University.

t. 416-736-5236 <tel:416-736-5236>  | Email <mailto:yufa at yorku.ca>  | 
Website <http://www.yufa.ca/>  | Facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/yufayorku>  | Twitter 
<https://twitter.com/YUFAyorku>  | YouTube 
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_9LftP2oHhil5p7cDoPUMg/>

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