Minister moves to ‘strengthen’ free speech on campuses

Alberta’s advanced education minister says new steps to “strengthen free speech” on post-secondary campuses will be announced in the near future, news that follows a decision by one university to reverse course on a planned speech by a controversial academic, writes Joel Dryden for CBC News.

The University of Lethbridge said this week that former Mount Royal University (MRU) professor Frances Widdowson, who’d been scheduled to do a lecture on Wednesday night (1 February) on campus, would not be provided space. She had been fired from MRU in 2021. Widdowson made headlines in 2020 for comments she made suggesting there had been an educational benefit to residential schools.

Alberta Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said he learned of the University of Lethbridge’s decision on Monday 30 January. “I understand past comments made by this speaker are controversial, but I believe it is important for our universities and colleges to foster a strong culture of free speech and diverse viewpoints, even when those viewpoints are deemed controversial, or even offensive, barring speech intended to incite hatred or violence of course,” Nicolaides said in a statement provided to CBC News.
Full report on the CBC News site