Quebec minister under fire for interfering in course content

Quebec’s Minister for Higher Education, Pascale Déry, came under fire from the opposition parties on Wednesday 19 February after admitting she interfered with the content of a course at Dawson College, reports The Canadian Press.

“This issue is very worrying. First of all, it’s a minister of higher education who is going to interfere in the content of a private course. And it’s all the more worrying because it’s the result of interventions by an organisation of which she herself was previously a member of the board of directors,” said Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis at a news briefing on Wednesday.

An article in Le Devoir published on Wednesday showed that the Centre for Israeli-Jewish Affairs (CIJA) – of which Déry was a board member from 2016 to 2022 – played a role in triggering investigations at Dawson and Vanier colleges. Déry initiated the investigations in December in the wake of demonstrations on campus linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Tuesday, Déry admitted that she had intervened in the content of a French course at Dawson College that dealt with “Palestinian identity”.
Full report on the CTV News site