The recent refusal, by the Minister of Higher Education, of the appointment to a position on the INRS board of directors of Denise Helly, a researcher recognized in Quebec, Canada and internationally for her work on minorities , racism and Islamophobia, raises questions in academia.
Despite numerous requests for explanations and open letters expressing concern about political interference and an attack on academic freedom, even though it is governed by a law from the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the minister has long remained silent. before ending up justifying his decision. To do this, she cites a symposium on Islamophobia organized in 2015 by several professor-researchers, including Denise Helly, as well as a prize that the latter received in 2016 from the Quebec Collective Against Islamophobia represented by Adil Charkaoui, character controversial.
These explanations concern us even more, because the criticisms expressed directly concern the research that Mme Helly leads and processes scientific research into societal issues. Let us specify that, in this type of work, the approach consists of meeting various protagonists to understand and analyze their speeches. We cannot do research on Islamophobia without hearing the perspectives of Muslim people and groups of all opinions!
For our part, this situation reminds us of the cancellation by the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services in 2022 of training on racism, which we had developed as expert researchers on this issue. Produced following the work of the anti-racism action group formed by the government, this training video was intended to be aimed at professionals in public health and social services. Despite its approval by the Validation Committee in October 2022, the training was canceled in December 2022 following our refusal to remove a section on systemic racism as requested by the ministry.
A journalistic investigation conducted by Thomas Gerbet for Radio-Canada on April 5, entitled “Researchers accuse Quebec of censorship of training on racism”, calls into question political interference in this university production and its cancellation for reasons ideological. Systemic racism, like Islamophobia, continues to be taboo for the CAQ government.
It is clear that academic freedom is truly variable. It may be limited or even canceled in the case of researchers who are interested in social subjects, while they follow a rigorous scientific methodology leading them to identify and analyze different currents of thought within minority groups, then to meet their representatives.
Even more, the rigorous work of these researchers is devalued and reduced to ideological or political considerations. This development is very worrying in a democratic society. In fact, we are undermining social research and the hot topics it focuses on. Furthermore, without respect for scientific research, particularly in the social sciences, we allow populist discourses, taboos, simplifications, prejudices, right-wing extremist opinions and ideologies, discrimination and even abuses of all kinds to develop.
As researchers in social sciences, researchers on issues of racism and Islamophobia and trainers of the next generation in social sciences, we do not aspire to this kind of society.
We are particularly concerned about this next generation of scientists that we are training according to high ethical and scientific standards: should we prepare our young researchers in Quebec for strategies of erasing and invisibilizing certain issues that bother the governments in place, and this, depending on the circumstances? Who ultimately has the power and legitimacy to identify research subjects that are acceptable or not in Quebec?