Far be it from me to throw oil on the fire, but the controversy of the week, the one that inflamed the National Assembly and caused half of the columnists-white-men-heterosexuals of the Quebec, this controversy, therefore, on positive discrimination at Laval University, it is a little the fault… of Amir Attaran.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
You know that professor from the University of Ottawa who antagonized Quebec last year by calling the province “Northern Alabama” ruled by a handful of “white supremacists”?
Yes, that professor.
It came back to me when Laval University was embarrassed for having immediately excluded the candidacy of any white man for a position offered within its Canada Research Chair (CRC) in biology.
A year ago, in the middle of Alabama at the Nordgate, I dug through the court records to discover that Amir Attaran was a subscriber to discrimination complaints. Most had been rejected.
But a complaint had prompted the government to react. The professor had filed it with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, because his mandate at the CRC in health law had not been renewed by the University of Ottawa.
The settlement reached in April 2021 means that universities that do not meet their equity, diversity and inclusion targets now face the consequences: the federal program reduces the number of CRCs awarded to these establishments.
“This regulation will affect 2000 professors and 70 universities in the country. It will make Canada a more equal country for all races, genders and abilities, Amir Attaran wrote to me at the time. I am very proud of work like this. »
I repeat, my goal is not to add fuel to the fire. Rather take a step back. And a deep breath.
No, the call for applications from Université Laval is not another unstoppable sign of the decay of Western civilization…
Nor is it the irrefutable proof of the triumph of the wokist ideology at Laval University.
We are talking here about a very specific federal program, that of the Canada research chairs. To qualify, all universities in the country must comply with its equity, diversity and inclusion requirements and practices.
Before Amir Attaran, other academics, women, had filed complaints of discrimination with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against the federal program, which had this unfortunate tendency to favor white men.
In 2017, Ottawa therefore committed to increasing the representation of women, Aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities. He had set targets for each of the universities that would benefit from his program.
So much for the context.
The deal now.
The job posting at the CRC in biology at Laval University was published last fall. Regardless of their merits, white men were not invited to apply. Not even bother to try their luck: they were excluded in advance.
This exclusion was clearly indicated in the call for applications, even if Université Laval also took the trouble to specify that it guaranteed “equal opportunities for all candidates”.
It was contradictory to say the least. Comedian Guy Nantel was right to point out the absurdity of the thing in social networks.
Politicians of all stripes condemned the case. “The criteria for Canada Research Chairs that come to exclude competent people go much too far,” said Quebec Deputy Premier Geneviève Guilbault.
“Excluding people automatically for candidacies, I do not think this is the right approach,” added the Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade. “It’s going too far. »
Everyone agrees on that. It’s going too far.
Of course, as in any debate, it’s all about perspective. At Université Laval, women make up 38% of the teaching staff. Visible minorities, for 6%. Aboriginal people and people with disabilities are picking up crumbs.
In short, the university still has a long way to go on the road to equity and diversity. She must find a way to do better. To go further… without going too much far.
Last September, the English Touring Opera, a London orchestra, caused a scandal when it announced that 14 of its white musicians would have to give up their place to members of visible minorities.
The objective was laudable: to promote diversity in classical music, which is still overwhelmingly white. But in wanting to right one injustice, the orchestra created another.
In the name of a virtuous principle, 14 virtuosos who had absolutely nothing to reproach themselves with found themselves unemployed.
This is the kind of slippage that feeds misunderstanding, not to say a certain resentment, towards current equity, diversity and inclusion policies.
We will gain nothing by wanting to make people pay the price for social injustices who have nothing to do with it. Nor by trying to ram reforms, however crucial, down the throats of the people.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a bit of what Ottawa is doing with its Canada Excellence Research Chairs program.
Are recruitment targets easier to achieve in Montreal than in Quebec City, where the pool of candidates from minority groups is more limited?
Still, Laval University did not reach its targets, unlike the University of Montreal. In the hope of achieving this, she had to go further. Too far. Exclude white men from its call for applications.
If she hadn’t, the federal program would have stripped her of the research chairs. He would have deprived it of a precious source of funding.
Every year, Ottawa rains $311 million on the country’s universities. That’s nice of him, but he does it on his terms. To receive money, universities are forced to bend to his will.
Again, this story appears from another perspective. That of the chronic underfunding of universities. That of their dependence on research funds – including those of the federal government. A dependency that prevents them from fully exercising their academic freedom.
It is perhaps there, the true scandal.