Professors, graduates or employees of the University of Ottawa, 73 of them launched a real “cry from the heart” in defense of university freedom, in an open letter obtained exclusively by Press. The signatories demand a formal apology from the rector of the university, Jacques Frémont, to Professor Verushka Lieutenant-Duval.
“It’s like a cry from the heart of a community to its senior management for things to move forward,” said François Chapleau, professor emeritus in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa, in an interview with Press.
Mme Lieutenant-Duval was suspended from the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2020 for having used the “word beginning with an N” as part of a course on the reappropriation of insults by certain communities.
“Since that time, we know well what happened in the classroom, and we do not understand the stubbornness of the rector not to use this possibility that is offered to him” s’ excuse, explains François Chapleau.
Read the letter “Time for reconciliation”
The apology is “an important step to take,” said Marc-François Bernier, professor in the communications department at the University of Ottawa, and signatory of the letter. “We think it’s important to denounce an injustice,” he continues.
If the rector does not recognize his mistake with the professor, “there will always be this kind of ghost that will haunt” the faculty, believes François Chapleau. “The whole teaching framework has been a little shaken by the fact that the senior administration of the university does not seem to offer support for academic freedom,” he says.
The immediate application of certain recommendations of the Bastarache report on “academic freedom”, made public on November 4, is also demanded by the professionals who signed the open letter.
The University of Ottawa first wishes to consult the University Senate, starting November 22, before taking new steps.
Restore a climate of trust
The Bastarache report is opposed in particular to “the exclusion of terms, works or ideas in the context of a presentation or a respectful discussion of an academic nature and for educational purposes and the dissemination of knowledge”.
The document also recommends that the definitions of “academic freedom” and “freedom of expression” be “communicated to the entire academic community”, in order to ensure their proper understanding.
The Bastarache report unveils accounts of professors who say they are “afraid” to speak out when they teach, and who censor themselves.
“In a course, can I not talk about the Aboriginal presence in the big cities of Canada? Or racial issues in the United States? Certainly not. How can I do this being 100% sure that none of my words will be taken as “too much this” or “not enough that”, and sent out of context in the tweetosphere? », We can read in the testimony of a professor.
“What I want to say by signing this letter is that the apologies to Verushka Lieutenant-Duval seem absolutely essential to restore a climate of trust”, underlines Maxime Prévost, full professor in the French department of the University of Ottawa.