In a recent Free Press article, “We Were Taught to Hate Jews,” five individuals from Muslim families report on the anti-Semitism that was integral to their upbringing. One said: “It’s like asking me how often I drink water. Anti-Semitism was everywhere.” Ayaan Hirsi...
American and Canadian university campuses rang for weeks on end with celebrations of Hamas’s “great victory” of Oct. 7. The murder of civilians, the burning alive of families, the gang rape of women to death, the roasting of children in ovens, and the beheading of...
Universities must remain strictly neutral on issues, save for one thing: the defence of academic freedom
In November 2022, Paul Viminitz, a professor in the philosophy department at the University of Lethbridge, invited me to give a talk on the threat “woke-ism” poses for academic freedom. After pressure mounted to cancel the talk, the president of the University of...
The indictment of former U.S. president Donald Trump for crimes invented by his political opponents is the most egregious example yet seen of the weaponizing of the law. The United States is now full of examples. However, in Canada, we also see the law being...
OTTAWA, REGINA - Last week, two things happened that could have profound impacts on natural resources development in Saskatchewan. One is a hint the federal government might want to take control of natural resources away from the provinces, and the other is the...
Independent thinkers believe what they do on the basis of evidence and argument and not as a result of psychological or social pressure. One way in which Critical Thinking courses help students to become independent thinkers is by making the analysis and evaluation of...
Frances Widdowson probably isn't someone most Canadians recognize. I'm here to tell you why they should. In terms of Canada's intellectual culture, Frances Widdowson matters because she is a classic and prolific academic. In a time when demagoguery easily flourishes,...
Proof of vaccination is required for students who want to live in residence at the University of Toronto. No, this wasn’t cut-and-paste from a 2021 article—it’s an actual requirement for the fall of 2022. Anyone who plans to live in residence at the University of...
Students might naively think that because they are at a university, they are free from the threat of official sanction to express their beliefs, ideas and emotions during classroom discussions; in this essay, I warn that, sadly, they are not. University...
In this essay, I explain that young people should come to university to be educated, and not to become credentialed; the public should support universities because universities educate young people, not because they produce credentialled workers. Why should a...
A Collection of Sharp and Insightful Challenges to Higher Education in Canada WINNIPEG, August 4, 2022 – The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has just published In Praise of Dangerous Universities and Other Essays, by philosophy professor Mark Mercer. Universities...
Over 50 colleges and universities in Canada have now signed the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion. This is unfortunate, as the Charter is a profoundly anti-academic document. That so many institutions signed it does not bode well for higher...
Over the last two years, Canadians have been told to “trust the science” without raising a question. Despite reasonable concerns, the evidence from Pfizer’s and Moderna’s randomized controlled trials (RCT) showed that for every 103 deaths in the “vaccinated” group...
Recent American studies have revealed a striking lack of variation in political views among the nation’s university professors. For example, 85% of academics teaching political science rated themselves as left of centre; only 10% considered themselves to be in the...