Canada joins Britain, France in combatting cancel culture 'coming from the United States'
Top government officials in Britain and France have recently expressed concern with the spread of American sociological philosophies in their university systems.
The Premier of Quebec is now joining international efforts to bolster the right to free speech.
Joining top officials from across the globe, the Premier of Quebec wrote about the dangers of academic ideologies from the United States and promised to protect free expression.
In a Feb. 13 statement, Premier Francois Legault wrote that “a handful of radical activists can be seen trying to censor some words and works” in academia.
“We see a movement coming from the United States and frankly, I don’t think it’s like us,” he explained. “What’s really disturbing is that more and more people are feeling intimidated. They feel forced to self-censure, lest they get insulted and expose in the public square.”
Legault added that canceling authors and professors “is going too far” and that the “situation is slip[p]ing.”
“While it can be healthy to question certain conceptions or behaviours and to avoid shock or injury, we must not sacrifice our freedom of expression,” he said. “Freedom of expression is one of the pillars of our democracy. If we start compromising on this, we risk seeing the same censorship overflow in our media, in our political debates. We won’t mean anything anymore. No one will dare to talk about immigration, for example, if every time we talk about this, we get screamed nonsense. Nobody wants that. Not me, anyway.”
Legault announced that Higher Education Minister Danielle McCann is seeking to “act fast” in response to the erosion of Quebec’s academic culture.
Campus Reform recently reported that other Western nations are concerned about the rise of woke academia as a result of American influence.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for instance, said that “certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States” are a threat to his nation’s unity. His education minister said that “there’s a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities.”
Likewise, Britain’s education minister announced the appointment of a “Free Speech Champion” and confirmed that the government would sanction universities that fail to actively support environments of free expression.
[RELATED: GOOD: British government fights back against cancel culture in academia]
Campus Reform reached out to Premier Legault’s office for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
