Government spies on campus cannot possibly be a good thing for the quality of our education. It’s hard enough to write an essay, let alone give lectures or conduct research when you have someone over your shoulder watching every move.
But watched we were in the 1970s, when CSIS had at least one spy operating full-time at U of T. In the wake of this recent realization and the ongoing terrorism crisis, U of T should be running to put in place policies protecting the university from government snooping. But the way they’ve handled this and other recently revealed nasty bits of government intervention is not encouraging. If they don’t act soon, they’ll lose their claim to being society’s custodian of free speech and expression, and with it, their reason for being.
Not only did the U of T not fire the spy when they discovered her in the 1970s, they gave her a new job in the human resources department. Given the university’s carefully crafted image as a place of free thought, hiding something that would destroy this image isn’t surprising. But that still doesn’t make it right, and students are the ones who should be most concerned. We pay big bucks for one key thing: the unfettered opinions and ideas of Canada’s top intellectuals. Anything, especially something as extreme as spying, that gets in the way of those opinions dramatically undercuts the value of our education. Making matters even more unacceptable is the university’s response to other matters that have surfaced post-September 11. First is the discovery that we still have a cold-war era law on the books that bars students from countries like Libya, Sudan and Iraq from taking numerous science courses in Canada. Although government officials insist this policy isn’t being enforced, it still remains on the books. Quite contrary to preventing terrorism, it will only inflame anger more with its open discrimination against Arabs and Muslims. It also says that education should be elitist and metered out selectively. Like the spy on campus, it allows for an unacceptable amount of government intervention in what is supposed to be a sacred place of free expression.
The final blow to the universities is their shocking silence on Bill-36, the terrorism legislation. Many lawyers say the bill defines terrorism so broadly that acts of everyday dissent and criticism could be made illegal depending on whether or not CSIS and the police are having a bad day. If passed, the bill will certainly create a climate hostile to dissent and free expression. Needless to say, this is something that the university should be speaking publicly against, not only in light of the direct effect it could have on research and teaching, but because it affects the public’s right to free expression. And a university is a custodian of that right, or it is nothing.
The other custodian of that freedom—the media, even somewhat conservative papers like the Globe—have at least been demanding that the terrorism bill have a sunset or phase out clause. Otherwise it could be on the books far past its (already questionable) utility. The Liberal government has rejected these calls. However, they would become increasingly hard to ignore if the universit—especially one of this size—was on board. While we are at it, we must get the rest of our house in order to limit these other draconian restrictions on our free expression and ensure we have no spies in our corridors or limits on who can learn.
After all, if a university exists as one of the only places of completely free expression in our society, and we let attacks on that free expression go unchecked, then we have lost our reason for being. And with that loss so too our education will suffer and public support for higher education will wither away.
There has already been a chorus of voices pointing out that if we restrict our freedom, the terrorists have won. You can’t fight for freedom by eliminating freedoms. It is time for the university to proudly join these voices and defend our right to speak and think freely, not only in these walls, but throughout our entire society.
