Commentary
On June 3, the National Assembly of Quebec, Canada, passed an Act respecting academic freedom in the university sector.
The law’s purpose is described in the legislation: “to recognize, promote, and protect university academic freedom in order to support the mission of university-level educational institutions, which includes the production and transmission of knowledge through research, creation and teaching activities and through services to the community.” It applies to “legal persons or bodies that are authorized … to confer degrees … or any other attestation of university studies and that offer a university-level instructional program.”
“Academic freedom” is described as “the right of every person to engage freely and without doctrinal, ideological or moral constraint, such as institutional censorship, in an activity through which the person contributes to carrying out the mission of an educational institution.”…