US President Donald Trump threatened to cancel the financing of some universities, unless they undertake his applications to change ideological policy, as well as the promise of Pierre Pailievre for Canadian post -secondary schools.
But so far the conservative leader has been rare in detail what kind of action he can take.
Trump's requirements, which caused condemnation of interference in academic freedom, were on the first pages of newspapers this week after the White House stated that he freezed over $ 2.2 billion in subsidies and $ 60 million dollars at Harvard University.
It happened after President Harvard Alan Gerber he refused to follow With a demand of the White House, saying in a letter that the university “will not give up its independence or give up its constitutional rights.”
Meanwhile, Poilievre also threatened to reject universities over what he perceived as their ideological outline. On the eve of tweet on X, previously known as Twitter, Poilievre said that “he would defund around and fight anti -Semitism.”
“Put an end to waking up ideology”
This tweet was related to Telephone interview He gave WinnipiegjewewewieView.com, in which he was cited, saying that he would not tolerate and reject “all people from the Antisemitic agenda”, including universities who receive federal funds and all museums financed by federally.
He repeated a similar promise on March 26, when the party published its Quebec platform, saying that the conservative government would “put an end to the imposition of the ideology of the Woke in the Federal Civil Service and the allocation of federal funds on university research.”
The commitment was prompted by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (Caut) to publish the statement “expressing the alarm” regarding the promise of Poilievre to disturb the allocation of federal research financing.
“He is worried that the leader of the Political Party in Canada will try to dictate how research funds will be awarded,” said David Robinson, executive director of CAUT. “We have seen the impact of this political interference south of the border, in which the Trump administration began a full scale to attack universities and the scientific community. This kind of cultural war in the American style does not take place in Canada.”
Starting from Columbia University, the Trump administration gathered post-secondary secondary institutions in connection with their support for the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which came campuses last year after Hamas attack in Israel and later Israeli attacks on gauze.
Trump called anti -American and anti -Semitic protests, accusing universities of selling Marxism and the ideology of “radical left” and promised to finish federal subsidies and contracts for universities that do not agree to the demands of his administration.
On April 3, the White House issued a list of demands on Harvard, which contained a ban on facial masks, Restrictions of protests in the campus and a review of the prejudices of academic departments. About a week later, these requirements were extended to include leaders' reforms, changes in admission policy and completion of some student organizations by the University.
The president of the school said that Harvard has already made extensive reforms to solve anti -Semitism, but many government demands do not apply to anti -Semitism, and instead is an attempt to regulate “intellectual conditions” on Harvard.
“Wake” roots
Although Poilievre did not publish any details of his proposed plans, he still seems to take lessons from the USA with the threats of Defund, said Patrick McCurda, a professor of communication at the University of Ottawa.
“I take it seriously in the same way he doubled and seriously approaches his threats related to the CBC,” said McCurdy. “This is something that people should pay attention to.”
McCurdy was also part of a research in which the evolution of anti -grain discourse was studied in debates in the House of Commons in 2019–2023.
Their study Hansard Records revealed that in 2019 there were only two references about the word “Woke”. Their research, by 2023, conservatives increased to 63 times, and Poilievre was responsible for 33 cases of this year.
As McCurdy noted in a recent article, which was written by the co -author of the policy option, the “awake” term is rooted in African -American experience of racial violence and originally meant awareness of racial injustice. He said that the progressers accepted him to cover wider social injustice related to feminist, LGBTQ+ and intersection problems.
But since then this word was based on the derogatory date used against some who promote such fears about social justice and are accused of determining or authoritarian in matters, including identity policy and justice, diversity and integration (EDI).
McCurdy's article entitled Many dangers related to the war of Pierre Poilievre on “Woke“He claims that his promise of politics, such as rejecting universities in relation to ideology, are simply” part of the strategy of exploitation, aimed at causing fears and injuries, views of divisions and legitimizing extreme positions in mainstream policy. “
“Threats to academic freedom”
“I would be interested in reading how he could propose it … (I) how it fights with the freedom of researchers, scientists and universities to conduct research,” said McCurdy at CBC News in a telephone interview. “This is certainly a threat to academic freedom.”
Conservatives in the past talked about rejecting universities towards campus policy. During his leadership campaign in 2017, Andrew Scheer said that he would draw federal funds from universities that did not maintain freedom of speech, “close the debate and cannot bear different points of view.”
This happened in response to cases in which events against abortion and pro -Israel were reversed from university campus after the outbreak of protests.
Poilievre later would continue his promise during the leadership campaign in 2022, in which he said that if universities want to keep federal research subsidies, they would have to protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of speech in the campus. He also said that he would appoint a “guardian of freedom of speech” to make sure that universities followed these principles.
Universities should support the debate, not suppress. As a prime minister, I defend freedom of speech in the campus.
If universities want to preserve federal research subsidies, they will have to protect academic freedom and guarantee freedom of speech in the campus.https://t.co/onttk7ieo
As for his current political promises, the conservative party did not answer the CBC News questions asking for more details. However, in an interview published on April 8 by English media Jewish News Syndicate, Candidate of the Conservative Party Neil Oberman, who operates in Quebec driving on Mount Royal, He said he was supporting limiting funds for universities which do not do enough to fight anti -Semitism on their campus.
“(Universities) will not receive a penny from the federal government until they clean their act,” he said.
Stéphane Sérafin, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa, who believes that Woke Ideology is a problem at universities, said that the liberal government was very aggressive in imposing ideological requirements for research involving EDI initiatives.
But he said he wasn't sure what exactly Puilievre is considering.
“I assume that at least they would like to remove the types of EDI requirements that have been added to these research funds. Besides, I can only speculate.”
Sérafin wondered if the conservative government would add requirements that are in line with their ideological preferences or would simply reject universities.
“Does he want to upset everything, or does he just want to direct to specific programs?” Sérafin asked about the intentions of Poilievre.
“He is never in a sense clearly developed a plan on how it will be done,” he said. “It's a bit like one of those problems in which the devil really is in detail.”