A new free speech reporting requirement is being implemented in Alberta's post-secondary schools, February 3, 2023. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Alberta

Annual “free speech reporting” to be required on Alberta’s post-secondary schools

Feb 3, 2023 | 5:15 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Government of Alberta has announced a step that it says will strengthen free speech protections on college and university campuses.

Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides says post-secondary schools will have to report every year on their efforts to protect free speech.

“It is abundantly clear that more needs to be done to ensure our institutions are adequately protecting free speech,” says Nicholaides. “Alberta’s post-secondary institutions should be bastions of free speech and academic freedom that promote critical thinking. I will continue to explore greater steps we can take to strengthen free speech on campus.”

The announcement comes just two days after Frances Widdowson gave a public speech at the University of Lethbridge (U of L) on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, despite the university cancelling the event.

Widdowson has come under fire for her past comments on matters such as residential schools and the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Her appearance at the U of L resulted in over 700 students, faculty, and community leaders engaging in a protest in opposition to her. Others felt that Widdowson should still be permitted to speak freely at the university, even if people disagree with her views.

The government says the new free speech reporting requirements will build on a 2019 requirement that all of Alberta’s 26 publicly-funded post-secondary schools endorse the Chicago Principles on free expression or come up with their own plan that falls in line with the principles.

A 2022 report by the MacDonald Laurier Institute found that 34 per cent of university professors in Canada, regardless of their political leanings, self-censor in their classrooms. According to the report, this was often done out of concern for the potential consequences they could face if their opinions became known.