Learning from the skid | Press

Professor Veruschka did everything Lt-Duval should: caution, injury-warning (twice), nuance, sensitivity, teaching, a well-versed analytical grid. You can tell she plays by the campus rules. Yet she experienced hell For saying one word. Why?

Because the University of Ottawa panicked. Although the professor wanted to advance his students’ thinking on sensitive subjects as part of his course plan, the University of Ottawa and its rector, Jacques Frémont, decided to protect their reputation by ignoring facts and theoretically some basic principles.

If there’s one book you need to read to better understand the cowardice an organization in turmoil can display, this is it Human liberties.

This book, written by a team of professors from the University of Ottawa who supported Professor Lt-Duvall at their own risk and peril, describes and analyzes this incredible slide from the inside.

This book was not written by theorists, but by strict teachers, overwhelmed by the persecution they experienced. The book wants to do useful work. It was written primarily in the hope of making people understand what the purpose of our universities is: to advance knowledge and, more broadly, what threatens our ability to resolve our differences.

It consists of an interview with the principal concerned, a section with very real testimonies from professors who have experienced the incidents first hand, another section on analyzes of the reasons for the slippage and a final section on proposals for the future. In short, the book is written by researchers, academics, people who want to improve their society through their intellectual contribution.

Let me give you an interesting practice example. The researchers emphasized the difference between the mention of a word and its use. We can do it Mention A word, like M.^me Lieutenant Duvall. She was trying to explain that the meaning of a highly loaded word changes over time. For example, the word “queer” is an insult that has now become a marker of identity (a shift called subversive resignation).

Mention No offensive word to describe it Use it The word, therefore, is not insulting. M^me Lieutenant-Duval mentioned a word and his world came crashing down. The university has a great educational opportunity. She didn’t take it.

There is strong evidence in the book that the University of Ottawa, its principal rector, was appalled. Outside the law, outside procedural fairness, no verification of facts, no investigation, but immediate sanctions: suspension, the rector publicly denounced. It’s very scary.

I would say it’s scarier than the attitude of the students. Radical militancy has always been a part of universities, and generally for our good, the established order must always be challenged. But when the rule of law gives way to arbitrariness, everything turns dangerous.

If you read Human liberties If you are not interested, watch the movie Revision, by Catherine Therin. The attitude of the University of Ottawa is very similar to that of the fictional CEGEP leaders seen there: total lack of courage, no desire to get to the bottom of things, emphasis on image.

The case is interesting because such slippage happens everywhere and not only because of the use of a word, for example, a misunderstood behavior or gesture.

If the Romans, 2000 years ago, already applied the principle Audi alterum partem, listen to the other side before condemning, we should be able to do that in any situation. The rule of law will always take precedence over the uninformed and snappy moral judgments of a leader like Rector Fremont. At the university’s request, former judge Bastarache filed a report proposing new procedures eight months ago. These have not yet been implemented.

This affair is wrongly called the Lieutenant-Duval affair. This is the Jacques Frémont affair. He did not do his job as a manager to ensure that the principles of natural justice were respected, or even his job as a university leader, to ensure that the university, the “prime repository of knowledge”, could freely fulfill its duties. Its mission is “preservation, criticism, development and transmission of knowledge and culture”.¹.

1. This definition is taken from the report of the Chief Scientist of Quebec, The future University of Quebec2021.