September 2008
Canadians rarely concern themselves with the internal quarrels of American
scholarly associations, nor should we. Such disputes are always tempests in
teapots, and why care about turbulence in teapots not even our own?
But
here’s a case where we are at least nominally the subject of such a quarrel. The
American Political Science Association, one of the largest of the academic
professional associations, is scheduled to hold its 2009 annual meeting in
Toronto. This would be its first meeting in Canada, indeed its first outside the
United States. There are many Canadian members of APSA (this writer included),
and the decision to meet in Toronto was a tribute to Canada’s contributions to
the political science profession.
Almost certainly, the meeting will proceed as scheduled, if only because it’s
too late for APSA to move it. Be this as it may, the site is now under
challenge. Tomorrow, on the eve of this year’s annual meeting in Boston, the
council of APSA will consider a petition alleging that Canada does not protect
academic freedom.
As
the petitioners present Canada, it is subject to a reign of terror due to the
excesses of human-rights commissions. What fun would a scholarly meeting be if
you couldn’t impugn gay rights or Islamic extremism, and the human-rights
commissions are alleged to have rendered this intolerably risky. No sooner will
you deliver your paper than you’ll be dragged off to the commission hoosegow.
The petition would require the APSA leadership to seek assurances from the
Canadian government that academic freedom will be protected.
How
thoughtful of the Americans to be committed to democracy promotion even in
Canada. When I first heard of this petition, my eyes misted over – until I
reflected that it was all a load of bupkes.
I
loathe human-rights commissions as much as anyone. They are an excrescence on
our body politic, and they make Canada a less free society, not a freer one.
Their procedures are grossly unfair, placing intolerable pressures, financial
and otherwise, on defendants to settle their cases even where they are innocent.
They represent a malign bureaucracy run wild. There are other legal avenues for
pursuing issues of discrimination, and any federal government with guts would at
the very least rein in these commissions.
But
this is for Canadians to worry about. Americans should stick to their own
worries. The petitioners’ claim that human-rights commissions pose a threat to
them is bogus. How many international scholarly conferences are held in Canada
each year and no repercussions whatsoever? How many controversial guest speakers
have I myself sponsored, many on the supposedly taboo issue of Islamic
extremism?
When promoters of this petition approached me, apparently expecting me to sign
it, I asked them whether they could adduce a single instance of the abridgment
of academic freedom in Canada. They could not. Canada’s record on academic
freedom is exemplary. In political science, empirical evidence is supposed to
matter; it has made no impression on the signers of this gasbag of a petition.
In
fact, the signers neither know much about Canada nor care about it. They made no
serious attempt to consult their Canadian colleagues. Many of them seem to think
human-rights commissions are criminal courts in which the government brings
charges against defendants. They haven’t even looked into the question of
whether any human-rights commission has ever claimed jurisdiction over visiting
foreigners.
So
what’s really going on? Internal APSA politics. In recent years, the question of
location has become politicized, first by the left and now, in revenge, by the
right. Presumably, the petition will fail. The signers have warned that, if it
does, they will boycott next year’s meeting. They will remain safely where they
are – the few, the proud, the cowering. If they make good on this fearsome
threat, I will look forward to not seeing them. Yankee stay home.
Free expression, my signatory friends, free expression. Surely I have as much
right to defend Canada as you to traduce it.
Clifford Orwin is professor of political science at the University of Toronto
and distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
Globe and Mail, August 26, 2008.
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