CAUT Journal

Getting Good Agreements

Jennifer Dekker — 2021-03-30

This study examines whether third-party intervention during collective bargaining has an impact on the quality of collective agreements in the post-secondary sector in Canada. Interviews were conducted with 15 faculty union negotiators in five different provinces. These identified both benefits and drawbacks to working with third parties during difficult rounds of collective bargaining. Improvements included better communication between the disputants, expeditious conflict resolution, and achieving sectoral norms when unions had fallen behind in extended health benefits or salary. Nonetheless, the interviews highlighted many risks and costs that unions experience with third-party intervention, especially when it is mandated by legislation and involves working with provincially appointed mediators, conciliators, and arbitrators.

Academic Freedom

Mark Gabbert — 2021-03-30

This paper is anchored in a concern that too great a focus on the limits to academic freedom risks overlooking its origins and dependence upon freedom of expression writ large. We ignore at our peril the crucial importance of the broader right of freedom of expression as fundamental to academic freedom. It is not only in protecting the intramural and extramural rights of academic speech that a robust defense of freedom of expression is necessary. Even in the realm of strictly disciplinary work this is critical. For to mitigate the risk of creating our own "prescribed doctrines" in the form of disciplinary norms requires the broadest respect for dissent on the part of individual academics. Moreover, preserving the free exercise of the core functions of teaching and research demands the vigorous defense of freedom of expression in the external world governed by the public authorities. Finally, any restrictions on free expression in the extramural or intramural realms, will lead inevitably to professorial self-censorship in the work of teaching and research.

The Properties of Universities and Universities' Property

Sarah Hamill — 2021-03-30

The issue as to whether protests or other political demonstrations may be held on university campuses draws together interconnected issues related to freedom of expression and academic freedom. This paper offers analysis of the legal rights and obligations for post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United Kingdom. Are publicly funded universities obligated to open campus facilities to a wide range of interest groups? Must universities guard against “hate speech”? The key point is that the exercise of free expression is nuanced and that decisions should be – and often are – reached after serious consideration of the likely impacts on free expression and the impacts that allowing such free expression might have on others, including vulnerable individuals.

The Limits to Freedom of Expression in a University Setting

Pierre Trudel — 2021-03-31

This text expounds the extent to which freedom of expression on our campuses is subject to limits. We will discuss the obligations imposed by law on academic institutions and explain the requirements incumbent on universities to respect or limit freedom of expression. The text explains the manner in which laws governing hate speech and human rights impose restrictions on freedom of expression. From what point is an offensive remark considered by law an incitement to hatred or an act of harassment? Where these issues lie is a function of the intrinsic nature of an academic institution, as a space for expression. Finally, we note that while limits on the expressive freedom of those who work in universities stem from external sources, these may just as well result from processes in place within the university itself.
Unlike the prevailing situation in the United States, Canadian law already states limits to expressive freedom, in general legislation. These limits have been deemed reasonable by the courts. Consequently, it is not so much a university’s prerogative to mull the question of whether certain types of statements may be prohibited on campus. There are already laws prohibiting hate speech, calls for genocide, and the like. The issue is rather to ascertain the extent to which it is possible for universities to impose limits on expressive activities that go beyond those arising from the general laws. But there are also issues arising from the often very broad scope of the laws that limit freedom of expression.