Briefs and Reports

Universities and colleges in recent decades have increasingly employed academics on part-time and fixed-term teaching contracts. It is estimated that about one-third to one-half of academic staff in Canada today are on short-term and precarious contracts.

A collection of academic freedom inquiries and reports.

Historic Academic Freedom Cases in Canada (1980-2010)

Historical Academic Freedom Cases in Canada (1958-1980)

Inquiries, reports and discussion papers.

Major cases from Harry Crowe (United College) in 1958 to Dr. Valentina Azarova (University of Toronto) in 2020.

At its core, academic freedom ensures that in their teaching, research, scholarship, publication, creative expression, participation in the affairs of the university, and exercise of their rights as citizens, academics are not curtailed, disciplined, or censored.

Academic freedom has limits. It is not a license to break the law, such as engaging in harassment or discrimination, nor to disregard professional duties and responsibilities. It is not a defense against academic dishonesty, libel, or breach of ethical standards.

Historically, the contemporary understanding of academic freedom in Canada emerged from two principal sources. The first was the early British traditions of academic free speech and faculty self-governance illustrated, for example, by the efforts of Isaac Newton and his Cambridge colleagues to resist interference in academic decision-making by King James II in 1687.

Academic Freedom Cases in Canada (2010-present)