{"id":6799,"date":"2025-11-29T21:11:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/?p=6799"},"modified":"2025-11-29T21:11:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:11:35","slug":"universities-claim-draft-quebec-constitution-could-create-self-censorship-climate-for-fear-of-personal-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/29\/universities-claim-draft-quebec-constitution-could-create-self-censorship-climate-for-fear-of-personal-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"Universities claim draft Quebec constitution could create self-censorship climate for fear of personal liability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Murray Sherriffs<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quebec universities are sounding the alarm over the Legault government’s proposed constitutional Bill 1, <\/em>warning that it would curb academic freedom and punish administrators who launch legal challenges using public funds, as did Concordia and McGill did in fighting the government\u2019s tuition fee structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bureau de coop\u00e9ration universitaire<\/em> (BCI),<\/em> which represents all Quebec universities, has submitted a brief to the National Assembly committee which is studying the bill, saying that a challenge could result in a person being held personally liable for any legal costs, thus creating a strong disincentive to act, out of fear of personal liability and create \u201c…a climate of institutional self-censorship that conflicts with the principles of university governance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCI is also concerned that the bill gives fundamental rights, equality, political and judicial rights and linguistic rights power that could not be easily overridden by regular laws passed by the National Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several legal and human rights groups are also concerned about restricting the ability of public institutions to challenge laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Murray Sherriffs Quebec universities are sounding the alarm over the Legault government’s proposed constitutional Bill 1, warning that it would curb academic freedom and punish administrators who launch legal challenges using public funds, as did Concordia and McGill did in fighting the government\u2019s tuition fee structure. The Bureau de coop\u00e9ration universitaire (BCI), which represents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUniversities claim draft Quebec constitution could create self-censorship climate for fear of personal liability - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/29\/universities-claim-draft-quebec-constitution-could-create-self-censorship-climate-for-fear-of-personal-liability\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Universities claim draft Quebec constitution could create self-censorship climate for fear of personal liability - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Murray Sherriffs Quebec universities are sounding the alarm over the Legault government’s proposed constitutional Bill 1, warning that it would curb academic freedom and punish administrators who launch legal challenges using public funds, as did Concordia and McGill did in fighting the government\u2019s tuition fee structure. 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