On April 29, 2025, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hosted a private roundtable, led by MLI Senior Fellow and former university president Peter MacKinnon, to examine the future of Canada’s universities, the state of free speech on campus, and the disturbing rise of antisemitism in academic spaces.
The event, titled Reclaiming the University: Free Speech, Institutional Neutrality, and Confronting Campus Antisemitism, brought together a select group of thought leaders, academics, and policy experts.
Moderated by Deputy Domestic Policy Director Peter Copeland, the discussion centred on the crisis of illiberalism threatening Canada from within, and especially in academia, where professors now fear expressing dissenting views. The attendees discussed how universities, in their overreach to enforce equity policies through politicized DEI bureaucracies, have strayed from their role as neutral institutions.
A dynamic Q&A session followed, with participants raising concerns about the alarming resurgence of antisemitism on Canadian campuses, particularly in the wake of the horrific October 7 terror Hamas terror attacks on Israel, and the importance of upholding academic discipline to prevent student protests from crossing the line into harassment or endangering others.
