ON government tells post-secondary schools to protect free speech or face budget cuts

Ontario colleges and universities will need to develop and implement free speech policies by the new year or else face funding cuts, the province’s Conservative government announced last week. The government has said that the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario will begin monitoring compliance with the legislation starting in September 2019, although some experts say that it is unclear how the policy will be interpreted and enforced. Under the legislation, speech that would qualify as hate speech under Canadian law would still not be permitted. Students who contravene the policies would be subject to existing campus discipline measures. Toronto Star | iPolitics