Laval University management disagrees with Ottawa-imposed rules that forced it to bar white men from certain postings for prestigious research positions, saying it “claims” a change in rules from the federal government.
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However, students who have recently denounced the situation in the public square think the administration could be more proactive in this regard.
Vice-Rector François Gélineau, in charge of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in particular, explained the institution’s position after meeting these students late Monday afternoon.
Mr. Gélineau claims to have made the “same observation” as the representatives of six academic student unions who recently wrote to the Canada Research Chairs Program to denounce the exclusion of white men from bids because of the representation goals imposed on universities, an “unhealthy and “reductive” approach, as they say.
For his part, the vice-rector specified that if the University of Laval “has the choice”, recruitment will be based on the criteria of “excellence”. An underrepresented group is only privileged “with the same competence”.
Over the five years, 97% of recruitments have been made on this basis, while only 12 positions have been filled through “reserved competitions” under the federal programme, Mr Gélineau added.
Last year, Université Laval’s calls for Canada Research Chairs (CRC) caused controversy because only applications from women, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities could be considered in order to increase the representativeness of these groups, the document said .
The university explained that these criteria were introduced to meet federal requirements, which set goals to be achieved for each university institution in terms of representativeness.
Goals to change
The vice rector assures that he is in constant discussions with Ottawa to better align these goals with the reality of Quebec, where the proportion of the population with an immigrant background is lower than in other Canadian cities.
“We exchange views with the different levels of government to recognize our reality and adjust the measures,” said Gélineau.
For their part, students François Plamondon and Louis-Joseph Brouillard said they were “very satisfied” with their meeting with management and were pleasantly surprised to find that UL management did not support the quotas imposed by Ottawa.
However, they are under no illusions and have little hope that real change will happen. “We don’t have quite the same definition of ‘detain,'” said Mr. Brouillard.
The students would have liked the University of Laval to take a “clear position” and vehemently question the rules imposed by the federal government in public.