Ministry Investigation into Dawson & Vanier

As you are likely aware, late last year the Ministry of Higher Education launched an unprecedented investigation with a mandate to investigate the administrations’ management of any situation at Dawson or Vanier that could reasonably threaten the physical or psychological security of students. The investigation was launched in the context of teaching activities and campus organizing on the subject of Palestine.

In April 2025, the DTU General Assembly passed a motion (attached) denouncing the Ministry’s interference into courses, demanding the cancellation of the investigation, and calling for the resignation of Minister Déry.

In late June 2025, the Ministry released the investigators’ concluding report. If you attended the College’s Welcome Back assembly in August, you may remember the administration’s response.

Please read below for the DTU Executive’s analysis and response, as well as some other analyses and responses that you might find elucidating.


The report

The DTU Executive denounces the investigation in its entirety: the justifications for the investigation are opaque and, in our opinion, baseless; the process was methodologically unsound; and, most importantly, the investigation as a whole represents a serious attack on the principle of academic freedom in institutions of higher education.

The DTU Executive also denounces in the strongest terms the conclusions themselves, which are seriously flawed due to bias and lack of rigour. However, we’d like to clarify that it is not the obvious errors nor the egregious racial and religious discrimination in the report that makes the investigation as a whole invalid; a more balanced and rigorous exercise would not have excused the government’s interference into our institutions in this manner.

 

With that said, the conclusions are broadly that the administrations of Dawson and Vanier carried out their duties rightfully according to applicable laws and policies, and that therefore these laws and policies should change. The conclusions seem to be based on circular reasoning, and so we are left with the distinct impression that the Ministry refused to be dissuaded from conclusions that it had reached long before the investigation. 

Keeping in mind the important caveat that the conclusions are not invalid only for the following misunderstandings and for its glaring racism, we’d like to point out just a few of the “findings” on which investigators based their conclusions: 

  • Since August 2024, the Ministry had been very concerned by a Dawson French literature course subtitled ‘Appartenances palestiniennes,’ which analysed cultural works by Palestinian authors. Without having interviewed the teacher or their coordinators, and without detailing any findings that the teacher had breached the bounds of responsible academic freedom, investigators felt the need to respond to this course incoherently by stating that academic freedom does not justify militantism or the promotion of ideologies. [p. 42]
  • Investigators noted that a Vanier English course titled ‘The Art of the Palestinian Short Story’ was the object of complaints and can elicit different opinions! According to them, an English literature course should not focus on sociological or political analysis. [p. 43]
  • Investigators presented claims that Vanier’s annual International Women’s Week hosts speakers who are biased and repeat the same themes year after year! They stated that such polarizing topics cannot engender an open and constructive debate – instead they create a toxic climate. [p. 39-41]
  • Investigators studied several course outlines that included statements about the difference between safety and discomfort, or simply the difference between agreeing with a text and engaging with it academically. They concluded that such statements are in fact exclusionary to students who disagree, and are attempts to prevent complaints. [p. 44] 
  • Investigators saw a dozen keffiyehs on both campuses! [p. 25] (and cited erroneous information about student sales of keffiyehs) [p. 23]
  • Despite the existence of several well-documented acts of harassment and intimidation against pro-Palestinian students and teachers, none of these are included in the report.


Recommendations are to adopt a law regarding academic freedom at the cégep level, to amend the law to clarify obligations of accredited student associations and to give administrations more tools to intervene in problematic scenarios, to revise and specify competencies in language courses, to enforce the application of articles 2 and 3 of the Loi sur la laïcité de l’État, and to ensure that a faculty member participate in the editorial board of The Plant.

Dawson has responded that it is not within its purview to change laws or competencies. Dawson also responded that it does not understand how it is contravening the Loi sur la laïcité de l’État (and the report does not give any examples). Dawson stated as well that its understanding is that it has no legal standing to intervene in the functioning of independent student bodies. The Dawson administration has indicated that in the absence of amendments or new legislation, it will not be making institutional changes in response to these recommendations. 

 

Other analyses in the media that you might be interested in:

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/chroniques/2025-07-04/enquete-sur-les-cegeps-dawson-et-vanier/un-beau-tour-de-manege-politique.php

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/education/2025-07-07/locaux-de-prieres-a-dawson-et-vanier/une-etude-importante-absente-du-rapport-d-enquete.php

The DTU Executive’s response

The CAQ’s investigation of Dawson and Vanier was an unacceptable instance of government interference in our institutions of higher education. Its report presents solutions to problems that do not exist – solutions which represent important threats to higher education as a place of quality teaching by disciplinary experts, critical thought and diversity of opinion. The report demonstrates a dangerous misunderstanding of academic freedom and a willingness on the part of the Ministry to allow anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim biases, paired with a shocking lack of methodological rigour, to lead them to faulty findings which support conclusions that were likely reached long before the investigation began. It is revealing that recommendations of the report have nothing to do with student safety and everything to do with curtailing academic and religious freedoms, and freedom of expression, of teachers and students. 

 

The DTU Executive has witnessed first-hand the impact of the investigation, not only on those students and teachers directly targeted, but also more generally, in creating a climate of intimidation on campuses. The DTU Executive asserts the right of cégep students to organize autonomously and affirms the importance of student unions and student journalism as part of a vibrant collegiate life. The DTU Executive denounces in the strongest terms the report and any legislation that arises from it, and will work to affirm and protect academic freedom, religious freedom, and freedom of expression for everyone on campus.

Other pertinent responses

DTU Executive Council motion passed on September 10th:

That the DTU Executive Council expresses solidarity with all teachers and students targeted and impacted by the Ministerial investigation into Dawson and Vanier Colleges, denounces the June 2025 report, and, in the face of its recommendations which represent state interference in higher education and threaten the freedoms of our student body, affirms academic freedom, freedom of expression, and religious freedom on our campuses.

Dawson Senate motion passed on September 9th:

Be it resolved that the Academic Council (Senate) of Dawson College:

  • reaffirms the college’s commitment to academic freedom as a core educational value that protects the right to teach and research knowledge responsibly without institutional or ministerial constraint or reprisal;
  • denounces any recommendation of the Rapport d’enquête – Collège Dawson et Collège Vanier to implement any law, present or future, which would attempt to curtail this right;
  • reaffirms the principle that reasonable accommodations on religious grounds are necessary to ensure equity within educational institutions, insists upon the right of free expression of religion, and denounces any attempt to deny the college’s ability to provide such accommodations to students, faculty and staff;
  • reaffirms the role of higher education in society as offering an environment where all community members can engage with a diversity of subject matter, knowledge, and points of view so as to foster the open exchange of ideas and to broaden cultural horizons, developing critical judgment and social conscience;
  • insists that all legislative proposals based on the findings of the Rapport d’enquête – Collège Dawson et Collège Vanier be immediately removed from consideration;
  • denounces any government measure which would prevent the college from exercising autonomy in any of the above matters;
  • denounces any recommendation of the Rapport d’enquête – Collège Dawson et Collège Vanier to implement any law, present or future, which would attempt to curtail student union independence and/or the right of student journalism.

Regroupement des cégeps de la fneeq motion passed on September 5th:

Que le regroupement cégep dénonce le rapport d’enquête sur les collèges Dawson et Vanier en raison de l’attaque contre la liberté académique et l’autonomie professionnelle qu’il constitue, des biais idéologiques antipalestiniens et antimusulmans qu’il contient, et de la mécompréhension des réalités de l’enseignement collégial qu’il trahit.

Yves de Repentigny, vice-president of regroupement cégep was interviewed on several occasions on the matter.

 

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We encourage you to discuss the investigation and the importance of academic freedom in your departments and consider passing a motion – several departments have done so already. The DTU Executive is available to answer any questions or to accompany any member who is convened to meet with administration for issues related to academic freedom, or anything else.

In solidarity,
The DTU Executive