Diversity, equity and inclusion: unless you have been hiding in some ideological ‘safe space’ expunged of today’s wokery —and let’s face it, where in Canada would that be?— these three ubiquitous terms will be instantly familiar to everyone who happens to work in an organization or institution in Canada, whether public or private.
Another excellent essay on Heterodox STEM Substack. I am ever-hopeful at the glimmers of sanity that are arising, scattered though they may be. I'm not sure progressives understand how they are slitting their own throats. I'm American, so more focused on what's happening in the US. If Trump is elected again, there will be the same hand-wringing on the left that there was the last time, when the left looked inward for about 3 microseconds. Then they realized that the "problem" is that American voters are chumps and it's been a war on normal Americans ever since, of which the DIE thing is just one battle. One wonders if a similar thing (i.e., election of Trump) could happen in Canada (probably not quite, since you elect the party, not the person, but that doesn't mean you end up with sanity, as has been abundantly illustrated). I'm sure the left there would undergo the same minimal self-examination before turning their ire on Canadian voters.
The Canadian Left and the American Left are similar in some respects, but they are not identical. As a citizen of both countries, my evaluation is that Canada is currently much further down the woke path than the US is. And Canadians are more complacent, and less likely to fight back than Americans. One can see Americans already starting to rally and fight back, but it might be too little, too late. We will see.
One advantage the US has is that it still has a somewhat functional constitution. The Canadian constitution is a pale simulacrum, that clearly the Canadian federal judiciary is far more readily disposed to ignoring than is currently possible in the US, from recent history.
For example, it is not completely impossible that Trudeau could declare himself Prime Minister for Life, without much consequence. Trudeau has repeatedly opined that he wanted to create a totalitarian dictatorship in Canada similar to what exists in Communist China, which he greatly admires. I know Obama floated somewhat similar trial balloons about declaring himself President for Life and suspending the US Constitution, but my impression is that this would have been far more stridently resisted in the US than a similar action in Canada.
The Canadian constitution does not have term limits for the Prime MInister like the US constitution has for the President. The Canadian War Powers Act (now more or less replaced by the Emergency Powers Act) gives the Canadian PM far more ability to suspend all sorts of government mechanisms than any official laws or policies of the US (although obviously, Abraham Lincoln approached this, and was assassinated for it). There are all kinds of unofficial policies in the US of course, so this is a complicated topic. But on paper, the Canadian PM can do far more damage than a US president can. In practice? That is a different story.
The progressives are positive they are correct. They are willing to fight to the last man and woman, apparently. So, this could very well get very ugly before a resolution is reached.
The fundamental problem with Progressivism is the complete absence of any ability of critical self-examination. They have “their truth” and “their lived experience”. The Progressive is an egotist. Notice they never take responsibility for the harms they cause through their “compassionate “ policies such as DEI, and excessive welfare, anti law enforcement that has lead to the destruction of the inner cities. The Progressive always has someone else to blame. They cannot self examine.
I had sadly hoped U of T, especially STEM depts, could laugh DEI out of administration. I guess the virus has to make its way through all Canadian universities too. Sad for my undergrad and grad alma mater.
10x compression, somewhat lossy, courtesy of ChatGPT...
The essay criticizes the pervasive influence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Canadian institutions, particularly universities. It likens DEI to disruptive house guests that overstay their welcome, arguing that while well-intentioned, these concepts have become intrusive and counterproductive. The author describes how DEI metrics are now part of faculty evaluations, equating this to ideological coercion reminiscent of Maoist tactics. The essay highlights various international examples of backlash against similar policies and expresses hope for change. It calls for a return to valuing merit and free speech over enforced equity outcomes, suggesting that DEI's current trajectory threatens the integrity and mission of universities.
ps. The FBI said since the evidence and culprit had already been found, it was up to local police to pursue. The local police said they were only going after violent crime.
Well said., thank you. Government adds to its scope while neglecting its core mission. Even good law is enforced selectively. For example, the police declined to pursue a controller who embezzled $500k from a friend of mine's business. No wonder people have lost faith in institutions and are taking action (e.g., moving, home-schooling, etc.) in response.
A quick point on "equality of opportunity." Dr. Janoff-Bulman recently used this phrase in a Peterson (2024) podcast to characterize the conservative view, saying it was a naive impossibility and that government should thus help the less advantaged. Perhaps a better phrase is "equality before the law," putting the burden on the liberals/socialists to justify the use of force to punish some and reward others.
All forms of "equality" are essentially impossible. Even a meritocracy is effectively impossible. However, we can at least try to approach these goals. And we can try to refine our techniques.
Equality of outcome (i.e. "equity" in modern terminology) is incredibly unrealistic and has never even come close to succeeding. But it has caused a substantial amount of misery, historically.
As you yourself said, DIE has resulted in mediocre intellects populating the faculties and student bodies. This fact alone I think will prove an obstacle to eliminating DIE. The imposters know that they do not enjoy their positions based on merit; to eliminate the ideology that secured their careers in the first place would be a direct professional threat. Therefore they will do everything in their power to defend and even extend DIE, with no concern for how this will negatively impact the core missions of knowledge production and dissemination that universities are meant to serve.
Unless the opponents of DIE are willing to go to war with the activists in their own professional ranks, who are supported by the bulk of the administration, much of the student body, and the entirety of the government, they won't get far.
A prime example of how far the insanity has spread in the US even outside the feverish setting of academia is that onetime symbol of working class Pennsylvania Joe Biden. Just wait until working class voters begin to understand the implications of the new revisions to the Title IX education standards. Once they learn that after August 1, any male who decides he is female will be able to shower with high school and college girls (including my 17 year old granddaughter) who use the school’s pool or gym, Biden will lose in a landslide. I simply cannot fathom how he allowed this insanity to move forward. He has been completely compromised by the woke far left.
You know Davey, I am not sure you know what this section of Substack is devoted to. But it is not this nonsense.
However, if you had been paying attention, you would know that this is basically the third term of the Obama administration. And about 15 years ago or so, during the Obama-Biden Administration, as a sort of "trial balloon", the O-B Administration brought federal lawsuits against school boards and jurisdictions that were attempting to separate biological males from biological females in bathrooms and locker rooms and shower rooms. This happened in at least one or two school districts in the MidWest.
Were you unaware of this? I guess your news sources basically never mentioned it, did they? Or you forgot, in your desperation to seem like a "good person" and to "virtue signal". Well you might recall that not only did the O-B Administration bring federal lawsuits about this, they also threatened to put any school officials or school board officials or county officials who disagreed in federal prison. Remember that?
You sure should because you have had FIFTEEN YEARS of warning that this revision was coming, and FAR WORSE is assuredly yet to come. And you undoubtedly blindly voted for it, multiple times, because you were not paying attention. Are you not proud of yourself?
You know, you get the government you deserve. So I bet 𝙔𝙊𝙐 voted for this, arrogantly. And now you are complaining?
Give me a break. Spare me your whining. Wake up to reality.
By the way, I never voted for it. And I have been sounding the alarm bells about this very issue for 15 years. But you had too much TDS to listen, right? OOh...orange man bad. Gotcha.
If you have been paying close attention, it is because Biden basically, inherently, intrinsically approves of this. He showered with his own daughter and might have raped her. We do not know how often. He is a well known exhibitionist and sexual harasser. There are documents on the Hunter laptop that would see both Hunter and his dad in prison for the rest of their lives. One does not have to dig deep to find a suppurating well of putrescence and depravity in the Biden background.
We have an abundance of evidence that he has engaged in fucking at least one porn star. An act that would have disqualified him from public office in more innocent times.
Wow...anger management time? TDS? You sure believe every word in the left wing media, don't you? After all the lying to you over these last few years, and you still believe. Incredible.
Sure, you sound like a STEM stalwart. Where did you get your degree from? Who was your advisor?
We have a bit more evidence for one than the other. But neither is good, that is for sure.
Also, under the "woke credo", you do realize that there are severe penalties for "whataboutism", right?
I am sure you are well aware of what happened to Riley Gaines when she spoke at SFSU, and the response of the administration of SFSU, correct? We will have to see how the lawsuit plays out. But this is a serious issue with potentially dangerous consequences, and it is pushed almost exclusively by one political party and one political ideology (at least in the US; in the UK things are slightly different).
This fight against the woke ideology, i.e.. the "woke mind virus", is going to be long and it is going to be ugly. We even have prominent advocates for this nonsense here on Heterodox STEM and elsewhere on Substack. They are instantly recognizable from their smugness and willingness to threaten others who do not adhere to this nonsense.
As Napoleon and others said, to make an omelette you have to break a few eggs. This pernicious belief system is now very deeply entrenched in Western Culture. And so substantial effort is going to be required to unlodge it. What will it take?
Will some of the more radical elements have to be declared terrorists and sentenced to long prison terms? Will those engaged in pedophilia and child sex trafficking need to receive the death penalty? Will mass deportations of illegal aliens at gunpoint be required? Will it take the abolishment of several government agencies, rotten to the core? Will it take a US government RIF (reduction in force)? Will civil war in the US break out over it? Will formerly prestigious institutions like Harvard have to be brought low, so they have trouble recruiting faculty and students and donors? Will smaller completely corrupted institutions have to go bankrupt and disappear? Will the medical profession need to be sued by detransitioners and many health care providers who participated incarcerated for extended periods?
These and much more are possibly in the cards. We are just going to have to see. But a sea change in the culture is required, and it is not going to happen without disruption and pain.
We need to do away with all affirmative action policies everywhere. They have led to this complete corruption of legal equality and justice.
Another excellent essay on Heterodox STEM Substack. I am ever-hopeful at the glimmers of sanity that are arising, scattered though they may be. I'm not sure progressives understand how they are slitting their own throats. I'm American, so more focused on what's happening in the US. If Trump is elected again, there will be the same hand-wringing on the left that there was the last time, when the left looked inward for about 3 microseconds. Then they realized that the "problem" is that American voters are chumps and it's been a war on normal Americans ever since, of which the DIE thing is just one battle. One wonders if a similar thing (i.e., election of Trump) could happen in Canada (probably not quite, since you elect the party, not the person, but that doesn't mean you end up with sanity, as has been abundantly illustrated). I'm sure the left there would undergo the same minimal self-examination before turning their ire on Canadian voters.
The Canadian Left and the American Left are similar in some respects, but they are not identical. As a citizen of both countries, my evaluation is that Canada is currently much further down the woke path than the US is. And Canadians are more complacent, and less likely to fight back than Americans. One can see Americans already starting to rally and fight back, but it might be too little, too late. We will see.
One advantage the US has is that it still has a somewhat functional constitution. The Canadian constitution is a pale simulacrum, that clearly the Canadian federal judiciary is far more readily disposed to ignoring than is currently possible in the US, from recent history.
For example, it is not completely impossible that Trudeau could declare himself Prime Minister for Life, without much consequence. Trudeau has repeatedly opined that he wanted to create a totalitarian dictatorship in Canada similar to what exists in Communist China, which he greatly admires. I know Obama floated somewhat similar trial balloons about declaring himself President for Life and suspending the US Constitution, but my impression is that this would have been far more stridently resisted in the US than a similar action in Canada.
The Canadian constitution does not have term limits for the Prime MInister like the US constitution has for the President. The Canadian War Powers Act (now more or less replaced by the Emergency Powers Act) gives the Canadian PM far more ability to suspend all sorts of government mechanisms than any official laws or policies of the US (although obviously, Abraham Lincoln approached this, and was assassinated for it). There are all kinds of unofficial policies in the US of course, so this is a complicated topic. But on paper, the Canadian PM can do far more damage than a US president can. In practice? That is a different story.
The progressives are positive they are correct. They are willing to fight to the last man and woman, apparently. So, this could very well get very ugly before a resolution is reached.
The fundamental problem with Progressivism is the complete absence of any ability of critical self-examination. They have “their truth” and “their lived experience”. The Progressive is an egotist. Notice they never take responsibility for the harms they cause through their “compassionate “ policies such as DEI, and excessive welfare, anti law enforcement that has lead to the destruction of the inner cities. The Progressive always has someone else to blame. They cannot self examine.
I had sadly hoped U of T, especially STEM depts, could laugh DEI out of administration. I guess the virus has to make its way through all Canadian universities too. Sad for my undergrad and grad alma mater.
10x compression, somewhat lossy, courtesy of ChatGPT...
The essay criticizes the pervasive influence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Canadian institutions, particularly universities. It likens DEI to disruptive house guests that overstay their welcome, arguing that while well-intentioned, these concepts have become intrusive and counterproductive. The author describes how DEI metrics are now part of faculty evaluations, equating this to ideological coercion reminiscent of Maoist tactics. The essay highlights various international examples of backlash against similar policies and expresses hope for change. It calls for a return to valuing merit and free speech over enforced equity outcomes, suggesting that DEI's current trajectory threatens the integrity and mission of universities.
" The whole edifice is unmoored from the university’s core mission and needs to be deconstructed, reevaluated and reformed."
Let's try "trashed". DEI is toxic.
Love it. OISE of all places showed The Coddling Of The American Mind? Really?
Keep up the fight.
Thanks for being bold and for sharing your views. I am hopeful, too!
ps. The FBI said since the evidence and culprit had already been found, it was up to local police to pursue. The local police said they were only going after violent crime.
Well said., thank you. Government adds to its scope while neglecting its core mission. Even good law is enforced selectively. For example, the police declined to pursue a controller who embezzled $500k from a friend of mine's business. No wonder people have lost faith in institutions and are taking action (e.g., moving, home-schooling, etc.) in response.
A quick point on "equality of opportunity." Dr. Janoff-Bulman recently used this phrase in a Peterson (2024) podcast to characterize the conservative view, saying it was a naive impossibility and that government should thus help the less advantaged. Perhaps a better phrase is "equality before the law," putting the burden on the liberals/socialists to justify the use of force to punish some and reward others.
All forms of "equality" are essentially impossible. Even a meritocracy is effectively impossible. However, we can at least try to approach these goals. And we can try to refine our techniques.
Equality of outcome (i.e. "equity" in modern terminology) is incredibly unrealistic and has never even come close to succeeding. But it has caused a substantial amount of misery, historically.
Yes, I am a University Professor....too.
As you yourself said, DIE has resulted in mediocre intellects populating the faculties and student bodies. This fact alone I think will prove an obstacle to eliminating DIE. The imposters know that they do not enjoy their positions based on merit; to eliminate the ideology that secured their careers in the first place would be a direct professional threat. Therefore they will do everything in their power to defend and even extend DIE, with no concern for how this will negatively impact the core missions of knowledge production and dissemination that universities are meant to serve.
Unless the opponents of DIE are willing to go to war with the activists in their own professional ranks, who are supported by the bulk of the administration, much of the student body, and the entirety of the government, they won't get far.
When I saw "UofT," I assumed U of TX and was like, woah, no way this has infiltrated that far THERE.
A prime example of how far the insanity has spread in the US even outside the feverish setting of academia is that onetime symbol of working class Pennsylvania Joe Biden. Just wait until working class voters begin to understand the implications of the new revisions to the Title IX education standards. Once they learn that after August 1, any male who decides he is female will be able to shower with high school and college girls (including my 17 year old granddaughter) who use the school’s pool or gym, Biden will lose in a landslide. I simply cannot fathom how he allowed this insanity to move forward. He has been completely compromised by the woke far left.
You know Davey, I am not sure you know what this section of Substack is devoted to. But it is not this nonsense.
However, if you had been paying attention, you would know that this is basically the third term of the Obama administration. And about 15 years ago or so, during the Obama-Biden Administration, as a sort of "trial balloon", the O-B Administration brought federal lawsuits against school boards and jurisdictions that were attempting to separate biological males from biological females in bathrooms and locker rooms and shower rooms. This happened in at least one or two school districts in the MidWest.
Were you unaware of this? I guess your news sources basically never mentioned it, did they? Or you forgot, in your desperation to seem like a "good person" and to "virtue signal". Well you might recall that not only did the O-B Administration bring federal lawsuits about this, they also threatened to put any school officials or school board officials or county officials who disagreed in federal prison. Remember that?
You sure should because you have had FIFTEEN YEARS of warning that this revision was coming, and FAR WORSE is assuredly yet to come. And you undoubtedly blindly voted for it, multiple times, because you were not paying attention. Are you not proud of yourself?
You know, you get the government you deserve. So I bet 𝙔𝙊𝙐 voted for this, arrogantly. And now you are complaining?
Give me a break. Spare me your whining. Wake up to reality.
By the way, I never voted for it. And I have been sounding the alarm bells about this very issue for 15 years. But you had too much TDS to listen, right? OOh...orange man bad. Gotcha.
If you have been paying close attention, it is because Biden basically, inherently, intrinsically approves of this. He showered with his own daughter and might have raped her. We do not know how often. He is a well known exhibitionist and sexual harasser. There are documents on the Hunter laptop that would see both Hunter and his dad in prison for the rest of their lives. One does not have to dig deep to find a suppurating well of putrescence and depravity in the Biden background.
Right. Just like Trump and Ivanka. Disgusting.
We have an abundance of evidence that he has engaged in fucking at least one porn star. An act that would have disqualified him from public office in more innocent times.
Wow...anger management time? TDS? You sure believe every word in the left wing media, don't you? After all the lying to you over these last few years, and you still believe. Incredible.
Sure, you sound like a STEM stalwart. Where did you get your degree from? Who was your advisor?
We have a bit more evidence for one than the other. But neither is good, that is for sure.
Also, under the "woke credo", you do realize that there are severe penalties for "whataboutism", right?
I am sure you are well aware of what happened to Riley Gaines when she spoke at SFSU, and the response of the administration of SFSU, correct? We will have to see how the lawsuit plays out. But this is a serious issue with potentially dangerous consequences, and it is pushed almost exclusively by one political party and one political ideology (at least in the US; in the UK things are slightly different).
“progressively disruptive” house guests — I see what you did there 🙃
This fight against the woke ideology, i.e.. the "woke mind virus", is going to be long and it is going to be ugly. We even have prominent advocates for this nonsense here on Heterodox STEM and elsewhere on Substack. They are instantly recognizable from their smugness and willingness to threaten others who do not adhere to this nonsense.
As Napoleon and others said, to make an omelette you have to break a few eggs. This pernicious belief system is now very deeply entrenched in Western Culture. And so substantial effort is going to be required to unlodge it. What will it take?
Will some of the more radical elements have to be declared terrorists and sentenced to long prison terms? Will those engaged in pedophilia and child sex trafficking need to receive the death penalty? Will mass deportations of illegal aliens at gunpoint be required? Will it take the abolishment of several government agencies, rotten to the core? Will it take a US government RIF (reduction in force)? Will civil war in the US break out over it? Will formerly prestigious institutions like Harvard have to be brought low, so they have trouble recruiting faculty and students and donors? Will smaller completely corrupted institutions have to go bankrupt and disappear? Will the medical profession need to be sued by detransitioners and many health care providers who participated incarcerated for extended periods?
These and much more are possibly in the cards. We are just going to have to see. But a sea change in the culture is required, and it is not going to happen without disruption and pain.