Yeah I think I understand this viewpoint but I fundamentally disagree with it. I would absolutely prefer to live in a world where academics are free to express

Yeah I think I understand this viewpoint but I fundamentally disagree with it. I would absolutely prefer to live in a world where academics are free to express controversial opinions that would be debated on their own merits, and not shut down because some people are made uncomfortable. “Canada is not racist” clearly falls in this category for me - it’s a far cry from something like “Hitler was right”. In practice this would look like strong protections for academic freedom and the administration would take the side of free expression instead of pandering to the offended. I find it troubling that you’re ok with the “bad opinion” being silenced to make people comfortable instead of debated on its own merits. I guess you’re assuming that the Aboriginal student in your example would have the opinion that Canada is in fact racist? I don’t know if this is a widespread opinion but if it is they would be entitled to expressing their viewpoint and hopefully the professor would learn something new about the country. How is shutting them up instead more productive? This doesn’t decrease the amount of racism at all. It’s precisely because people are often emotional and are often not capable of a rational debate that we should dedicate extra effort to protecting academic freedom. If we don’t then in the long term we all lose if we have to walk on eggshells and can’t freely debate the full range of opinions. Let me ask you this: if we’re not allowed to question if or to what extent systemic racism exists, how do we ever know when we fully conquered it? Does it just become an article of faith? At that point, what does this have to do with scientific inquiry and universities at all? Edit: regarding your example, no I don’t think that Canada is sexist either. Canada consistently ranks in top 5 or 10 countries for women’s rights and labor equality (roughly equal to the Nordic countries). Why do you think it’s controversial to say that Canada is not sexist?