Spokespeople for the encampment set up on the grounds of McGill University recently refused the latest offer from the management of the establishment, maintaining that it contained no firm commitment to divestment and no concrete plan aimed at breaking the links with Israeli universities.
If we can find it curious and distressing that the management of McGill is reluctant to withdraw a few million dollars from firms which directly or indirectly serve the war, we must on the other hand insist on the fact that the request to sever all links with the universities Israeli is totally incompatible with the fundamental principle of academic freedom of researchers.
It is indeed useful to remember that it is not university leaders who dictate international scientific collaborations, but rather the researchers themselves who build personal relationships within their scientific community.
Thus, over the last 10 years, all Quebec universities have published more than 3,000 scientific articles in collaboration with Israeli researchers. Of the 3,115 Quebec publications produced in collaboration with Israel, published between 2013 and 2022 and listed in the Web of Science database, 2,157 are signed by researchers from McGill and 1,623 by researchers from the University of Montreal. Next come the constituents of the University of Quebec, with 173 publications (including more than a third from the University of Quebec in Montreal [UQAM]), the University of Sherbrooke, with 93 articles, and Concordia, with only 60 in ten years.
Note that several of these articles are the result of multiple collaborations, and that more than 1000 are signed by researchers from McGill, the University of Montreal and an Israeli university.
These few figures should be enough to make it clear that the dynamics of research are firstly driven by the researchers themselves, who find their collaborators according to their own scientific interests, and is in no way dictated by university management. We therefore understand that the management of an establishment cannot prohibit a researcher from collaborating with a researcher from another country without undermining their academic freedom.
To imagine that a rector can dictate to researchers their conduct shows a great misunderstanding of the fundamental mission of universities and the great autonomy of researchers. We thus understand more easily why the resolution adopted on May 29 by the UQAM board of directors under pressure from activists who had set up a camp on its grounds clearly states that the university “defends university autonomy and right to academic freedom.
And if it is open to the directorates to sign or not formal “academic agreements” or to have “institutional links” with other universities around the world, such documents only bind the directorates, and it should not be This should not be confused with the choices of researchers, who remain free to collaborate with their colleagues from different countries.
It is especially important not to attribute decisions made by a head of state or government to individual researchers. Who would have the crazy idea of blaming Quebec researchers for this or that decision of the Quebec government?
In short, if the activists occupying various campuses are themselves academics, they should better understand the nature of the institution to which they belong and target those truly responsible for the tragedy unfolding in the occupied territories. Cutting ties with Israeli researchers, many of whom denounce the decisions taken by their prime minister, would only add to their misery.
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