Response to Boris DeWiel, No Room on The Hill for Conservatives?
Are conservatives welcome at UNBC?
Yes, absolutely. Is the opposition to James Moore's appointment as chancellor motivated by intolerance of political differences? Absolutely not.
What truly upsets people is that James Moore fails to meet the qualifications that are required for appointment to this largely symbolic, but nevertheless highly significant, position.
According to the official job description "The chancellor is an individual whose reputation, relationships and experience help advance the university....[and] is an advocate for the vision of the university.... he/she exemplifies and symbolizes the university by his/her conduct and the standards he/she sets...the chancellor personifies UNBC."
What are the values that define UNBC's vision? According to our mission statement, UNBC champions academic freedom, diversity, inclusion, the free flow of ideas, access to information, and public accountability.
UNBC also prides itself on its commitment to environmental responsibility and to being Canada's Green University.
What is more: "Our values are held in the highest regard at UNBC, and are meant to guide the university, and each member of the university community, in their actions and in fulfillment of their ambitions."
These are not the values that defined James Moore's political career. On the contrary, he distinguished himself as part of a government that opposed inclusion through its relentless pursuit of wedge politics, which sought to restrict the free flow of information between citizens and government, which undermined the foundations of evidence-based decision-making, and which routinely abused the democratic process in its attempt to stifle dissent.
This was also a government that took little interest in its environmental responsibilities, and which actively demonized sectors of the Canadian population to bolster its flagging electoral fortunes.
Would UNBC hire a vice president of research whose career was defined by a hostility to academic freedom, evidence-based research, and the free flow of information? No, because those values are core to UNBC's mission and to the requirements of that position. Why, then, would UNBC select a chancellor whose career was defined by a hostility to many of its core values, values which the chancellor is required to symbolize, personify and defend?
Freedom of information, evidence-based policy, public accountability, and respect for diversity, are values that define UNBC but they are also values that are core to Canadian democracy.
To defend them is not an act of political partisanship, it is an act of citizenship.
Michael Murphy
Prince George
