Dr Patrick Provost, professor and biochemist with 35 years of experience in genomics, lipid nanoparticles and RNA, received a letter in March of 2024 explaining that he had been fired by Quebec’s Université Laval (ULaval) due to his criticisms of Covid-19 mRNA vaccines.

Provost’s expertise in the field fueled significant concerns with the safety of the proposed mRNA vaccines, and their use on children. He felt obligated to speak up, resulting in 11 complaints by citizens, doctors and other professors (some filed anonymously) about his communications. These complaints resulted in suspensions-without-pay totalling six months, one week and one day.

Provost, with the support of his union, filed grievances with the provincial labour tribunal to contest his suspensions and dismissal.

In June of 2022, the Act Respecting Academic Freedom in the University Sector became law in Quebec. It “defines the right to university academic freedom as the right of every person to engage freely and without doctrinal, ideological or moral constraint in an activity through which the person contributes to carrying out the mission of such an educational institution.”

In a letter to colleagues, Provost wrote “I am probably the first professor to be dismissed in the exercise of his academic freedom since (Quebec’s) ‘Act respecting academic freedom in the university environment,’ (came into power), an act which is supposed to protect it”.

Since then, a group of professors penned a letter calling on ULaval to reinstate and apologize to Dr. Provost. “Patrick Provost drew a line at what amounted to medical experimentation on children,” the professors wrote in a letter published by the Brownstone Institute.

Scientific research must be free from political influence for it to be of any value, yet all across Canada we see our academic excellence, in research, teaching and the medical professions, destroyed by the political influences and financial incentives of their governing bodies.

If we live in a country where academic freedom can be quashed, and existing laws can simply be ignored, how can anyone ‘trust the science’ from these establishments?

To read the True North article written by Lindsay Shepherd, click here 

To read the Act Respecting Academic Freedom in the University Sector, click here