Free Speech in Fearful Times: After 9/11 in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Europe.

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

Free Speech in Fearful Times is found in a series produced by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the main defenders of Canadian academic freedom. But it is a curious volume, primarily because there seems to be general agreement among the authors, at least the North American ones, that the War on Terror, while it may have created a culture of fear, has not—yet—had any major impact on academic ability to comment on any and all aspects of life. “The obsession of the Bush administration with national security since 9/11,” Jonathan Cole observes, “has not led yet to the rebirth of rampant McCarthyism with its loyalty oaths and academic firings.” Faculty may be ducking for cover, he goes on, offering no evidence that they are, “but few have been purged.”

Every academic worthy of the name wants academic freedom to be sustained. Still, this volume would be stronger if just one of its contributors recognized that there is a threat to the West, that terrorists did attack New York and Washington, and that the state has both a right and the duty to defend itself.