Open letter on USA interference in Canadian Academic Research at Carleton University

25 March 2025

Open letter on USA interference in Canadian Academic Research at Carleton University

• President, Wisdom Tettey [email protected]
• Vice-President (Research and International) Rafik Goubran [email protected]
• Director of Government Relations, Alastair Mullins [email protected]
• COU Academic Colleague, Kim Hellemans [email protected]
• Director, Research Security Risk, Jessica Adam [email protected]

Dear colleagues,

We are writing in the name of CUASA members to ask what actions Carleton University administrationhas taken to face the threat brought to the integrity and independence of academic research conducted in Canada.

As our Canadian affiliate CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) wrote a week ago“researchers working on projects funded wholly or in part by American federal agencies have been sent a lengthy questionnaire to determine how their work aligns with the Trump

administration’s political agenda. In the questionnaire, Canadian researchers are asked to confirm that their research:

• does not include a climate or “environmental justice” component
• does not contain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) elements
• does not ascribe to “gender ideology”
• increases American influence globally

In addition, the questionnaire asks whether a researcher’s institution has a policy prohibiting collaborationwith entities contrary to U.S. government interests and prevents partnerships with “communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties.”

We would like to make sure that the Research Office:

• Identifies the researchers on our campus who have received this
• Informs them of their rights and
• Supports and protects, morally and financially, researchers who might lose funding due to USA research policies.
• Is ready to provide institutional support to these researchers to avoid acts of self- censorship in the future.
• Will engage in efforts to lobby the federal government, in the words of CAUT, “to push back in the strongest possible way against this blatant attempt to interfere in academic research and trample upon academic freedom,” when “the integrity and independence of research isnecessary to protect the public We need to make it clear that there is no room for political interference in research in Canada.”

We also call for the services of Carleton University to work towards the following goals, for which we extend CUASA’s offer of collaboration to:

• Welcome USA academics whose work is compromised at
• Offer to archive or store documents in danger of being lost because of the closing of many American governmental institutions that have seen their finance cancelled or frozen.
• Encourage members of the Carleton community to increase their effort to oppose disinformation with facts, disseminate their knowledge, and teach without fear of being denounced in the public sphere.

Yours sincerely,

Dominique Marshall, CUASA President

Mayurika Chakravorty, External Affairs Officer

c.c. Jaye Horton, CUASA Executive Director