A person walks outside Memorial University in St.John’s on Jan. 29, 2024. The Canadian Press/Paul Daly
Five recently listed jobs from Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador have drawn criticism from a number of professors and public figures as the positions exclude heterosexual white males.
The listings, posted earlier this month, advertise five prestigious research roles in the Canada Research Chairs Program, a federally backed initiative that includes quotas for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in hiring. The listings say the jobs are only open to “women, 2SLGBTQIA+ people; Indigenous peoples; racialized persons; and persons with disabilities.”
Memorial University said the job requirements are needed to maintain program funding and align with policy for the federally funded Canada Research Chairs Program, which funds about 2,000 academic positions across Canada and has included DEI targets since 2021.
The university added that it is proud to comply with the requirements of the program and the goal of addressing systemic obstacles in academic hiring. It added that all candidates undergo national peer review and institutional assessment.
Various academics have raised concerns that such hiring practices could lead to white males dropping out of academia.
“How many years of this discriminatory hiring before white men cease attending and cease pursuing academic careers? And then what?” William McNally, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, said on X on April 21.
McNally’s concerns were echoed by fellow Laurier Professor David Haskell, who said there should be “protests” over the matter.
“Universities are the testing ground for this social change. When your own White, Straight, son is refused employment and can’t feed his family it will be too late,“ Haskell wrote April 22 on X. ”The protests need to start today. If your politician supports this–and doesn’t condemn this–work to remove them.”
Professor and author Gad Saad also weighed in, posting a video to X on April 21 saying, “Canadian universities absolutely suffer from Stage 5 suicidal empathy.” Saad coined the term “suicidal empathy” to describe excessive zeal for performative compassion or inclusion that ends up harming the institutions and societies that commit to it.
Saad noted that the Memorial job listings are looking for a tier two Canada Research Chair in AI-driven navigation for Arctic and harsh environments, a tier two Canada Research Chair in computational biochemistry, a tier one Canada Research Chair in musculoskeletal health and genomic mapping, a tier two Canada Research Chair in indigenous knowledge youth and digital technology and a tier two Canada Research Chair in community health and substance use research.
“So if you were, for example, an able bodied man, heterosexual who does not suffer from any disabilities, but you are the absolute world leader in AI driven navigation for Arctic and harsh environments, you need not apply to Memorial University,” Saad commented.
Under Section 15 (2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enacted as part of the 1982 Constitution Act under former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, laws, activities and programs are permitted to be in place that favour one group over another if the goal is improving conditions of “disadvantaged individuals or groups.”
Specifically, 15 (2) notes that equality before the law and freedom from discrimination “does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.”
Similar hiring criteria have emerged at many other Canadian universities. A 2025 study by the Aristotle Foundation, a Canadian think tank, found that only 12 of 489 open positions listed by Canadian universities did not mention prioritizing applicants based on race, gender or sexual identity.
Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney noted that Memorial University was named after men from Newfoundland who were killed during World War I and said that DEI has “gone too far.”
“1% of the male population of Newfoundland was killed in the Great War. Memorial University was given its name to be a living, permanent memorial to their sacrifice,” Kenney wrote in an April 21 post on X.
“None of those men, or those who served with them, would now be eligible to teach at the university named in honour of their sacrifice,” he said. “DEI has gone too far for too long.”
