July 1, 2022
The Université Laval faculty union has filed a grievance over the suspension of Quebec professor of microbiology and immunology Patrick Provost regarding his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, saying the university’s action threatens academic freedoms.
Provost was suspended for eight weeks without pay this past June 14 for comments made late last year at a conference organized by Reinfo Covid Quebec, which criticizes COVID measures, in which he said the risks of injecting children with COVID vaccines outweigh the benefits because of potential side effects from mRNA vaccines.
“I was just doing what I was hired to do,” the professor told the Canadian Press. “I had some concerns about something, I searched the literature and I prepared a speech, delivered it to the public. Being censored for doing what I’ve been trained to do — and hired to do — well, it’s hard to believe.”