The FQPPU Calls for the Resignation of Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry

IN BRIEF:

• Discredited and disconnected leadership. Pascale Déry has weakened the policy tools of higher education, hollowed out her ministry's mission, and ignored major crises —from funding to artificial intelligence— by downplaying the issues and evading responsibility.
• Actions incompatible with her role. Political interference, disregard for academic freedom, and lacklustre AI consultations: the minister has acted contrary to the principles she is meant to uphold, resulting in a complete breakdown of confidence in university communities.
• A clear call to turn the page. The FQPPU demands her immediate resignation: the higher education system needs visionary, unifying leadership committed to a strong, accessible, and politically independent university system, not a ministry that continually undermines its public service mission.

MONTREAL, May 13, 2025/CNW/ - Are Quebec's universities better off since Pascale Déry became Minister of Higher Education? The answer across institutions is unanimous: no, and the decline is evident. Since her appointment, Pascale Déry has systematically weakened the policy levers of higher education. Her ministry has been stripped of its substance, and its responsibilities have been dispersed across other departments, leaving behind a compliant arm of economic and immigration priorities that are disconnected from its fundamental mission. Confronted with successive crises —from disarray around artificial intelligence to neglect of the system's financial collapse— the minister has consistently failed to provide vision, support, or even basic attentiveness. Worse still, when institutions raise alarms, she deflects responsibility, denies the urgency of the situation, and lets the system sink into unacknowledged austerity. Following the CSN and numerous student and faculty unions, the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université (FQPPU) adds its voice: it is time for Pascale Déry to step aside and make room for someone capable of articulating a clear ambition for the future of our higher education system.

A Minister at Odds with Her Mandate

A recent court ruling describes Minister Pascale Déry's actions as incoherent, irrational, and unreasonable. This harsh judgment echoes what the academic community has observed for months: a tenure marked by either a troubling ignorance of the college and university networks or an alarming indifference to their fate. Tasked with defending academic freedom, Pascale Déry has instead become its chief threat. She blocked a nomination at the INRS without valid reasons, interfered with CEGEP course content, and refused to endorse a motion to protect academic freedom from foreign threats. Regarding artificial intelligence, she initiated a superficial consultation process—with no resources, unstructured, and widely criticized as a mere public relations exercise.

Worse still: she touted the recent budget as a historic success, eliding that it imposes massive cuts on a system on the verge of collapse. While universities speak of a "seismic shift", the minister stubbornly claims that institutions have sufficient space to adapt, despite soaring costs, stagnant subsidies, and plummeting international enrollment, all linked to her poor policy decisions. "She seems to exist in a parallel universe, completely disconnected from campus realities," says Madeleine Pastinelli, president of the FQPPU. "Her obstinate refusal to acknowledge the scale of the crisis only deepens her growing isolation within higher education, a sector where she should be the primary ally. She no longer has our trust moving forward."

Time to Turn the Page

Too much political interference. Too many refusals to engage. Too much contempt and ignorance. Higher education can no longer move forward with a minister who denies the obvious, sidelines the voices sustaining the system, and governs without direction or dialogue. "At this point, this is no longer a momentary disagreement, but a complete break between the minister and the university communities," says Madeleine Pastinelli. "What Quebec needs now is leadership that can rebuild trust, rally the strengths of the network, and invest in a bold, shared vision of the university as a public good."

The FQPPU is therefore calling for the immediate resignation of Pascale Déry. Because our universities (and our CEGEPs) deserve better: a ministry that uplifts them, not one that renounces their core mission.

Since 1991, the FQPPU is the representative body of university faculty in Quebec.

SOURCE Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université (FQPPU)