Saint Mary’s University prof rips ‘whistleblower hotline’

A Canadian college professor is slamming a university for hiring a firm to operate a controversial anonymous whistleblower hotline he fears will be abused by students complaining about things they disagree with, according to a report.

Saint Mary’s University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, announced earlier this year that it was establishing an “anonymous whistleblower hotline” for members of the school community to report suspected improper activity, such as breaching university policies, Canadian outlet True North reported.

Philosophy professor Mark Mercer said he’s concerned about the hotline impacting “the culture of the institution” and worries students will liberally define “unacceptable” behavior as anything they disagree with.

“I think the effect of the university promoting this is to make us look like we’re not a collegial place,” he told the outlet. “We’re not a place where, when people disagree, they either have critical discussions with each other or ignore each other.

“Now we go to an authority as a way of resolving these things,” Mercer added.

The university defended the hotline as a system that “provides a mechanism for university members to confidentially and/or anonymously disclose concerns.”

“The safe disclosure policy applies to all employees, students, volunteers, contractors and suppliers of Saint Mary’s, and works in tandem with our other codes and policies on conduct, such as Research Policies, the Code of Student Conduct Policy, the Sexual Violence and Harassment Policy and others,” St. Mary’s told True North in a statement.

The Post has reached out to St. Mary’s University for comment.

Mercer said he believes the hotline was created in response to “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) ideology, True North reported.

“One of the goals is something like comfort on campus for people from historically marginalized groups,” he said. “And the means is to involve authorities and to level sanctions, to make people afraid to say or do things that are  taken by the powers to be productive uncomfortability.”

Mercer also blasted the “cash-strapped” college for hiring elite accounting firm Grant Thornton to run the hotline system while faculty are forced to make cutbacks due to lack of funding.