Deep in the Canadian winter of 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has returned to the White House, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pirouetted onto the political off-ramp and the Liberals are flailing in disarray.

Despite green shoots of ideological recovery sprouting up everywhere, foretelling that the deranged concept of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is in decline, the batty professors in my department of chemical and physical sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) have quietly barricaded themselves inside their ivory towers and are charting a course that makes about as much sense as appointing Lady Gaga as their scientific spokesperson.