1/ Some thoughts about this in the thread below. Main one is that this changes virtually nothing because the whole free speech thing is almost entirely a made-up issue and in practical terms students have absolutely unlimited freedom to discuss what they want anyway.
2/ The big "free speech" issues of the last couple of years have to do with external guests to campus. Nothing in this policy compels institutions to accept speakers they don;t want to accept. So if they choose not to permit Faith Goldy or whoever to speak, that's still cool.
3/ Guaranteed among the first people who will take advantage of this are the people who promote Anti-israeli apartheid week. Will be interesting to see how that shakes out.
4/ I actually think this bit is the most controversial bit, and the one likeliest to spark a court case. Institutions don't fund student unions (so that bit is irrelevant), but "recognition" matters in sense that institutions must recognize unions in order to collect their fees 
5/ I am not a legal expert, but from what I know about precedents regarding student unions in the Canadian courts, the idea that institutions can force student unions to adopt particular policies as a condition of collecting fees on their behalf is a non-starter.
6/ Anyways, bottom line: effect of this policy likely negligible except now institutions have to write and submit reports about themselves (extra regulatory burden FTW!) So (probably) no harm done.
7/ There's one more intriguing legal aspect to the Conservative's free speech thing and that's the fact that it is meant to cover "publicly-assisted" universities. Now I could be wrong about this, but I *believe* this term has no definition in Ontario legislation.
8/ Transparently, the term is meant as a carve-out for religious institutions so they wouldn't be required to permit free speech on social issues contrary to their faith. But, look: student aid is public assistance too.
9/ So an interesting question, potentially, for the courts on this: if a religious college tries to ban students wishing to discuss abortion, gay marriage, etc, does this policy put the govt in the position of potentially having to cut off OSAP to its students?
