Laurier’s apology and a petition won’t fix the cancer on campus

Nov 25, 2017 by Jill

National Post editorial:

The crisis of free speech and academic freedom on campuses has been growing for years. The Laurier incident is one small part of it.

We are pleased that several professors at Wilfrid Laurier University are trying to make a positive change at their institution after its recent humiliation.

As has been widely reported, WLU teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd was recently hauled before the university’s ad hoc Star Chamber and read the riot act for showing her class a clip of TVO’s The Agenda, which involved University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson debating a colleague over gender-neutral pronouns. Shepherd was wise enough to record her dressing down. The recording — once released to the public — was so embarrassing to the school that Laurier apologized this week, as did one of the professors who’d led the shaming ceremony.

Unfortunately, Laurier’s promise to better protect speech in the future is hard to believe. In a public letter, WLU president and vice-chancellor Deborah MacLatchy wrote, “Giving life to (principles of academic freedom and free speech) while respecting fundamentally important human rights and our institutional values of diversity and inclusion, is not a simple matter.”

Wrong. MacLatchy, and Laurier, still don’t get it. Not trampling on free speech rights is actually quite simple. It may be unpopular at times, and even difficult in the face of a mob of social justice warriors demanding someone be punished for thoughtcrimes. But the “cure” for unpopular free speech is more free speech, with people pushing back, respectfully but clearly, against points they disagree with. Laurier should try it. The simplicity will amaze them. They might even get used to it.

Read here

Read also: Lindsay Shepherd incident is simply one bubble in a boiling caldron by Rex Murphy, National Post

Counter-protests at Wilfrid Laurier University over freedom of speech turn — well, one man was shouting by Joseph Brean, National Post

University, heal thyself, Globe and Mail editorial