Any knowledgeable Canadian knows that we don’t have actual free speech rights. Lindsay Shepherd’s ongoing battle with the totalitarian thugs who have infested Canadian academia is proof positive. But our American neighbours often brag about how their free speech rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment. Try telling that to Zachary Wood, a senior at Williams College in Massachusetts. Here’s an account of what he has endured, fighting the Leftist no-free-speech-for-you totalitarians:
The intolerant academic Left has a determined foe in Zachary Wood and that is especially remarkable because he describes himself as a liberal Democrat. Last summer he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the state of free speech on our college campuses. This Heterodox Academy article contains a link to the video of his testimony.
Alerting the members of the Committee (and anyone else who is willing to listen) about the way college campuses have become hostile terrain for anyone who questions leftist beliefs, Wood stated, “At Williams, the administration promotes social tolerance at the expense of political tolerance. In my time at Williams, I cannot name a single conservative speaker that has been brought to campus by the administration. In classrooms, liberal arguments are often treated as unquestionable truths. In some cases, conservative students even feel the need to refrain from stating their opinion in fear of being shutdown, or strongly disliked for doing so.”
It’s a deplorable state of affairs when college students – especially at an elite school – won’t listen respectfully to speakers and indulge in virtue signaling by turning their backs on other students who favor dialogue and civility.
More on Mr. Wood, including a video, can be found here.
This is a seriously flawed post. Insofar as the colleges that Lindsay and Wood attend are private institutions, they have no obligation to provide a platform for any opinions. They have every right to discriminate as they please.
That is incorrect….on so many levels. And Laurier DOES receive government funding. They have no right to discriminate…nor do they have a right to override Charter rights.
Receiving government funding does not make it any less private. If it’s government owned then that’s different.
Free speech, like science, is a talking point for the left and nothing more.
This is why one sees anger and violence from leftists.
UnMe, if Wilfred Laurier University has the right to not provide a platform, then that should work both ways. No more “micro-aggressions” and “boycott Israel” for them!
Before I forget, Merry Christmas to all.
“Any knowledgeable Canadian knows that we don’t have actual free speech rights”
Actually, Lindsay Shappard’s experience shows that we do have them. They are under assault and we need to continually fight for them.
I am actually quite pleased at the exposure and pushback … by both (leftist) Lindsay and all us @lt.Righests … ha! … yep … if you desire FREE SPEECH … you must be a little Natzi…
I believe the hardcore authoritarian leftist College thought factories have overplayed their hands. Lindsay Shepherd doesn’t even recognize that she has become the martyr for The Resistance (to borrow a word). She has impeccable (leftist) credentials. She is unassailable. She is righteous. She is like a true virgin … sacrificed on the altar of FREE DISCOURSE! She has opened the Pandora’s Box holding all the evil, rotten, fascist tactics of our institutions of higher thought control. I believe the jig is up. I expect MY President and his A.G. (perhaps a new one with cajones) to start suing colleges into submission. A $ cut here, a $ cut there … and the colleges might actually hire a conservative professor or two. We have affirmative action admissions … why no affirmative action professorial hiring to … level the playing field of ideas? Is it because leftist thought cannot stand up to review, investigation, and exposure.
WE live in a symmetrical world, understanding the Pros & Cons helps develope Critical thinking.. The Colleges are cheating students by Cloning ONE thought….They will be useless..
JMHO
“…they have no obligation to provide a platform for any opinions…” Laurier has a mission statement along with visions and values and state that they support free speech. As a private institution bound by their platitudes, even as PC mushy as most of those are, supporting what they did to Lindsay would be an admission of fraud and the only reason they backtracked was because she had the smarts to record and disseminate evidence of her persecution. Private institutions should clearly have the right to discriminate as they see fit but not after they advertise and commit to their customers that they won’t. If they indeed have no obligation to provide a platform for any opinions then say so in their Mission statement or even better (more honestly), state that “only leftist bilge is permitted by our private Marxist professoriate”.
You saying so, does not make it so. You might want to look into Pridgen vs. University of Calgary where Madam Justice J. Strekaf ruled that the Pridgen brothers’ right to freedom of expression, under section 2(b) of the Charter, was infringed by the University of Calgary Review Committee. The key ruling in the case was that the universities are not exempt from, and that these students were in fact protected under, section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unearned confidence of that about which one is ignorant always has the brightest glow.
WLU could be legislated out of existence by the Province of Ontario, who solely charter post secondary institutions by “royal assent.” Not that any politician would take the requisite steps to do so but it could be done. Certainly, WLU could not survive without Provincial funding. The idea that they, their board of governors, their faculty and students might fail to see the school is in peril is part and parcel of the general unconsciousness of campus life.
Unme turd, as soon as one receives their pay check from the tax pocket they are obliged to adhere to statutory edicts (laws). In that you are unable to grasp that demonstrates your shallow intellectual capacity. STUPID doesn’t even cover it. That an IQ test, and your failing mark should open your eyes!
People keep saying that in Canada we do not have freedom of speech rights, unlike the USA. This just is not true. In the first case, such rights come from God, not government, and cannot legitimately be infringed. In the second, freedom of expression is indeed guaranteed right there in Section 2 of the Charter of Right and Freedoms. Our problem is that our governments are not honoring their legal obligations, and our judges are not calling them on it.