The ebb and flow of Canadian academic freedom

First the evil news from scaramouche:

Déjà vu at York U: Don’t look now, but Toronto’s York University has morphed into a German campus circa Der Fuhrer—or a Gaza campus circa today. I just received the following desperate plea via e-mail:

To Whom It May Concern:
As students at York University Keele Campus we would like to urgently bring to your attention several appalling incidents, which took place today, February 11th 2009 on our campus.

After an attempted media conference, regarding a successful campaign of “Drop YFS”, a racial riot broke out deeming the members of “Drop YFS” racist. “Drop YFS” is a student led group with students from different backgrounds, faiths and beliefs. In addition, the Jewish students involved in “Drop YFS” belong to Hasbara at York, Hillel at York, and other Jewish groups on campus.

“Drop YFS” is a student run initiative to have the executive members of YFS (the undergraduate student government) held accountable for their inactivity during the strike. The media conference was put in place to thank the students for their 5000 signatures, and to congratulate the students for their success.

The conference was interrupted by mobs of people who broke into chants, racial slurs, and anti-Semitic threats. Students fearing for their lives at York University had to be protected and escorted out of the room by Toronto Police - as they were trapped inside this room unable to leave, afraid. The entire Jewish population of York is intimidated, and no longer feels secure on campus. The Jewish members of “Drop YFS” were solely targeted today for their religion and their political views.

There is video footage of this taking place, and we are more than willing to answer any of your questions. Please contact us:
Aaron Rosenberg
aaron_r123@hotmail.com
Elinor Izmaylov
elinorizmaylov@hotmail.com
Please forward this to as many people you can – the community at large must become aware that Jews on campus no longer feel safe regardless of their political views.

Enraged mobs of Jew-haters hurling threats and racial slurs? Where are our politicians? Where are the media? Where’s the Canadian Jewish Congress?
Where’s Barbara Hall?

As far as i can tell, the video is not yet on the web. Background on this story here.

We previously reported on Queen's University's own speech enforcers here Today comes the welcome news that Queen's is dropping the crazy idea. But in true Canadian slackademic fashion, the Americans are to blame for the crazy idea in the first place!

Calling it "incompatible with the atmosphere required for free speech," Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., on Wednesday scrapped its controversial "dialogue facilitator" program.

It caused a scandal last year when it was revealed the six student "facilitators" were mandated to intervene in private conversations to encourage discussion of social justice issues and discourage offensive language.

In a report to the administration, a panel of experts expressed "strong reservations about unsolicited interventions into the lives of students" because of the risk of "making students feel unsafe or under surveillance because of their opinions."

The panel included Leora Jackson, the school's rector, John Meisel, an emeritus professor of political science, and Keith Norton, the former head of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. They had "serious concerns" with how the program was set up.

The panel faulted Dean of Student Affairs Jason Laker for importing an American model of diversity promotion, from the National Coalition Building Institute, while failing to research any comparable programs at Canadian universities.

It's time we all stood up as Canadians and let York University officials know that theirs has become a pariah institution and that it is completely unacceptable that they have become a place for antisemitic riots. From my own experience of York, I blame not only the left-Islamist student alliance, in support of CUPE teachers and their union's official antisemitism, but also the ideologies promoted by many of the senior non-CUPE faculty.(HTs: Blazing Cat Fur)

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UPDATE: Here is a first-hand account of the York incident and here is the B'nai Brith press release (via email):

‘Pandemonium at York University reflects dangerous trend
of anti-Jewish agitation on campuses,’ says B’nai Brith Canada –

B’nai Brith delegation to visit York campus this afternoon

TORONTO, February 12, 2009 – B’nai Brith Canada has expressed deep concern over disturbances yesterday at York University, with reports of Jewish students fearing for their safety and being escorted off campus by police. Turmoil erupted following a press conference by some students to announce that they had successfully garnered 5,000 signatures on a petition demanding the recall of York Federation Student leaders. Amidst the pandemonium, Jewish students were pushed and shoved, antisemitic slurs were shouted, leaving Jewish students to seek refuge in a locked room away from the frantic mob.

“We are disturbed and appalled by reports of Jewish students fearing for their safety and being scared to be identified as Jews on campus,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s Executive Vice President. “Just last week we met with York University student leaders who communicated incident after incident of deliberate intimidation of Jewish students, and marginalization and isolation on campus.

“We have requested an urgent meeting with York University’s administration to ensure that immediate measures be put in place to restore order and safety to campus life.

“We have already been in communication with police and demanded that the safety and security of Jewish students at York University and other campuses be dealt with as a matter of top priority.

“A senior delegation of B’nai Brith Canada officials will be on campus this afternoon to witness first hand a day in the life of a Jewish student on the frontlines against antisemitism, anti-Zionist and radical forces that care nothing about democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

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UPDATE 2: Video showing the aftermath of the riot (with police escorting students out of the Hillel centre while the mob chants) are here.

The Queen's own speech enforcers

Back in my student days, we used to wonder what to make of the Queen's University students who would visit us for football games, decked out in kilts and showing a rather too disciplined interest in marching bands, as opposed to getting drunk and disorderly.

My how times have changed:

Your friend's new fuchsia fedora might be hideous. But don't call it gay, or you might get a language lesson from the conversation cops.

Students at Queen's University who sprinkle their dialogue with an assortment of "homo" or "retarded" could find out the hard way that not everyone finds their remarks acceptable.

The Kingston university has hired student facilitators to step in when they overhear homophobic slurs, remarks bashing women or racially tinged insults, along with an array of other language that could be deemed offensive.

That means tête-à-têtes in the residence hallways may no longer be just between friends.

"If people are having a conversation with offensive content and they're doing it loud enough for a third person to hear it ... it's not private," said Jason Laker, dean of student affairs at Queen's.

"If you're doing anything that's interfering with what other people need to be doing, that's not cool."
[...]
"Having a program like this in place could stifle public discussion if people are worried their private conversations are being monitored," said Angela Hickman, managing editor of the Queen's Journal, a campus newspaper. "For a lot of people, their opinions get formed in conversations and so stifling that is dangerous."

The newspaper published an editorial last week criticizing the program as a "lacklustre" attempt to deal with social issues that could actually create hostility among students.
[...]
But some students wish it would remain a discussion between friends, rather than a dialogue with a university-appointed facilitator.

If the facilitators jump into a group conversation, "they risk hostility from students who don't want to be approached in what they consider private social settings," said the editorial published in the campus newspaper.

Intergroup dialogue programs are well established at many universities in the United States. But many of those consist of credit courses taught by faculty members or student facilitators who have received rigorous training over several semesters in a classroom environment.

The Queen's facilitators went through an intensive 11-day training course that touched on a variety of social issues and possible scenarios.

Patricia Gurin, professor emeritus of psychology and women's studies at the University of Michigan, is one of the founders of the intergroup dialogue concept.

While she didn't comment specifically on the program launched at Queen's, she warned that such activities could backfire if they are not carried out by highly trained individuals who have experience with a variety of conflicts and social issues.

"It takes a lot of skill to do this work," Ms. Gurin said in an interview yesterday.

She said that facilitators who haven't been trained properly could end up reinforcing defence mechanisms of privileged students.

"White males say 'This is more white-male bashing.' What are they learning from that? Reinforcement of defensiveness rather than opening up and exploring is the consequence."
[...]
A sampling of some behaviour that could warrant attention from university-appointed student facilitators, tasked with policing students' offensive language at Queen's:

If a student uses the phrase "That's so gay" in conversation.

If a student calls someone or something "retarded."

If a student writes a homophobic, racist or other derogatory remark in a public space, such as on a residence poster or classmate's door.

If a student avoids a classmate's birthday party for faith-based reasons.

Are universities now so infantilized that one feels pressured to attend birthday parties?

It's one thing to freely contest someone's words, quite another to be employed as a busy-bodying intervenor to do it. Those who go looking for bits and pieces of conversation to scapegoat for the failure of Kingston to be a Utopia are truly a sign of the collapse of what used to be known as the liberal arts. But that's so straight of me...
globeandmail.com: Conversation cops step in to school students