Lindsay Shepherd has emerged as a kind of cosmic revenge on Wilfrid Laurier University.
Reprimanded last fall for allowing free expression of ideas in her classroom, she is now roiling the campus as she tests its commitment to that same principle.
Shepherd, a teaching assistant and graduate student, is president of Laurier Students for Open Inquiry, which hosts an “Unpopular Opinion” speaker series.”
The first debate was to be on immigration. Shepherd brought in Faith Goldy, a white nationalist who was invited to speak on the topic of “Ethnocide: Multiculturalism and European Canadian Identity.”
She reached out to five professors to debate Goldy. All refused.
Numerous students, faculty and alumni at Laurier signed an open letter to president Deborah MacLatchy, asking that she “put a stop to this event immediately.”
In one social media post, professor Greg Bird called free speech a “ruse” and asked: “Is Laurier a Nazi recruitment centre or a university?”
It gets worse. Tuesday morning, Shepherd was putting up posters to advertise her event. She turned away briefly to send a text on her cellphone. She saw Communication Studies instructor Neil Balan tearing down the poster she had just put up.
Later, he boasted about it later on Twitter.
“While tearing down flyers for tonight’s @Laurier Free-Really-Free-Free Speech Event, I had the pleasure of encountering and being filmed by a WLU celebrity who was posting said flyers. #communityspirit”
How appalling that people who teach in an academic institution think it is appropriate to shut down discussion of ideas.
Perhaps they should listen to one of the intellectuals they most revere: Noam Chomsky. He famously said: “If you’re in favour of freedom of speech, that means precisely for the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favour of freedom of speech.”
What poetic justice that Shepherd is delivering this message.
Full column: https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/8341142-d-amato-lindsay-shepherd-is-bitter-medicine-for-laurier/