Free speech on campus

Don’t let it slip away by trying to ban ideas you don’t like

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.
—Noam Chomsky

I can still recall the first protest I witnessed on campus. During my first year at the University of Winnipeg, a wild-looking group of Jesus freaks walked along the bike racks yelling that the Lord was coming, and we sinners were about to pay for our wickedness (that is, unless, we joined their church, but that’s another matter). Between summoning Jesus and yelling in the “gay marriage equals the devil”- style of Christian worship, this rabid band of devotees to the almighty seemed not to care that the students around them were outraged.

They were yelling that the church members had no right to say such things. This protest is still etched into my memory mainly for this reason. The fact that the students of a university were telling a group – albeit a controversial one – that they had no right to speak on campus was a sad point in my initiation to higher education.

Was this call to the erosion of free expression just a temporary religious-based thing, or are students starting to disvalue its importance altogether?

My assumption was that free speech was still alive and well on campus – here and across Canada – but two recent events have me thinking otherwise.

The first involved an event at McGill University, put on by that campus’ pro-life student group. During the speech by the “Choose Life” group, students are said to have shouted down the speaker for venturing their opinion that abortion is wrong. The deputy provost of McGill was so outraged by the blatant lack of regard for free expression that he wrote a commentary on the subject in McGill Daily.

The second occurrence hits closer to home. Two weeks ago, Tom Flanagan, professor of political science at the University of Calgary and former campaign advisor to Stephen Harper, came to the University of Manitoba to deliver two lectures. Without thinking about the essence of a university, a number of U of M students circulated a petition through Facebook, demanding that Flanagan be banned from speaking at the university due to his controversial views regarding First Nations people, and his penchant for Conservative dogma in general. Yes, you read that correctly: Students wanted a professor to be banned from speaking at a university.

These are but three examples in recent memory which point to a weakening in the importance and understanding of free speech on campus, by some of the very students who should be benefitting from having access to ideas that can be aired without fear or threat. The best way to counteract thoughts which you think are dangerous has always been to make a better argument, not attempt to censor or drive controversy underground. It is always better to let the lunatics speak and harm their reputation themselves, rather than give power and allure to them by stifling their voice.

If U of W students needed a reminder of the force of free speech in repressive environments, they were certainly given one on November 16, when Malalai Joya, a female Member of Parliament of Afghanistan who has been driven from her country by the misogynistic warlords and theocratic fascists who rule there, spoke to an overcrowded Convocation Hall. Throughout her talk, Joya made mention of the power that her words of denunciation had upon those who have tried to ban her voice.

It would be a mistake, however, to think that free speech is more important in repressive countries such as Afghanistan. Free speech is equally important everywhere and its violation is equally dangerous everywhere. By making mention of examples from McGill, the U of M and here at the U of W, I mean not to compare, nor to chastise. I merely mean to notice that it seems like free speech is becoming less valued by students on campuses across Canada.

For this, we should all be concerned.

Andrew Tod would like to remind you that free speech is alive and well within the comments section of The Uniter. Email submissions to [email protected]

Published in Volume 64, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 19, 2009)

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