Chris Selley’s Full Pundit: Free speech is where it’s at
Universal derision
In which various university presidents make their lives far more difficult than they need to be.
In the National Post, David Frum compares York University’s reception of right-wing academic Daniel Pipes (a briefing on hate speech, and an eventually cancelled appearance) to its reception of socialist former British MP George Galloway (a non-cancelled speech conducted under police protection paid for by students, with threats of legal action against protesters), and concludes there’s something rather wrong with this picture.
No kidding. Setting aside the fact the situations aren’t precisely analogous, and all the various allegations against Mr. Pipes and Mr. Galloway levelled by their ideological opponents, what we really don’t get is this: What kind of self-respecting university president wouldn’t bend over backwards, even if it costs him a few bucks, to ensure he presides over a bastion of absolute (or as absolute as possible) free speech? As Sun Media’s Ezra Levant says, they’re supposed to be in charge of educating young people. What the hell kind of message are they sending? (Mind you, as someone who applauded Mr. Galloway initially being kept out of Canada because he doesn’t like him — and because there was, technically speaking, a legal justification for doing so — Levant isn’t exactly dripping with credibility on this subject.)
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