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Slandered Canadian professor raises debate about free speech vs. hate speech on campus


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2019 May 22, 6:40pm   636 views  2 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/case-of-white-supremacist-professor-raises-debate-about-free-speech-vs-hate-speech-on-campus-1.5143764

A University of New Brunswick professor accused of being a white supremacist should have the academic freedom to pursue whichever ideas he wants, according to one academic.

"We should be free, all of us, to explore ideas as we will," said Mark Mercer, a philosophy professor at Saint Mary's University in Nova Scotia, and the president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship.

He told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti that university culture is based on the principles of open and free inquiry so that people can form their beliefs and values "according to evidence and argument, and not according to social or psychological pressures."

"As soon as there are … restrictions on the content of our ideas, beliefs, or values, then that potentially imposes conformity, prevents people from inquiring openly and freely."

Ricardo Duchesne teaches sociology at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, N.B. Outside of the classroom, he has appeared on far-right podcasts and Youtube channels, and penned articles where he writes about the "relentless occupation of the West by hordes of Muslims and Africans," and asserts that "only out of the coming chaos and violence will strong White men rise to resurrect the West."


I hope to get this guy to write on patrick.net.

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1   Patrick   2019 May 22, 7:41pm  

More about Duchesne:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/unb-defends-prof-s-academic-freedom-in-wake-of-racism-complaint-1.2892206

Duchesne’s comments may have triggered a complaint, but the union that represents UNB professors says he needs to be defended.

Miriam Jones, president of the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers, said the principle of academic freedom is "increasingly under attack."

Jones said academic freedom is under pressure from corporations, political interests and even big pharmaceuticals who don't like what scientists are telling them.

The union leader said professors and what they say must be protected.

"It is such a bedrock principle. Academic freedom is something to go to the wall for," she said.
2   Bd6r   2019 May 23, 1:05pm  

Patrick says
Duchesne’s comments may have triggered a complaint, but the union that represents UNB professors says he needs to be defended.

Kudos for Canadian union. If AAUP (American Association of University professors) would have BALLS! and would defend freedom of speech both to left and Right, I would join it. Unfortunately, they are TDS sufferers with tenuous connection to reality.

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