It looks like the debate over free speech and whether it should be limited to protect people won’t be solved before the weekend.
While arguments for and against limits on free speech typically play out in university classrooms, the past two weeks have seen one such debate go far beyond Wilfrid Laurier University’s corridors, attracting massive media attention.
At issue is the case of Lindsay Shepherd, the Laurier teaching assistant who faced a disciplinary hearing after showing a class a video of University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson arguing against using gender-neutral pronouns for people who prefer to be identified in those terms.
Shepherd has received apologies from her supervisor and the school’s president for what she was confronted with during the hearing, which she had secretly recorded.
Laurier president Deborah MacLatchy has said that the school will ensure an independent review of the situation is conducted, and strike a task force to clarify the university’s stance on freedom of speech.
“The university absolutely stands behind the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression,” MacLatchy said Thursday in an interview.
“We understand that topics can be challenging and uncomfortable, but it’s not OK for them to be threatening in a classroom situation. This is the balance that we’re looking to strike.”
MacLatchy said that the task force will include representation from the school’s faculty, student body and administration, and would be open to input from both inside and outside Laurier. Its structure is expected to be finalized by December, with a goal of delivering on its mandate by next March.
Some professors at the school say the school’s position on free speech should be unequivocally in favour, without needing months of discussion.
“A university thrives and lives on freedom of speech and debate,” said Simon Kiss, a professor of digital media, journalism and leadership, and one of the organizers of a petition calling on the school to come out explicitly against any attempts to limit speech and debate in its corridors.
Kiss said Shepherd’s issue wasn’t the only recent case at the school in which speech or debate had been “constricted” – something he finds particularly troubling given his belief that debate can be a way to help people find common ground on polarizing issues.
“These issues are not going to go away. We need the university to find better management practices to live up to its core ideals of encouraging free speech and free debate,” he said.
The professors’ group is organizing a rally in support of free speech for Friday afternoon.
Shepherd says she supports their goal, plans to attend the rally, and hopes school administrators pay attention to their message.
“Right now, they’re unfortunately seen as kind of a laughingstock,” she said Thursday.
“They have a chance, if they were to consider the statement that we’re going to present to them tomorrow … to totally turn this around and making this so they’re not a laughingstock but a leader.”
With reporting by Natalie van Rooy
