'Globe and Mail' columnist, Denise Balkisoon, has written a piece today attacking Doug Ford's declaration that free speech is to be implemented at all Ontarian universities. Unless it is hate speech, or against the law, students are now free to say what they like.
Wow! What an idea! Isn't that what universities are for? To let young people express their opinions and learn from each other -- whether they agree or not? Guess not, in Balkisoon's opinion.
This is the welcome antidote to what Allan Rock did at Ottawa U a number of years ago, when he succumbed to a gang of Arab protestors who did not want American, right-wing celebrity, Ann Coulter, to speak. They went wild and Rock caved. She was not permitted to speak. That was an outrage and I, for one, am glad Ford has decided to change the universities' channels.
When at Carleton, I took "Religion 101" and learned so much from other faiths. Would they have been banned because they did not follow common orthodoxy? Probably, but here we are, teaching about all faiths in a university. What's next? A modern-day Luther's head on a stake in the public thoroughfare? A heretic in a stockade in the town square?
People need to get a grip.
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