Tuesday July 8, 2025
  • Venezuela
  • Mexico
  • Colombia
  • Chile
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Podcast
Versión Español
PanAm Post
  • Home
  • Regions
    • South America
    • North America
    • Central America
    • Caribbean
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Opinion
  • Podcast
  • Authors
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Regions
    • South America
    • North America
    • Central America
    • Caribbean
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Opinion
  • Podcast
  • Authors
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
PanAm Post
No Result
View All Result

Home » Canada: Students Cheer as University Violates Free Speech

Canada: Students Cheer as University Violates Free Speech

Adam Kissel by Adam Kissel
January 27, 2014
in Canada, Education, Free Speech, North America, Opinion
FacebookTwitterTelegramWhatsapp

McMaster University administrators in Canada have effectively banned a book they find immoral, and many students support the school’s oppressive decision.

“When we discovered this book and saw its contents,” admitted David Wilkinson, McMaster’s academic provost and vice president, “we took immediate and swift action to indicate a book with this kind of content in it is unacceptable.”

RelatedArticles

CNN Fake News: The Network’s Efforts to Justify Its Actions May Be Worse than Its Actual Flawed Reporting

CNN’s audience in 2024 was the lowest in its history

December 21, 2024
The silence of the Democrats will be the main course on Thanksgiving

The silence of the Democrats will be the main course on Thanksgiving

November 28, 2024

The book — which contains approximately 25 cheers that touch controversial topics such as rape and murder — is part of a long cultural tradition of rhymes with bawdy content. People enjoy singing about taboo subjects, mostly because they know the subjects are taboo. In other words, their participation in reading the book generally involves agreeing with the taboo themes, and disagreeing with a direct interpretation of the text. To read or sing such a book with others is a cultural bonding experience, encompassing their societal values.

But the university does not understand this. Instead, it has suspended students who have read the book, most of which are members of a group called the Redsuits. McMaster has also reprimanded the McMaster Engineering Society, the much larger body of which the Redsuits are a part.

featured-mcmaster-students
Members of the McMaster Redsuits march in the Hamilton Santa Claus Parade last November. The engineering student group has been banned from campus activities. Source: McMaster Engineering Society.

The decision to suspend the group is not only inconsistent with free speech principles, but it shows that the university — as well as the students who support the book ban — is intolerant, exclusive, insensitive, ethnocentric, anti-intellectual, oppressive, moralistic, and power hungry.

They are intolerant and oppressive by condemning what they don’t approve of. They tolerate neither the book, nor the people who read it, and cheer their punishment.

They are exclusive because they preclude anyone who is part of a group that reads the book from fully participating in student life. They are morally exclusive of those who engage in expression they find immoral, singing words they denounce, for example.

They are insensitive, ethnocentric, and anti-intellectual by failing to show any understanding that some people have cultural norms other than their own; many cultures have long held traditions of using bawdy language. Again, such language is often meant to be ironic, in order to support more “wholesome” values. But even when it is sincere, such language is fully protected by free speech principles. It is not, in and of itself, harassing or discriminatory, even if some find it off-putting.

They are moralistic because they decide what is right or wrong. Even though a great university should be a marketplace of ideas where all expression deserves objective consideration, they prefer an environment that decides ahead of time, for everyone, regardless of any moral theory to the contrary, what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly.

They are power hungry because they abuse their institute-given authority to stamp out ideas they disapprove of, rather than encouraging the peaceful power of persuasion.

A lot has changed at McMaster since just one year ago, when the school was pretending to be a champion of free expression. In 2013, defending a professor’s personal opinion, the university claimed that it supported not only academic freedom, but also individual free speech. The school’s Statement on Academic Freedom reads:

McMaster University affirms the right of the academic community to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion. Beyond this commitment to teach and learn unhindered by non-academic constraints, the University strongly supports the exercise of free speech as a critical social good. . . . Because of our respect for individual freedom of speech . . .

Add hypocrisy to the list of charges against McMaster in 2014.

For these reasons, McMaster University, and the students who support the university’s choice to oppress others, have brought shame to the idea of a free university.

Tags: CensorshipMcMaster UniversityOntarioRedsuits
Adam Kissel

Adam Kissel

Adam Kissel directed the defense program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and has spoken about individual rights on college campuses across the United States. In 2009, he won a First Prize in education reporting from the National Education Writers Association. Follow him on Twitter @adamkissel.

Related Posts

CNN Fake News: The Network’s Efforts to Justify Its Actions May Be Worse than Its Actual Flawed Reporting
Ideology

CNN’s audience in 2024 was the lowest in its history

December 21, 2024
The silence of the Democrats will be the main course on Thanksgiving
Culture

The silence of the Democrats will be the main course on Thanksgiving

November 28, 2024
These are the 21 individuals sanctioned by the U.S. for fraud and repression in Venezuela
Elections

These are the 21 individuals sanctioned by the U.S. for fraud and repression in Venezuela

November 27, 2024
The Democratic campaign organized celebrity concerts in the seven key states, all of which they ended up losing. (EFE)
Columnists

The Only Thing Kamala Harris Won in the Election: Debt and Hollywood’s Useless Support

November 12, 2024
In the style of Milei: "Department of Education, Out!" (Archive).
Columnists

Good News from Trump: He Will Close the Department of Education in the U.S.

November 12, 2024
The Amish provided one of the most memorable images of the recent election: horse-drawn buggies, as from centuries past, heading to polling stations to vote for Trump and for lost freedoms. (X)
Columnists

The “Amish Vote” and the High Price Democrats Paid for Their State Interventionism

November 9, 2024
Next Post

Maduro Eyes Puerto Rico: Independence, New Bolivarian Partner

Subscribe free and never miss another breaking story

  • Venezuela
  • Mexico
  • Colombia
  • Chile
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Podcast

© 2024 PanAm Post - Design & Develop by NEW DREAM GLOBAL CORP. - Privacy policy

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Regions
    • South America
    • North America
    • Central America
    • Caribbean
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Opinion
  • Podcast
  • Authors
  • Contact

© 2024 PanAm Post - Design & Develop by NEW DREAM GLOBAL CORP. - Privacy policy

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Privacy and Cookie Policy.