There they go — again.
In 2009, the chair of the sociology department at Carleton University hired Hassan Diab, who we subsequently learned was facing charges for multiple murder and terrorism for the 1980 bombing of a Jewish synagogue in Paris.
When this came to light, Carleton immediately terminated Diab’s contract. The chair of the sociology department and most of his department colleagues published an op-ed in the Citizen strongly condemning the university for this decision.
A few days later, I published an op-ed in the Citizen condemning the radical and unprecedented decision by the sociology department to hire an alleged murderer to teach in the classroom at Carleton, for it provocatively created a remarkably hostile and poisoned environment for Jewish students.
Unfortunately, since then, the hostile environment became yet more poisoned by the provocative acts of a small number of radicalized students who were supported by a small number of professors, to establish Students Against Israeli Apartheid.
SAIA demanded that Carleton University divest its pension investments in the four firms that did business in Israel. To that end, it disrupted public events, including Carleton student council meetings, to promote its criticisms of Israel and demands for divestment.
The confrontational and frequent bullying tactics employed by some of these students eventually culminated in attempts to disrupt a Carleton board of governors meeting in March 2011, reported in the Citizen and Maclean’s. This meeting was cancelled as protesters refused to allow some board members to enter the room.
As a consequence of the poisoned and hostile environment created by the bullying of some of these activists during this extended period, the university received numerous complaints from Jewish students and faculty concerning their safety.
To address the deteriorating situation, the president of Carleton University announced the appointment of the distinguished Senator Landon Pearson in June 2010 to head a Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Relations on Campus to provide recommendations to “contribute to a better context for dialogue and understanding on the Carleton campus and in the surrounding community.”
On Oct. 10, 2012, the president released the report. It made a number of findings concerning aboriginal and Jewish persons. Based on a survey of all students and a followup survey of Jewish students due to issues identified by the first survey, inter alia, it found that:
“The university community must acknowledge that some anti-Israel politics, activities and sentiments which occur on the Carleton campus are perceived as anti-Semitic, thus contributing to Jewish members of the Carleton community feeling less positive about the climate of respect at the university.”
The most important recommendation concerned academic freedom codified in section 15 of the faculty association collective agreement. The commission recommended “the rights and responsibilities of faculty employees in their role as teachers should be widely disseminated to students and faculty, such as in course outlines, the Student Affairs website and other pertinent information vehicles for students.”
The response — led by the former chair of the sociology department — was immediate outrage. Indeed, in his Oct. 15 letter to the Citizen, he claimed it was an attempt to “silence debate” and deny academic freedom. The subsequent “Weebly letter” signed by some professors and students made similar arguments. Indeed, the former sociology chair was signatory No. 1 on the Weebly letter.
This is nonsense. It is Orwellian to suggest that a requirement to make public the rules of academic freedom to our students violates academic freedom. Exactly the contrary, it will empower students concerning the appropriate role and conduct of professors and students in the classroom. As the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, sunshine is the most powerful disinfectant of all.
However, it will certainly restrict the propagation of hateful speech — targeted to any minority — that creates a hostile or poisoned environment. At the same time, it will not impact any professor or student acting in a respectful, professional manner.
Properly understood, the targeting and bullying of the Jewish minority — or any minority — is an assault on our deepest and most enduring Canadian values of tolerance and respect for diversity and plurality. Indeed, Canada participated in two world wars in support of these very values and paid a heavy price. Nonetheless, Canada became the beacon of hope to the entire world precisely because of our success at ensuring that these core values were integrated into all of our institutions and shared by all Canadians.
But as this account reveals, we must remain ever vigilant against assaults on our most fundamental Canadian values. Carleton’s motto captures it best: ours the task eternal.
Ian Lee is a professor in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University
In 2009, the chair of the sociology department at Carleton University hired Hassan Diab, who we subsequently learned was facing charges for multiple murder and terrorism for the 1980 bombing of a Jewish synagogue in Paris.
When this came to light, Carleton immediately terminated Diab’s contract. The chair of the sociology department and most of his department colleagues published an op-ed in the Citizen strongly condemning the university for this decision.
A few days later, I published an op-ed in the Citizen condemning the radical and unprecedented decision by the sociology department to hire an alleged murderer to teach in the classroom at Carleton, for it provocatively created a remarkably hostile and poisoned environment for Jewish students.
Unfortunately, since then, the hostile environment became yet more poisoned by the provocative acts of a small number of radicalized students who were supported by a small number of professors, to establish Students Against Israeli Apartheid.
SAIA demanded that Carleton University divest its pension investments in the four firms that did business in Israel. To that end, it disrupted public events, including Carleton student council meetings, to promote its criticisms of Israel and demands for divestment.
The confrontational and frequent bullying tactics employed by some of these students eventually culminated in attempts to disrupt a Carleton board of governors meeting in March 2011, reported in the Citizen and Maclean’s. This meeting was cancelled as protesters refused to allow some board members to enter the room.
As a consequence of the poisoned and hostile environment created by the bullying of some of these activists during this extended period, the university received numerous complaints from Jewish students and faculty concerning their safety.
To address the deteriorating situation, the president of Carleton University announced the appointment of the distinguished Senator Landon Pearson in June 2010 to head a Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Relations on Campus to provide recommendations to “contribute to a better context for dialogue and understanding on the Carleton campus and in the surrounding community.”
On Oct. 10, 2012, the president released the report. It made a number of findings concerning aboriginal and Jewish persons. Based on a survey of all students and a followup survey of Jewish students due to issues identified by the first survey, inter alia, it found that:
“The university community must acknowledge that some anti-Israel politics, activities and sentiments which occur on the Carleton campus are perceived as anti-Semitic, thus contributing to Jewish members of the Carleton community feeling less positive about the climate of respect at the university.”
The most important recommendation concerned academic freedom codified in section 15 of the faculty association collective agreement. The commission recommended “the rights and responsibilities of faculty employees in their role as teachers should be widely disseminated to students and faculty, such as in course outlines, the Student Affairs website and other pertinent information vehicles for students.”
The response — led by the former chair of the sociology department — was immediate outrage. Indeed, in his Oct. 15 letter to the Citizen, he claimed it was an attempt to “silence debate” and deny academic freedom. The subsequent “Weebly letter” signed by some professors and students made similar arguments. Indeed, the former sociology chair was signatory No. 1 on the Weebly letter.
This is nonsense. It is Orwellian to suggest that a requirement to make public the rules of academic freedom to our students violates academic freedom. Exactly the contrary, it will empower students concerning the appropriate role and conduct of professors and students in the classroom. As the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, sunshine is the most powerful disinfectant of all.
However, it will certainly restrict the propagation of hateful speech — targeted to any minority — that creates a hostile or poisoned environment. At the same time, it will not impact any professor or student acting in a respectful, professional manner.
Properly understood, the targeting and bullying of the Jewish minority — or any minority — is an assault on our deepest and most enduring Canadian values of tolerance and respect for diversity and plurality. Indeed, Canada participated in two world wars in support of these very values and paid a heavy price. Nonetheless, Canada became the beacon of hope to the entire world precisely because of our success at ensuring that these core values were integrated into all of our institutions and shared by all Canadians.
But as this account reveals, we must remain ever vigilant against assaults on our most fundamental Canadian values. Carleton’s motto captures it best: ours the task eternal.
Ian Lee is a professor in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University
In 2009, the chair of the sociology department at Carleton University hired Hassan Diab, who we subsequently learned was facing charges for multiple murder and terrorism for the 1980 bombing of a Jewish synagogue in Paris.
When this came to light, Carleton immediately terminated Diab’s contract. The chair of the sociology department and most of his department colleagues published an op-ed in the Citizen strongly condemning the university for this decision.
A few days later, I published an op-ed in the Citizen condemning the radical and unprecedented decision by the sociology department to hire an alleged murderer to teach in the classroom at Carleton, for it provocatively created a remarkably hostile and poisoned environment for Jewish students.
Unfortunately, since then, the hostile environment became yet more poisoned by the provocative acts of a small number of radicalized students who were supported by a small number of professors, to establish Students Against Israeli Apartheid.
SAIA demanded that Carleton University divest its pension investments in the four firms that did business in Israel. To that end, it disrupted public events, including Carleton student council meetings, to promote its criticisms of Israel and demands for divestment.
The confrontational and frequent bullying tactics employed by some of these students eventually culminated in attempts to disrupt a Carleton board of governors meeting in March 2011, reported in the Citizen and Maclean’s. This meeting was cancelled as protesters refused to allow some board members to enter the room.
As a consequence of the poisoned and hostile environment created by the bullying of some of these activists during this extended period, the university received numerous complaints from Jewish students and faculty concerning their safety.
To address the deteriorating situation, the president of Carleton University announced the appointment of the distinguished Senator Landon Pearson in June 2010 to head a Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Relations on Campus to provide recommendations to “contribute to a better context for dialogue and understanding on the Carleton campus and in the surrounding community.”
On Oct. 10, 2012, the president released the report. It made a number of findings concerning aboriginal and Jewish persons. Based on a survey of all students and a followup survey of Jewish students due to issues identified by the first survey, inter alia, it found that:
“The university community must acknowledge that some anti-Israel politics, activities and sentiments which occur on the Carleton campus are perceived as anti-Semitic, thus contributing to Jewish members of the Carleton community feeling less positive about the climate of respect at the university.”
The most important recommendation concerned academic freedom codified in section 15 of the faculty association collective agreement. The commission recommended “the rights and responsibilities of faculty employees in their role as teachers should be widely disseminated to students and faculty, such as in course outlines, the Student Affairs website and other pertinent information vehicles for students.”
The response — led by the former chair of the sociology department — was immediate outrage. Indeed, in his Oct. 15 letter to the Citizen, he claimed it was an attempt to “silence debate” and deny academic freedom. The subsequent “Weebly letter” signed by some professors and students made similar arguments. Indeed, the former sociology chair was signatory No. 1 on the Weebly letter.
This is nonsense. It is Orwellian to suggest that a requirement to make public the rules of academic freedom to our students violates academic freedom. Exactly the contrary, it will empower students concerning the appropriate role and conduct of professors and students in the classroom. As the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, sunshine is the most powerful disinfectant of all.
However, it will certainly restrict the propagation of hateful speech — targeted to any minority — that creates a hostile or poisoned environment. At the same time, it will not impact any professor or student acting in a respectful, professional manner.
Properly understood, the targeting and bullying of the Jewish minority — or any minority — is an assault on our deepest and most enduring Canadian values of tolerance and respect for diversity and plurality. Indeed, Canada participated in two world wars in support of these very values and paid a heavy price. Nonetheless, Canada became the beacon of hope to the entire world precisely because of our success at ensuring that these core values were integrated into all of our institutions and shared by all Canadians.
But as this account reveals, we must remain ever vigilant against assaults on our most fundamental Canadian values. Carleton’s motto captures it best: ours the task eternal.
Ian Lee is a professor in the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University.
