Posted on by Steve

An attack on free speech comes to an Ontario University

Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, is in hot water after a T.A. was reprimanded for showing a video on gender-neutral pronouns.

University campuses have always been a place of learning, where students can exchange and debate different ideas and are encouraged to do so. How else can we progress and develop as a society if we shut out innovation of thought or any opposing argument we don’t agree with? Well it seems the idea of open debate is being threatened, and it’s a rather scary development in how ideologically dogmatic Universities have become.

Lindsay Shepherd is a grad student at Wilfred Laurier University and is currently a teaching assistant within the communications department. After Ms. Shepherd showed a video to first-year students (in an attempt to show them some of the complications of grammar in the new age of gender-neutral pronouns), she was accused of violating Laurier’s Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy after an anonymous student complained.

The video she showed the students was a TVOntario debate featuring Dr. Jordan B Peterson — a subjectively controversial figure that made waves last year after he vehemently opposed the Canadian government legally implementing the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Whether you agree with Jordan Peterson’s stance or not, these ideas do exist in the real world — and that’s exactly what Lindsay Shepherd was trying to show the first-year students. And how did Laurier respond?

Lindsay had to meet with school officials — including her supervising professor Nathan Rambukkana — where they accosted the young grad student for creating a “toxic and problematic” environment towards transgender students and for breaking the law (she didn’t break the law by the way). Pretty serious stuff for simply showing a video where someone has a different viewpoint.

Well luckily for Lindsay — and everyone else that values free speech — she secretly recorded the meeting with the school officials. There is a condensed version but I suggest listening to the whole cringe-worthy-I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing-meeting. Check it out below.

Once the video was released to the public, it didn’t take much time for people and news outlets to cover the story.

Of course, the man who caused all this controversy in the first place weighed in too.

It even made its way into The House of Commons.

Well needless to say, it didn’t take long until Laurier released an apology to Ms. Shepherd.

Seems like they’re feeling the wrath of the public’s outcry.

And did Lindsay Shepherd accept the apology? Watch her reaction below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9-t1Qc51pk

Although Lindsay seems to be taking the high road, things still appear tense between her and Laurier University.

This trend of suppressing free speech on University campuses is incredibly worrisome, especially after the chaos that has ensued in The United States (looking at you Berkely!). But the reaction to how Lindsay was treated is a positive step forward in tackling the beast of Orwellian “wrong-think.”

Although Lindsay’s story is far from over, this could be just the beginning before we start seeing a lot of similar situations manifest on other Canadian University campuses.

Always remember: just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.