Re: “Commission right about toxic behaviour on campus,” Dec. 6, 2012.
In a December 6 letter applauding the report of the Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Relations, Zane Colt of the Israel Awareness Committee described an incident in a public space at the university which apparently included anti-Semitic comments. According to Mr. Colt, this kind of thing “happens in the lecture hall, too.” As evidence, he reported that “This occurred most recently when a professor of Human Rights brought in a member of the United Church of Canada (UCC) who is in favour of their recent boycott of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank. The balanced approach would be to invite an additional member of the UCC who was against the boycott, to ignite debate.”
I am the professor that Mr. Colt refers to, and though not registered in the course he contacted me shortly after the Oct. 9 lecture and offered to provide a speaker “In the interest of your students receiving a balanced treatment of the issue…” In explaining my decision to decline his offer, I wrote this to Mr. Colt: “I invite many guest speakers to my classes, and they are people who in my estimation promote human rights. I don’t invite those who, in my estimation, support policies and/or engage in actions which are detrimental to the realization of human rights. For instance, tomorrow night I have guests coming to class who advocate for gay rights, but I won’t be inviting guests who oppose such rights. Similarly, while I will be hosting a speaker whose presentation is critical of residential schools for aboriginal children, I won’t also ask someone to speak in support of residential schools.”
Curiously, Mr. Colt did not comment on the lack of “balance” in those cases, nor did he dispute the principle that guides my selection of guest speakers. Only when a speaker criticized the state of Israel for its violation of Palestinian human rights did Mr. Colt call for corrective action.
That Mr. Colt tried to link this particular class and guest speaker to anti-Semitism isn’t surprising, as that is a time-worn tactic used to intimidate and muzzle those who challenge the decades-long violence done to Palestinians by Israel. Regrettably however, specious allegations of this type have been accorded credibility in the commission’s report, setting the stage at Carleton for restrictions on speech deemed as unacceptable by pro-Israel partisans. No wonder then that Mr. Colt regards the report as a “milestone” for the university.
— Bill Skidmore,
Professor, Carleton Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (Human Rights)
