The Cultural Revolution hits a Canadian university: grad student teacher bullied for promoting free discussion in her class

November 22, 2017 • 9:30 am

Wilfred Laurier University is a public university in Waterloo, Ontario, and has just become the target of international opprobrium after its persecution of a graduate teaching assistant became public this week. The teaching assistant, 22 year old Lindsay Shepherd, is now one of my heroes for standing up for the principles of free speech and pushing back against the bullying of her professors and the University who want Suppressed Speech.  Here she is:

Lindsay Shepherd. Photo by David Bebee

What happened? Well, as reported by several sources, including the Globe and Mail, Shepherd, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in cultural analysis and social theory, was teaching a tutorial on language to first year students when the subject of personal pronouns arose. As you may have heard, this year Canada passed a federal law that added “gender identity and gender expression” to the Canadian Human Rights Act (“Bill C-16″).  It’s not completely clear whether this law criminalizes those who refuse to use a person’s chosen pronoun—”him”, “her”, “zir”, “it”, “they”, and so on—but the paper reports that this seems likely, at least in one province:

 The Ontario Human Rights Commission states clearly on its website that refusing to refer to a person by their preferred name and pronoun “will likely be discrimination when it takes place in a social area covered by the Code, including employment, housing and services like education.”

I think it’s a matter of civility to use whatever pronoun a student wants.  But should one be forced to do that? Isn’t that a violation of freedom of speech? Well, repeated refusal to use a preferred pronoun seems to me to be harassment, and that shouldn’t be tolerated. Others may differ, and at any rate this matter is not an open and shut case.

The most famous opponent of the forced use of preferred pronouns is Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. As I’ve said before, he’s all over the Internet, but I haven’t had time to examine his views carefully; and what I have seen suggests that he’s both very smart and somewhat unhinged. Be that as it may, he engaged in a debate about pronoun usage and transgender people on Steve Paikin’s  “The Agenda” show last October.  Here’s the 54-minute video in which Peterson debates other people, including another professor from UT, Nicholas Matte from the Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. You needn’t watch the whole show (I did soon after it aired), but if you have time I’d recommend it:

Shepherd apparently showed her students a three-minute clip from this show, featuring Peterson vs. Matte, to demonstrate the controversy about pronoun use. She herself claims that she’s on Matte’s side, but wanted to inspire discussion in her class. That seems fair enough.

But several students (who, of course, remained anonymous) complained to the University, and Shepherd was called in for a private shaming and criticism session by faculty and University officials. Fortunately, she was savvy enough to record the whole 43-minute interrogation on her computer rather than taking notes. You can find the full recording and some of the transcript at The National Post, but below is a 10-minute excerpt that gives an idea of what was going on. Shepherd’s interrogators/shamers were her own supervisor, professor Nathan Rambukkana; another professor, Herbert Pimlott; and Adria Joel, Laurer University’s manager of Gendered Violence Prevention and Support. Do listen to this ten minutes. Here’s a brief summary from the G&M:

During the interrogation, Ms. Shepherd is told repeatedly that she is guilty of spreading transphobia – in violation of the university’s policy and also, most likely, of Ontario’s human-rights code. At one point her supervisor, Nathan Rambukkana, compares her actions to endorsing white supremacy. “This is like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler,” he tells her.

What did Ms. Shepherd do? She played a three-minute video clip from a TV program that had been broadcast on TVO. It featured a debate over transgender pronouns. The role of Hitler was played by Jordan Peterson, the notorious University of Toronto professor who has thrown the entire academic world into conniption fits with his alleged hate thoughts. Among other things, Prof. Peterson argues that Ontario’s human-rights code could compel people to use non-gendered artificial pronouns – a position that Ms. Shepherd’s superiors at WLU evidently share. [JAC: Shepherd apparently agrees with them, too!]

Ms. Shepherd attempted to explain that she doesn’t even agree with Prof. Peterson. She simply used the clip to help frame a class discussion – an explanation that her interrogators ignored. When she asked which students had complained and how many, she was told that information was confidential. When she pointed out that the pronoun controversy has already been widely aired in public, she was told that some ideas are too “problematic” to be introduced into the classroom. When she voiced her opinion that universities should be places for debate, she was told that she’s created a toxic environment for students. When she said she had remained neutral and not tried to impose her own views, her supervisor, Prof. Rambukkana, told her, “That’s kind of part of the problem.”

You can hear this below.What a bunch of sanctimonious twits and bullies those three interrogators are! I’m so proud of Shepherd for standing up for herself in the face of these head-thumpers, even though she was brought to tears several times.

Here are the two professors who went after her:

Wilfrid Laurier University professors Nathan Rambukkana, left, and Herbert Pimlott, right. From National Post.

And here’s Adria Joel:

Now had Shepherd not recorded this session, and then decided to release it to the news, she undoubtedly would have been sanctioned, or even removed from teaching that class. But her interrogation was so nasty, so insensitive, so oblivious to the purposes of free discussion in a college education, that its release proved completely embarrassing for the university. There was a public uproar, and President and Vice-Chancellor Deborah MacLatchy was forced to issue a public apology to Shepherd. Fine, but the apology was hedged, for it includes this (my emphasis):

Through the media, we have now had the opportunity to hear the full recording of the meeting that took place at Wilfrid Laurier University.

After listening to this recording, an apology is in order. The conversation I heard does not reflect the values and practices to which Laurier aspires. I am sorry it occurred in the way that it did and I regret the impact it had on Lindsay Shepherd. I will convey my apology to her directly. Professor Rambukkana has also chosen to apologize to Lindsay Shepherd about the way the meeting was conducted.

I remain troubled by the way faculty, staff and students involved in this situation have been targeted with extreme vitriol. Supports are in place at the university to support them through this situation.

She’s troubled not just by how Shepherd was treated, but by the way “the faculty, staff, and students involved in this situation” were “targeted with extreme vitriol”. Well, they should have been! So long as they were criticized for their sniveling cowardice and snowflake-ness, as well for bullying Shepherd, and not threatened personally, vitriol is the appropriate response. What MacLatchy is trying to do is apologize to everybody so she doesn’t have to take a stand. Her cowardice is also reflected in what she’s doing to “fix” the situation:

The university has engaged an independent party to assess the facts of the matter including a review of related processes going forward. The review is intended to support improvement in our processes. The university is committed to ensuring that the vitally important role of Teaching Assistant supports an enriched learning environment for all students.

Let me be clear by stating that Laurier is committed to the abiding principles of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

Yeah, right! They surely weren’t espousing those principles in the meeting with Shepherd. MacLatchy has also convened a “task force” to “delve into these issues.” Seriously? Why can’t she just adopt the University of Chicago’s free speech principles and be done with it?

Professor Rambukkana has also issued an apology to Shepherd, and it’s more or less the craven, insincere document you’d expect. All of a sudden he’s backed off hectoring of his own student and has completely rethought his principles—in only a few days. What really happened is that he’s simply embarrassed at being the butt of public anger.

I suppose all this has ended well, though I’m not keen on President MacLatchy’s blanket apology to everyone. What we see here, though, is what happens all the time in American and Canadian universities; we simply don’t know about it because it isn’t recorded. This is what happens in Title IX inquiries, where accusations and accusers remain anonymous and those accused aren’t allowed to confront the accusers or even have a lawyer. While the U.S. is succumbing to a lunatic, right-wing President, our universities are succumbing to a Regressive Leftism that gives lip service to free speech but suppresses it when such speech becomes ideologically inconvenient.

I’ll give the last word to Ms. Shepherd, and I wish her well. We have here a brave young woman who stands up for her principles under enormous pressure, and I hope she achieves great things. She seems to know more about what education is about than either of the bullying professors or the University President herself.

h/t: Merilee, Diana

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Regressives

November 22, 2017 • 8:15 am

My next post will be about the kerfuffle at Laurier University in Canada, in which a graduate teaching assistant was reprimanded for presenting her class with views deemed ideologically incorrect. (In one of her classes she showed a video clip of a television panel on the “pronoun” controversy to stimulate a discussion.) It’s a disgusting tale of a Regressive university’s efforts to enforce a particular point of view and keep any alternative from being presented—even though the teaching assistant’s own views aligned with those of the university—but, as you’ll soon seen, it ended fairly well.

The Jesus and Mo artist created a timely cartoon stimulated by this, and added a note in his/her/hir/their/its email:

The latest free-speech controversy at a Canadian university prompted this one. If the secretly recorded audio doesn’t make you want to resort to epistemic violence, nothing will.

Here’s the cartoon, called “micro”:

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

November 22, 2017 • 7:30 am

Reader Andrée Sanborn from Vermont sent a series of pictures of an unusual insect that were taken in July (but sent in mid-October). Her captions are indented.

Case-bearing Leaf Beetle larva (Cryptocephalinae)

July 22, 2017

This was an exciting find for us. It wasn’t just a lifer, it was one of an entire subfamily that I had never known or seen. We all know leaf beetles to some extent: seed beetles, tortoise beetles, calligrapha beetles, the Colorado potato beetle, flea beetles, even ladybugs. But this is the larva of another: a case-bearing beetle: “Larvae are casebearers, living in and protected by a case constructed of their fecal matter and sometimes plant debris. The case is shorter than the larva that remains folded inside it. Eggs are laid in carefully sculpted packets formed from feces and abdominal secretions. . . “

I saw a minute lump (or dot) on an alder leaf. A flea beetle was inspecting the lump. I could tell immediately that this was a living creature because of the color and pattern. I did some shots, took the leaf, and took it home for inspection. We had a great time figuring out what it was: we went through sawfly larvae, spiders (at one point, it looked like spider legs coming out of the case), until finally, after all the photos and observations, I thought of case bearers. The only case bearers I knew of at that point were moths, but I searched for others and found Cryptocephalinae. Discovering the ID of a new insect without help from scientists is one of the most exciting things to do. Of course, what those entomologists have taught me through discussions of their finds and my photos is what prepared me to be able to figure this out. That excitement is why I have submitted only this individual in this email.

I kept the larva in a mason jar with alder leaves for a while but I didn’t like how the life cycle was progressing so set it free.  Unfortunately, I have never found another. I so wanted to see the adult.

By the way: if anyone is interesting in insect hunting, I suggest groves of alders. They sustain a huge assembly of insects and, therefore, birds, especially warblers, that feed on them.

The fecal-looking larva in the field:

The rest of the shots were taken inside:
A photobomb from one of the cats of one of my daughters for Caturday (I shouldn’t judge. My Oliver is awful.):
To give an idea of what adults look like, here’s an adult from what is probably a different species, Cryptocephalus nitidus:

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

November 22, 2017 • 6:30 am

Good morning on the day before Thanksgiving in America: Wednesday, November 22, 2017. The campus is empty, and all employees (and most faculty and grad students) will be gone till next Monday. I’ll be here all week folks; don’t forget to try the roast beef!  It’s National Cashew Day, the world’s second best nut (macadamias are first). Actually, cashews are technically not nuts but seeds, so it’s the world’s best seed. It’s also The Day of the Albanian Alphabet, celebrating the meeting in 1908 that standardized what had been at least six separate alphabets.

On this day in 1718, the British pirate Edward Teach, better known as “Blackbeard“, was killed in battle against a Royal Navy ship.  On November 22, 1928, the first performance of Ravel’s Boléro was held in Paris.

Of course this day is etched in American memories as the day in 1963 when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, also killing a police officer (J. D. Tippit) and wounding Texas governor John Connelly. Exactly five years later, the Beatles released the “white album”, technically known as “The Beatles”. On November 22, 1975, Juan Carlos became the King of Spain after Franco finally joined the Choir Invisible. Exactly two decades later, the movie Toy Story was released as the first full-length film created entirely from computer-generated images. Finally, it was on this day in 2005 that Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female Chancellor.

Notables born on this day include Abigail Adams (1744), George Eliot (1819), André Gide (1869), Charles de Gaulle (1890), Benjamin Britten (1913), Terry Gilliam (1940), Billie Jean King (1943) and Mariel Hemingway (1961). Those who expired on November 22 include, besides Blackbeard and John F. Kennedy (see above), Walter Reed (1902), Jack London (1916), Arthur Eddington (1944), Shemp Howard (1955; He was, for a while, one of the Three Stooges, but not a popular one. Wikipedia notes “he was called “Shemp” because ‘Sam’ [his real last name was Horowitz] came out that way in his mother’s thick Litvak accent), C. S. Lewis (1963; died on the same day as JFK),  Mae West (1980), Hans Adolf Krebs (1981), and Lynn Margulis (2011).

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, we have another enigmatic Hili Dialogue. When I told Malgorzata I didn’t understand it, she replied:

Oh! It can be a cultural problem! In Polish there is a saying that a person is like an open book which means straightforward, easy to understand, just go and read it. Now, Hili tries to read books which are above her ability to understand. So she mistakenly associates this saying with something that is difficult to fathom. She is now trying to decipher the traces on the floor and it’s not so easy. Hence her comment. It’s funny: I can’t imagine a Pole who would’ve any trouble with understanding this dialogue.

Well, the phrase is similar in English but the dialogue is still enigmatic:

Hili: A floor is like an open book.
A: What do you mean?
Hili: That it’s not always possible to understand.
In Polish:
Hili: Podłoga jest jak otwarta książka.
Ja: To znaczy?
Hili: Nie zawsze daje się zrozumieć.

I found this tw**t; be sure to watch the video—the best Christmas video ever!

https://twitter.com/invisibleman_17/status/925650845794004992

From Heather Hastie:

https://twitter.com/FluffSociety/status/932473642432258049

This is one of the most beautiful kittens I’ve seen. Look at that face!

https://twitter.com/TheDaiIyKitten/status/933129945836122112

And a tw**t from Matthew:

https://twitter.com/moodloop/status/928782590877806592

I miss my duck. . . .

Trump defends Roy Moore

November 21, 2017 • 3:38 pm

Even Republicans have distanced themselves from the hyperconservative creationist Alabaman Roy Moore, now accused of sexual assault and harassment, and previously infamous for installing the Ten Commandments in front of the Alabama Supreme Court and having been removed from a state Supreme Court judgeship not once, but twice. As you probably know, he’s now running as a Republican for Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. The Republicans have run away from Moore faster than if he were a skunk with his rear pointed at them, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has floated the possibility of expelling Moore from the Senate for immorality and unfitness for office were Moore to be elected.

When someone’s seen by Republicans as a a discredit to their own party, you know he’s a disaster. Yet, according to CNN, Trump has just “all but endorsed” Moore:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended embattled Alabama Republican Roy Moore, all but endorsing the Senate candidate who has been accused of sexual assault.

“He denies it. Look, he denies it,” Trump said of Moore. “If you look at all the things that have happened over the last 48 hours. He totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen. And look, you have to look at him also.”
Several women have come forward and accused Moore of pursuing romantic relationships with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s, and several others also have accused him of assault.

. . . “We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones. I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on military,” Trump said. “I can tell you for a fact we do not need somebody who’s going to be bad on crime, bad on borders, bad for the military, bad for the Second Amendment.”

Trump on Tuesday left the door open to campaigning with Moore.

“I’ll be letting you know next week,” he said, when asked whether he will campaign with Moore.

Trump repeatedly emphasized that Jones has denied the allegations brought against him.

Trump declined to say whether he believed Moore’s denials, but when asked he again pointed to the denials.

“Well, he denies. I mean, he denies. I mean, Roy Moore denies it. And by the way, it is a total denial. And I do have to say 40 years is a long time. He’s run eight races and this has never come up. Forty years is a long time,” Trump said, pointing to the amount of time that has passed since the alleged behavior.

And indeed, Moore does deny it, so I, at least, wouldn’t immediately pronounce him guilty of the initial count, and can’t really rule him unfit for having asked out women of legal age when he was older. But I believe that other allegations of sexual assault have come forth since I’ve been in Mexico and without the American news.

Regardless, though, even if he’s completely innocent of the accusations, he’s still unfit to serve. The man is simply a brainless ball of right-wing ideology marinated in evangelical Christianity. It’s a recipe for disaster, even for Republicans. If  Trump had any brains (a debatable issue), he wouldn’t endorse or campaign for Moore. But who has ever praised the neuronal complement of The Donald? So while the Republicans are destroying themselves through a lack of cohesion and an inability to get anything done, even with a Republican legislature, President, and Supreme Court, the Democrats have a chance to pull together. Sadly, we’re just as riven by identity politics as the GOP is by various degrees of cluelessness and stupidity.

Where is our candidate: the Democrat who can win in 2020?

A lunch in Puebla

November 21, 2017 • 2:30 pm

One day during the meeting, my affable host Juan Matienzo offered to take me out for a typical Puebla lunch.  There was, he said, a special goat dish served only in November, made with goats that had been taken on long hikes (I don’t know what that does to the meat). I instantly acceded, of course, and we drove off to a remote region of town to try this delicacy.

Welcome to El Burladero, which I believe refers to the wooden barrier around the edge of a bull ring where the banderilleras and matador stand when not engaged with a bull (yes, there are still cruel bullfights in Mexico).

One wouldn’t know, from this unprepossessing facade, of the culinary delights within.  First, you park in a courtyard. . .

. . . and then enter the bullfight-themed restaurant, which has been there for decades. The restaurant was almost empty as we were there at 2 p.m., which apparently is early for lunch in Mexico. Most Mexicans, I’m told, have a reasonable breakfast in the morning, then the big meal of the day (comida) at about 2:30-3:30 pm, and a lighter dinner at about 9 p.m. When we had finished our meal, the restaurant was full, and everyone was eating the same thing: a tureen of stewed goat (see below).

We were handed menus and, as one should, I told Juan that he should do all the ordering as he was a local and had been there several times before.  So here’s my report on the meal. Juan ordered, and I sat back to await the viands. The first dish, one of three appetizers, was chalupas, small corn tortillas with green or red sauce and shredded chicken.

Then  guajolotes (“turkey”), a small sandwich made with turkey, guacamole, crema, and other stuff that I didn’t notice while I was wolfing it down:

Third appetizer: mollejas, deep-fried chicken gizzards served with guacamole, lime, and various salsas. You make your own nosh by mixing these ingredients in a fresh, warm tortilla.

Then the pièce de résistance: mole de caderas, made from the hip of one of those hiking goats, stewed in a thick and savory broth. It was a huge hunk of meat which you could put into tortillas or simply fork off the bone. Then you’d drink the soup, which was incredibly luscious, meaty, and savory. It was a spectacular dish:

Here’s Juan with his portion. I believe these are from the hips of the goat, but perhaps a local can enlighten us:

During lunch the tiny but friendly owner, Don Onésimo, came by several times, as Juan told him I was from America and had come to eat his food. He seemed pleased, and even more so when I told him I greatly enjoyed his meal. We posed together under a bull’s head. This owner has managed the restaurant for 53 years, and had another restaurant before that!

I found a video made by the restaurant with bullfighting music, prominently featuring the goat, which is what the restaurant is known for. But they also show the chalupas and other dishes.

 

Many thanks to Juan not only for taking me here for lunch, but for his attentive hosting throughout the meeting. Muchas gracias, amigo!