Open Letter from Laurier HxA to University President
Did the Admin Organize a Protest Against HxA Guest Speaker?
25 April 2024
Dr. Deborah MacLatchy, President
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Ave West
Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5
We, the undersigned, are members of the Laurier Heterodox Academy Campus Community, which was formed in the spring of 2023 under the Heterodox Academy Campus Communities program. The community promotes the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.
On March 6th, we hosted a guest speaker, lawyer Lisa Bildy, who spoke about recent efforts by professional regulatory bodies to limit the free speech of their members. For example, the Ontario College of Psychologists against Dr. Jordan Peterson and the BC College of Nurses against Amy Hamm.
Upon arrival at the Bricker Academic Building, the location of Bildy’s speech, we discovered a protest attended by Laurier faculty, students and others.
Since protests are a form of speech, we support the right of students and faculty to protest. Admittedly, at a university, we would hope for better speech. Protests are limited in scope and nuance, and at times can be disruptive and threatening. Nonetheless we firmly support protesters right to express their views even if we regard the approach as less than ideal.
Last week, a press report alleged that the protest was co-organized by the Associate Vice President of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
If the press report is true, then it appears that the university organized a protest against a speaker invited by its own faculty.
We seek to determine if the AVP DEI did in fact organize the protest in her formal administrative capacity (as opposed to participating as a faculty member). If she did not, it is essential that the record be corrected since there is a published claim that she did.
If she *did* help organize the protest in her formal AVP capacity, we would like clarification, with documentation, of the institutional policy allowing such actions and we seek confirmation of whether it was approved by the president’s office.
If this was an approved action by the AVP DEI, we wish to express our unequivocal opposition to this violation of the principle of institutional neutrality.
If this was a university-organized protest, then the university did not simply allow both forms of speech (which we do support) but rather “picked a side”. This, in our view, goes against the university’s freedom of expression principles and profoundly chills speech, heightening the potential that some community members would feel it too risky to attend an event that was formally and officially protested by those in power at Laurier.
If the protest was university-organized, then it likely violated Article 7 of the collective agreement, which says: “Members shall not be hindered … in any way by the University … from exercising their legal rights.”
Since violations of the principle of institutional neutrality keep recurring (see the Heterodox Community letter of October 31, 2023 and the Waterloo SAFS letter of July of 2023), we respectfully suggest that you form a committee to investigate a university-wide adoption of the policy of institutional neutrality.
Some of the undersigned would be willing to serve on such a committee; we invite you to reach out for further dialogue.
Please be aware that we are posting this as an open letter on our website and will also post any formal reply.
Sincerely,
William McNally, Ph.D., School of Business and Economics
Geoff Horsman, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Michael Pavlin, School of Business and Economics
Nikolai Kovalev, Ph.D., Department of Criminology
David Haskell, Ph.D., Digital Media and Journalism
Anne Wilson, Ph.D., Department of Psychology
Andrew Robinson, Ph.D., Human Rights and Himan Diversity
Scott Smith, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
https://www.watsafs.ca/
Twitter: @LaurierHxA
cc.: Paul Elliott, Chairman Board of Governors, WLU
Heidi Northwood, Provost and vice-president: academic
Vanessa Oliver, Interim associate vice-president: equity, diversity and inclusion
Rob Kristofferson, President WLUFA