The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - January 04, 2018


Deconstruction: The Lindsay Shepherd Affair


Episode Stats

Length

2 hours and 10 minutes

Words per Minute

176.72687

Word Count

23,081

Sentence Count

664

Misogynist Sentences

21

Hate Speech Sentences

36


Summary

In this episode, Dr. Jordan Peterson sits down with two professors from Wilfrid Laurier University to discuss the Lindsay Shepard scandal and the role of the diversity and equity office at the university, as well as what they think of the administration's handling of the scandal and how it relates to the Trump travel ban. Dr. Peterson also speaks with Dr. Dave Haskell and Dr. Wilfred Laurier's Adria Joel about their experiences with the Shepard and Rambucana scandals, and why they believe the administration failed to provide a safe space for conservative professors and administrators to speak freely and freely without fear of retribution from the rest of the campus community. This episode is brought to you by Daily Wire Plus, a project of the Centre for Canadian Mental Health Studies at the University of Toronto, which focuses on the intersection of mental health and politics at U of T. in Toronto. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/sponsorships/Dailywireplus and enter the promo code: JORDANB.PETerson to receive $5 off your first purchase of $50 or more, and receive 10% off your entire purchase when you enter the offer ends on December 31st, 2019. Thanks to all the listeners who support these podcasts by pledging $5 or more! and a free copy of his new book, Jordan B. Peterson's Self-Authoring is available on amazon.ca/JordanB. Peterson s Self-Selfauthoring . . Dr. B. is a self-authoring book is available for purchase. Jordan Peterson's self-authored and self-development book to be available on Amazon Prime and Kindle in paperback, and also on Audible and Audible, and will be available in hardcover and paperback on the Apple App Store and Vimeo, too! and also at Audible. and Audible , and wherever else you get your copy of the book will also be available for best listening you can get a copy of this book on the book on my podcast. or your favourite podcast on the podcast? I hope you enjoy the book. Thank you for listening to this podcast, I am looking forward to hearing from me. Thank you so much, and I hope it helps spread the word about it. I am grateful for your support.


Transcript

00:00:00.960 Hey everyone, real quick before you skip, I want to talk to you about something serious and important.
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00:00:51.040 Welcome to the Jordan B. Peterson podcast.
00:00:59.420 You can support these podcasts by donating to Dr. Peterson's Patreon, the link to which can be found in the description.
00:01:06.820 Dr. Peterson's self-development programs, self-authoring, can be found at selfauthoring.com.
00:01:11.980 I'm here with a couple of professors from Wilfrid Laurier to talk about the Lindsay Shepard scandal,
00:01:32.360 and what happened with Professor Rambucana and Pimlot, and Administrator Adria Joel.
00:01:38.140 Adria, right? Adria Joel, who I think is the unsung, what would you call it, the unsung villain in this entire process,
00:01:45.680 because she seems to have escaped relatively unscathed, even though I think her role is more reprehensible than anyone else's.
00:01:52.080 Anyways, why don't you guys introduce yourself and talk about what you've been doing at Wilfrid Laurier,
00:01:56.940 and also just let everybody know why we're meeting.
00:02:00.120 Yeah, well, I'm Dave Haskell, and I'm a Profit Laurier. I'm in the Faculty of Liberal Arts.
00:02:07.640 This is my colleague, Wil.
00:02:09.260 Wil, how did we come into this whole thing?
00:02:11.400 Like, this didn't just happen with the Lindsay affair.
00:02:14.660 Like, well, to background, we support maximum freedom of expression,
00:02:18.460 and we've really found each other, along with a few other professors who feel the same way that we do,
00:02:25.260 that free expression and free inquiry is the core value of a university.
00:02:30.080 But sort of how did we run into each other?
00:02:33.620 I'm in the business school, so my exposure to Faculty of Arts is minimal,
00:02:37.460 and I've been really sheltered from this professionally.
00:02:41.240 But watching what's happening in the U.S., watching what was happening to you at U of T,
00:02:45.480 I'm a grad, I did my Ph.D. here.
00:02:47.960 And it was in January that our university leadership sent out an email
00:02:55.820 explaining to the faculty how to think about the Trump travel ban
00:03:00.600 and declaring its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
00:03:07.500 And I was really offended by that,
00:03:09.640 that they would see fit to pronounce on a political issue in another country.
00:03:15.060 Offended? Why?
00:03:15.840 I've got a Ph.D. I'm able to reach my own conclusions
00:03:20.660 about whether these things are good or bad.
00:03:23.980 I don't need my administration preaching to me about the right way to think
00:03:28.340 about an issue, a political issue particularly.
00:03:31.280 And so why do you think they did that?
00:03:33.580 And what do you think they were thinking when they did that?
00:03:36.160 Because that sort of seems self-evident, right?
00:03:38.340 It's not the administration's role to dictate a political stance to the faculty.
00:03:42.700 That's just clearly not their role.
00:03:44.440 So what do you think they were thinking?
00:03:47.600 It seemed like a manifestation of Trump derangement syndrome.
00:03:50.860 It seemed like just the same reaction that the Democrats in the U.S. were having,
00:03:55.380 that they lost to this horrible person and they couldn't understand why.
00:03:59.840 And he was so reprehensible.
00:04:01.260 And here was yet another terrible thing that he was doing.
00:04:04.900 And we must all agree how bad it was.
00:04:08.060 Well, I mean, even if, the funny thing is, even if you can make that case,
00:04:11.780 say personally and even socially, the idea that you could make that case
00:04:15.420 and then be university administration and then tell your faculty to think that way,
00:04:20.460 I mean, that's taking it in a whole different, that's taking it to a whole different level of presumptuousness.
00:04:27.500 Did that come from our administration or from the diversity and equity office?
00:04:31.120 No, from the administration, from the leadership, the university leadership over the CPAM.
00:04:35.200 I remember the, it's confusing because I remember we also got an email from the diversity and equity office
00:04:41.600 when Trump won and they said that they've created a safe space
00:04:47.360 and they were going to be open for extra hours in case anybody needed to go and find comfort.
00:04:52.720 Right, that happened a lot in the United States.
00:04:54.860 But you'd think at least the Americans have some justification for it, given that it's their country.
00:04:59.140 I mean, we need safe spaces because a conservative was elected in the United States,
00:05:02.860 not even in our country, it does seem to be a little bit on the absurd side.
00:05:07.220 Well, it's just to me, you know, they didn't send out an email when Justin Trudeau won.
00:05:11.360 And I have to imagine that there were some students who were offended,
00:05:15.300 like there's got to be conservative students at Laurier,
00:05:17.660 but it's very much a one-sided conversation when we talk about administration,
00:05:22.680 when we talk about the diversity and equity office.
00:05:24.740 They talk about diversity, but they really don't mean it
00:05:26.960 because they do not want those students who are ideologically diverse.
00:05:31.660 They talk about inclusion, but they purposely will exclude those students.
00:05:36.240 And an email like that is proof positive of that kind of exclusion.
00:05:40.540 But didn't it?
00:05:41.480 Well, that was the thing that just got me hopping mad.
00:05:44.620 And I was emailing back and forth with a colleague at Queen's,
00:05:47.680 and we were talking about the importance of free speech,
00:05:50.540 and this had outraged me.
00:05:51.940 And he sent me a link to a Star article that David had written.
00:05:56.960 This was now maybe a month later in February or March about this guest speaker.
00:06:02.520 Oh, Daniel Robitaille.
00:06:03.440 Yeah.
00:06:03.680 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:06:04.600 And that she couldn't speak.
00:06:06.100 And was she, was she Gmeshi's lawyer?
00:06:08.980 Yeah.
00:06:09.320 Yeah, yeah.
00:06:10.240 Yeah.
00:06:10.460 So merely because she served as a defense lawyer for someone, she was pilloried.
00:06:14.920 Well, this was another, like, when people look at the Lindsay Shepard affair,
00:06:19.380 this is not an isolated case at Wilfrid Laurier.
00:06:22.980 This is something that is, it is a regular occurrence.
00:06:28.400 And now it isn't always as high profile.
00:06:30.800 But whether it's students in my office saying, I can't speak,
00:06:35.080 whether it's my colleague sometimes saying to their students,
00:06:37.900 who believes that they're stifled?
00:06:39.360 And every hand goes up.
00:06:40.960 And there have been cases of that.
00:06:42.120 Colleagues have come and told me.
00:06:43.500 But we've got these other examples,
00:06:45.200 like when Daniel Robitaille came to speak at the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier,
00:06:49.760 and some students agitated until she was forced not to do so.
00:06:54.600 And my president...
00:06:57.000 Right, we should provide some background.
00:06:58.340 So that was the Gmeshi case, right?
00:06:59.820 And so Gmeshi was a CBC journalist who was accused of sexual assault
00:07:03.860 and sexual misbehavior by a number of people,
00:07:06.280 who was immediately let go at CBC,
00:07:09.040 who was dragged viciously through the press, I would say,
00:07:12.300 and then was found innocent in the courts.
00:07:17.420 And he had a defense lawyer,
00:07:19.460 and the defense lawyer had been invited to speak.
00:07:21.620 Yes, she was part of the defense team.
00:07:23.380 She was going to speak,
00:07:24.100 and she wasn't going to speak about the Gmeshi trial, in fact.
00:07:27.240 She was going to talk about what it's like to be a high power,
00:07:31.500 powerful lawyer in the big city, in Toronto.
00:07:35.580 And I mean, that would have been really valuable for the criminology students.
00:07:38.520 Right.
00:07:39.100 But the students who were agitating against her,
00:07:42.960 really, with the support of several professors,
00:07:46.460 they were saying,
00:07:47.340 well, no, if she comes on, it will trigger students.
00:07:49.940 It will mentally harm students.
00:07:53.540 And so that was used as justification for the agitation.
00:07:56.620 It's very interesting, too, to me,
00:07:57.560 to see that these claims of harm and so forth
00:07:59.700 are generally put forth by people
00:08:01.860 who have no clinical expertise whatsoever.
00:08:04.280 And their idea is that the way that you,
00:08:07.420 first of all, that the way to aid people's mental health
00:08:10.020 is to protect them,
00:08:10.840 and there's no evidence for that whatsoever.
00:08:13.060 And the second is that
00:08:14.200 in your attempts to protect them,
00:08:16.780 the best thing to do is to shelter them
00:08:18.580 from exposure to ideas
00:08:20.360 that would be challenging or frightening,
00:08:21.960 which is precisely the opposite of what a clinician does
00:08:24.800 when he's trying to,
00:08:25.700 or she is trying to deal with someone
00:08:28.440 who has excess anxiety.
00:08:30.060 What you do in a case
00:08:31.940 where someone who has excess anxiety,
00:08:33.980 even as a consequence of a trauma, let's say,
00:08:36.080 is you get them to voluntarily expose themselves
00:08:39.080 to increasingly larger doses
00:08:40.780 of exactly what frightens them.
00:08:42.540 That's the curative route.
00:08:44.060 So not only is it advice that's being disseminated,
00:08:48.880 say, by people who aren't clinicians,
00:08:50.220 it's actually advice that's being disseminated
00:08:52.260 who are promoting the opposite
00:08:54.660 of what an informed clinician would do.
00:08:57.360 And that isn't my opinion.
00:08:59.880 That's as close to a consensus
00:09:01.520 as anything you could reach
00:09:02.760 among clinical practitioners, right?
00:09:05.020 One, the rules for clinical improvement
00:09:07.140 is get your story straight,
00:09:08.580 something like that,
00:09:09.360 talk about your past,
00:09:10.560 sort it out,
00:09:11.460 and expose yourself to the things
00:09:13.180 that you're afraid of
00:09:13.920 that you're inclined to avoid.
00:09:15.280 That's the pathway to resilience
00:09:18.240 and more robust mental health.
00:09:19.680 Okay, so tell us the story a bit.
00:09:21.640 You guys have an inside view
00:09:23.060 of what's happened
00:09:24.240 on the Wilfrid Laurier campus
00:09:26.380 since the Lindsay Shepard affair broke.
00:09:29.360 I should just say that, you know,
00:09:30.660 after this Robert High event,
00:09:32.380 I read David's piece
00:09:33.880 and immediately emailed him
00:09:35.580 and just said,
00:09:36.300 kindred soul.
00:09:37.820 And we met and we had lunch
00:09:40.880 and just talked about, you know,
00:09:44.360 free speech and the Chicago Statement
00:09:45.900 and how can we get it implemented
00:09:47.320 at the university,
00:09:47.780 but we just couldn't see any way forward
00:09:49.760 and really felt...
00:09:50.440 Right, so that's another thing
00:09:51.500 we want to discuss.
00:09:52.340 You guys have rewritten
00:09:53.400 the Chicago Statement, right?
00:09:55.520 So that it's more appropriate
00:09:56.520 in a Canadian context.
00:09:57.800 Right, we call it
00:09:58.320 the Laurier Statement
00:10:00.280 for Freedom of Expression.
00:10:01.180 Okay, okay.
00:10:01.940 And you've been trying to convince
00:10:03.660 or you've been trying to communicate
00:10:06.980 with the university authorities
00:10:08.340 to have that ratified, essentially,
00:10:11.020 adopted as a statement of principles.
00:10:12.780 And have you had any success with that?
00:10:14.600 Or what's the consequence?
00:10:15.740 They deferred to a task force
00:10:17.160 that's going to be held.
00:10:19.980 And we can certainly...
00:10:20.800 Okay, and is that in the aftermath
00:10:22.260 of the Shepard affair?
00:10:23.340 Is that going to be part of it?
00:10:24.340 Well, we didn't really do anything
00:10:25.040 over the summer
00:10:25.720 just because it just seemed
00:10:27.780 too big a mountain.
00:10:29.940 And there seemed to be no way
00:10:32.040 to introduce the idea
00:10:33.520 of the catalyst for it.
00:10:35.320 Now you've got your catalyst.
00:10:36.340 And Lindsay Shepard
00:10:37.540 becomes the catalyst.
00:10:38.940 Oh my goodness.
00:10:39.620 And, you know,
00:10:40.980 what object lesson
00:10:44.360 in what goes on at Laurier,
00:10:46.660 but also what an object lesson
00:10:48.760 in how you handle
00:10:49.980 these free speech opponents.
00:10:53.200 She's really given a model
00:10:55.340 that other students,
00:10:56.220 I hope, will follow.
00:10:57.440 But it was through
00:10:58.480 this Robitaille thing
00:11:00.240 that we got to know each other
00:11:01.660 and a few others.
00:11:02.960 Yeah, there's a couple more of you.
00:11:04.560 That's right.
00:11:05.460 And so about five,
00:11:06.840 I think you told me.
00:11:07.780 That's right.
00:11:08.420 So the Robitaille incident
00:11:10.240 really brought us
00:11:11.700 out of the woodwork.
00:11:12.520 We started to chat and say,
00:11:13.580 you know,
00:11:13.840 we see this problem
00:11:15.020 on our university.
00:11:15.920 We don't know what to do.
00:11:16.900 And then when
00:11:17.520 the Lindsay Shepard scandal broke,
00:11:20.660 we all immediately
00:11:21.800 were emailing us.
00:11:22.980 It's happened again,
00:11:24.360 is essentially
00:11:24.880 what we were saying.
00:11:25.860 And we said,
00:11:26.120 we've got to do something
00:11:27.120 about this.
00:11:28.540 I'd already,
00:11:30.420 I was out on a trip
00:11:32.980 and I came home
00:11:34.000 and I said to my wife,
00:11:35.060 where are the newspapers?
00:11:35.660 This was November 12th
00:11:37.420 when the story broke,
00:11:38.280 Christy Blatchford's story.
00:11:39.340 And I said,
00:11:39.880 hey, honey,
00:11:40.360 where are the newspapers?
00:11:41.000 She said,
00:11:41.260 I can't let you see them.
00:11:42.640 I said, why not?
00:11:44.200 She said,
00:11:44.500 you cannot read the papers.
00:11:45.600 And of course,
00:11:46.300 it was because
00:11:46.680 Christy Blatchford's article
00:11:48.300 was in there.
00:11:49.000 So as soon as I read it,
00:11:50.520 I was beside myself.
00:11:51.940 I thought,
00:11:52.280 it's happened again
00:11:52.900 and this time,
00:11:53.380 this is really terrible.
00:11:54.180 They've attacked a TA
00:11:55.420 is what they've done.
00:11:57.240 So I contacted...
00:11:58.100 With the full force
00:11:59.020 of the administration.
00:12:00.300 And claims that she had
00:12:01.960 done mental harm.
00:12:03.420 Yeah.
00:12:03.680 Broken two laws.
00:12:04.780 Broken two laws.
00:12:05.120 Two laws,
00:12:05.760 federal and provincial.
00:12:06.700 I was sincerely worried
00:12:08.800 that they were going to railroad
00:12:10.300 this young lady.
00:12:11.900 Oh,
00:12:12.040 they could have easily
00:12:12.680 taken her to the
00:12:13.360 Ontario Human Rights Commission.
00:12:14.540 They would have had
00:12:14.920 a field day with her.
00:12:15.320 What was going to happen?
00:12:16.480 I contacted Christy Blatchford.
00:12:18.020 I said,
00:12:18.260 can you put me in touch with her?
00:12:19.320 She was kind enough to do so.
00:12:20.540 I got in touch with Lindsay
00:12:22.080 and I said,
00:12:22.960 I know that this is
00:12:25.140 a terrible time,
00:12:25.840 but you've got a professor
00:12:26.880 who supports you.
00:12:27.680 I knew that these gentlemen
00:12:28.920 also would.
00:12:30.680 And then quickly,
00:12:31.860 as quickly as I could,
00:12:33.080 I wrote an op-ed
00:12:34.380 for the Toronto Star that week
00:12:35.760 just again saying,
00:12:37.460 this is happening.
00:12:38.740 The world needs to be aware of it.
00:12:40.500 But it was really after that,
00:12:42.080 that Monday,
00:12:43.140 after the story broke
00:12:43.940 on the Saturday,
00:12:44.480 we started to talk.
00:12:45.920 And how can we assist Lindsay?
00:12:49.500 And how can we...
00:12:50.380 Well, the op-ed helped.
00:12:51.600 It did.
00:12:52.320 And the fact that the Star ran it
00:12:53.820 was quite remarkable as well.
00:12:55.320 So hooray to the Star.
00:12:56.720 The Star really does
00:12:58.600 want to do its best
00:12:59.900 to champion free expression.
00:13:01.560 Yeah, well, you'd think
00:13:02.200 journalists would actually
00:13:03.020 be concerned about that
00:13:03.920 to some degree.
00:13:04.500 You would hope so.
00:13:04.760 Well, and I think they are.
00:13:05.760 Like, one of the things
00:13:06.460 that's happened to me
00:13:07.160 in the last year
00:13:07.820 is that although the press coverage
00:13:09.300 of what I did,
00:13:10.720 and just to remind people,
00:13:11.840 so last year I made a video
00:13:13.000 about Bill C-16,
00:13:14.340 which was the bill
00:13:15.220 whose provisions
00:13:16.160 Lindsay Shepard
00:13:17.060 theoretically transgressed against,
00:13:19.300 just to be clear about that.
00:13:21.080 And when I first made the video,
00:13:23.240 I was accused
00:13:23.960 by all sorts of people,
00:13:25.160 including journalists,
00:13:26.080 of, well, first of all,
00:13:28.200 making unnecessary noise
00:13:29.440 and being unnecessarily alarmist,
00:13:31.220 which were the minor accusations.
00:13:32.680 And then the more major accusations
00:13:34.020 were that, you know,
00:13:35.260 I was all the things
00:13:36.020 that you'd expect
00:13:36.780 a far-right agitator
00:13:39.420 to be,
00:13:39.860 a bigot and a transphobe
00:13:40.940 and a racist
00:13:41.440 and all of these things.
00:13:42.340 So, but what was interesting
00:13:45.000 was that the journalists,
00:13:47.420 by and large,
00:13:48.200 especially the main journalists,
00:13:49.800 turned around on that issue
00:13:50.840 really quickly.
00:13:51.660 It was probably within three weeks
00:13:53.100 because what happened
00:13:54.220 was a couple of them
00:13:55.020 actually went and read
00:13:55.920 the policy documents
00:13:56.980 that I had referred to
00:13:58.080 on the Ontario Human Rights Commission website,
00:14:00.000 which are still there
00:14:00.680 and which are still appalling
00:14:01.740 and have led exactly
00:14:03.360 to this situation with Lindsay.
00:14:04.960 And as soon as they read
00:14:06.480 what I had been,
00:14:09.480 what outing,
00:14:11.980 let's say,
00:14:12.720 in my video,
00:14:13.540 then they started to understand
00:14:15.540 that this,
00:14:16.340 that I wasn't just ringing a bell
00:14:17.980 for no reason at all.
00:14:19.460 It was actually reasonable,
00:14:20.580 I think,
00:14:20.840 of people to go after me
00:14:22.080 to begin with
00:14:22.660 because Canada is such a safe
00:14:24.560 and peaceful place
00:14:25.620 and our political situation
00:14:26.840 and economic situation
00:14:28.100 has been so stable
00:14:29.140 that when someone comes out
00:14:30.540 and says,
00:14:31.380 look, we're in danger
00:14:32.200 of making a major error,
00:14:33.740 the logical first response
00:14:35.660 should be,
00:14:36.760 no,
00:14:37.440 there's something wrong with you.
00:14:38.660 It's like,
00:14:39.060 we're fine,
00:14:39.700 there's something wrong with you.
00:14:40.700 The law is just trying
00:14:41.300 to protect these people.
00:14:42.320 Right, exactly.
00:14:43.100 Well, and so it's reasonable,
00:14:44.900 I think it was reasonable
00:14:45.760 for me to be hit hard
00:14:47.200 in the aftermath
00:14:47.840 of doing that
00:14:48.680 because,
00:14:50.240 well,
00:14:50.840 generally speaking,
00:14:52.020 whistleblowers in Canada
00:14:53.000 or alarmists in Canada
00:14:54.160 have very little
00:14:54.880 to be alarmist about.
00:14:56.500 Right.
00:14:56.640 But this,
00:14:57.620 okay,
00:14:57.960 so now,
00:14:58.380 so, fine,
00:14:58.960 so this thing happened
00:14:59.680 with Lindsay.
00:15:00.260 What have you seen happening
00:15:01.440 on the Wilfrid Laurier campus?
00:15:03.360 Well,
00:15:03.600 things that I'm not
00:15:04.960 particularly proud of,
00:15:06.360 I would say,
00:15:07.320 I mean,
00:15:07.680 I knew that Will
00:15:09.120 and some other colleagues
00:15:10.720 were going to come
00:15:11.640 to the aid of Lindsay,
00:15:12.780 but I was thinking
00:15:13.880 that once her recording
00:15:15.620 became public,
00:15:16.840 that we would just have
00:15:18.120 a flood of professors
00:15:19.860 coming to support our cause,
00:15:22.160 which is,
00:15:22.820 we had a Laurier statement
00:15:24.600 for freedom of expression
00:15:25.660 modeled on the Chicago statement.
00:15:27.300 We thought that immediately
00:15:28.500 people would just say,
00:15:29.420 of course,
00:15:29.960 we need to reinforce
00:15:31.800 that this needs
00:15:33.220 to be the primary mission.
00:15:34.520 Free expression,
00:15:35.180 free inquiry
00:15:35.680 needs to be the primary mission.
00:15:37.440 And we got that out
00:15:38.240 pretty fast.
00:15:39.120 We really did.
00:15:39.880 In about 10 days
00:15:40.880 and got it on change.org
00:15:44.420 and then I was emailing
00:15:45.940 everybody that I knew
00:15:47.200 and trying to get people interested
00:15:49.240 and I would say
00:15:50.280 out of 50 emails I sent,
00:15:52.080 I got 15 signatures
00:15:53.180 from personal relationships.
00:15:55.880 So even with personal relationships,
00:15:58.440 you could only get
00:15:59.160 a 30% hit rate.
00:16:00.480 So what do you think's
00:16:01.480 stopping professors
00:16:03.300 from signing that,
00:16:05.140 say,
00:16:05.260 or clambering on board,
00:16:06.280 especially in the aftermath
00:16:07.560 of the Shepard recording,
00:16:09.480 which we should point out,
00:16:10.680 you know,
00:16:10.900 and this is one of the things
00:16:11.720 that's very interesting,
00:16:12.620 is that outside Wilfrid Laurier
00:16:16.740 and perhaps outside universities
00:16:19.240 that are in the same boat,
00:16:20.280 the reaction to that recording
00:16:25.080 was universal, right?
00:16:27.620 And national and international
00:16:29.700 and uniform.
00:16:30.500 And the reaction was,
00:16:31.760 what the hell?
00:16:32.780 This is scandalous.
00:16:34.100 There's nothing about this
00:16:35.400 that is acceptable, right?
00:16:36.760 And so what struck me
00:16:38.600 as so remarkable
00:16:39.400 is that even though
00:16:40.660 there's been international outrage
00:16:42.600 over this
00:16:43.100 and very,
00:16:44.640 and not,
00:16:46.180 and an outrage of a sort
00:16:48.300 that's only been disputed
00:16:49.540 by a very small number of people,
00:16:52.140 at least to begin with,
00:16:53.320 Wilfrid Laurier responded en masse,
00:16:55.840 let's say,
00:16:56.160 as if this was somehow debatable,
00:16:58.380 you know,
00:16:58.560 as if there were two sides
00:16:59.740 of the story here,
00:17:00.760 let's say.
00:17:01.520 And I thought,
00:17:02.560 well,
00:17:03.460 I thought Rambucana and Pimlot,
00:17:05.080 who were the professors,
00:17:06.480 what they did,
00:17:07.680 I thought was appalling
00:17:08.620 for in-upgrading her
00:17:11.140 and in the manner
00:17:12.040 in which they did it
00:17:12.920 and in the language
00:17:14.060 that they used.
00:17:15.100 But I thought
00:17:15.620 what was truly terrifying
00:17:17.120 was the presence
00:17:17.900 of Adria Joel
00:17:18.760 at that inquisition
00:17:19.820 because she was
00:17:20.940 an administrator
00:17:21.900 who was hired
00:17:22.720 specifically to do
00:17:24.240 exactly what she was doing
00:17:25.580 by legislated necessity
00:17:28.100 on the part
00:17:28.800 of the Ontario Liberal Government,
00:17:30.320 right?
00:17:30.540 Because it wasn't just
00:17:31.280 the university
00:17:31.840 that was involved in this.
00:17:32.860 Her position was set up
00:17:33.880 because of legislative necessity,
00:17:35.680 which is something
00:17:36.280 also to keep in mind
00:17:37.280 when we're going
00:17:37.800 after the universities.
00:17:39.040 Okay,
00:17:39.320 so you had a hard time
00:17:40.340 getting faculty on board.
00:17:42.240 How many faculty members
00:17:43.460 did sign it?
00:17:44.540 59 is it?
00:17:45.740 Out of how many faculty?
00:17:48.140 550 full-time.
00:17:50.020 And so you say,
00:17:51.040 well, what's going on with them?
00:17:52.620 Well, I think that some
00:17:53.540 maybe,
00:17:55.020 I know this is hard to believe,
00:17:56.540 but maybe unaware
00:17:57.200 even now.
00:17:58.920 I think there's a big proportion
00:18:00.040 that are unaware.
00:18:01.200 As unbelievable as that is.
00:18:03.280 I think that some people...
00:18:03.900 Okay, well,
00:18:04.340 that's its own mystery
00:18:05.360 because I don't know
00:18:06.440 where you'd have to have been
00:18:07.540 in the last month
00:18:08.580 to not have noticed
00:18:09.700 that this has happened.
00:18:10.520 People perhaps
00:18:11.580 in the sciences,
00:18:12.560 the computer sciences,
00:18:13.560 the math,
00:18:14.140 they've got their head down
00:18:15.440 and they're doing their research.
00:18:17.540 And so I don't think
00:18:18.760 there's anything diabolical there.
00:18:20.220 I think that what we...
00:18:21.160 But business as well.
00:18:21.860 I've got very few signatures
00:18:23.100 from the business faculty.
00:18:25.220 I mean, some,
00:18:26.340 but a lot of people
00:18:28.080 just aren't engaged.
00:18:29.480 It's a bit of a commuter school
00:18:31.200 a little bit.
00:18:31.940 So I think people
00:18:32.740 are just getting on
00:18:33.580 with their research
00:18:34.260 and their teaching,
00:18:35.300 maybe not aware of the problem.
00:18:36.740 Well, that's an interesting thing
00:18:38.380 in and of itself
00:18:39.160 because I think part
00:18:40.300 of what's led
00:18:41.220 to the occupation
00:18:42.880 of the university,
00:18:44.560 let's say,
00:18:44.980 by the radical postmodern types
00:18:46.820 is the proclivity
00:18:48.280 of the scientists
00:18:50.000 in particular,
00:18:51.080 but also I would say
00:18:52.100 the more serious scholars
00:18:53.140 to be focusing narrowly
00:18:54.540 on their field of inquiry,
00:18:55.800 which is essentially
00:18:56.440 what they should be doing
00:18:57.440 and not paying attention
00:18:58.880 to any of the
00:18:59.840 broader contextual issues,
00:19:02.120 which is actually
00:19:02.880 a perfectly fine strategy
00:19:04.200 when things are going well,
00:19:05.400 but a terrible strategy
00:19:06.400 when they're not.
00:19:07.760 And what you also see,
00:19:08.800 so we've got these people
00:19:09.880 who might not be aware
00:19:11.120 and we've got the few
00:19:13.280 who are aware
00:19:13.960 and are supporting
00:19:14.760 maximum free expression,
00:19:16.640 but then you've got
00:19:17.520 these other people
00:19:18.240 who are convinced
00:19:18.940 that maximum free expression,
00:19:20.580 free inquiry,
00:19:21.400 is not a good thing
00:19:22.160 for a university.
00:19:23.580 And those people
00:19:24.840 are definitely congregated
00:19:26.160 within the arts
00:19:26.760 and the humanities
00:19:27.440 and they justify it
00:19:29.140 because they are applying
00:19:30.340 a social justice lens
00:19:31.660 or what they would call
00:19:32.640 a critical theory lens
00:19:33.820 to this entire issue.
00:19:38.220 And how about
00:19:39.040 a quick summary
00:19:39.820 of critical theory?
00:19:41.040 Well, critical theory,
00:19:41.980 I mean, in a nutshell,
00:19:43.520 it's an idea that came
00:19:44.640 from the Frankfurt School
00:19:45.780 in Germany.
00:19:46.340 It transfers over
00:19:47.180 to Columbia University.
00:19:48.960 It is some German scholars
00:19:51.080 who are Marxists
00:19:52.620 and what they are saying
00:19:53.800 is that Marxism
00:19:56.700 as an economic unit
00:19:57.820 or as an economic philosophy
00:19:59.080 really doesn't work.
00:20:00.600 It doesn't transfer very well,
00:20:02.000 but let's change it over
00:20:03.160 to a social theory
00:20:04.860 and it's a theory
00:20:06.400 of oppressor and oppressed
00:20:07.880 and it's very bifurcated.
00:20:09.760 You are either one or the other
00:20:11.460 and if you are the oppressed,
00:20:13.800 you're good
00:20:14.220 and if you're the oppressor,
00:20:16.040 you're bad
00:20:16.440 and it's as simple as that.
00:20:17.600 There's no nuance
00:20:18.500 or, okay,
00:20:19.260 I'm being as bad as they are
00:20:21.160 so I'm giving you
00:20:22.880 the really broad strokes on this.
00:20:24.940 But essentially,
00:20:26.020 it does set up
00:20:26.960 the villain
00:20:27.760 and the victim
00:20:29.340 and it is the idea
00:20:31.780 that we must do everything
00:20:33.460 to silence the villain,
00:20:35.880 the oppressor
00:20:36.580 and to center the oppressed.
00:20:39.260 Yes,
00:20:39.600 and then we will elevate
00:20:40.920 the oppressed.
00:20:43.040 The same thing happened
00:20:43.980 essentially
00:20:44.380 with the French
00:20:45.100 deconstructionists
00:20:46.980 in the 1970s.
00:20:47.880 It is.
00:20:48.260 So this is the motivation
00:20:49.520 behind it.
00:20:50.180 But when you hear
00:20:51.760 them talk about
00:20:53.180 critical theory,
00:20:54.880 it is not
00:20:55.600 critical thinking.
00:20:56.820 There's a big difference
00:20:57.580 and so parents will hear,
00:20:59.300 well,
00:20:59.440 they're teaching critical theory.
00:21:00.480 Isn't that a good thing?
00:21:01.300 No,
00:21:01.640 because critical thinking
00:21:03.360 means I'm going to show you
00:21:04.680 both sides of this argument.
00:21:06.320 Critical theory means
00:21:07.600 I'm going to deliberately
00:21:08.740 give you one side
00:21:09.740 of the argument.
00:21:10.500 I'm going to tell you
00:21:11.320 who's right
00:21:11.900 and I'm going to tell you
00:21:12.800 who's wrong.
00:21:13.520 There's an oppressor
00:21:14.320 and an oppressed.
00:21:15.140 The oppressor is the bad guy.
00:21:16.280 The oppressed is the good guy
00:21:17.720 and it's a very manipulative
00:21:20.320 way of thinking.
00:21:21.600 Okay, so there's, let's say,
00:21:25.040 two reasons why people
00:21:26.220 wouldn't sign the petition.
00:21:29.780 One is they're doing
00:21:31.100 something else
00:21:31.700 and they're just not
00:21:32.580 interested in it
00:21:33.260 and fair enough,
00:21:34.460 even though I think
00:21:35.060 that's dangerous at the moment.
00:21:36.860 The second is that
00:21:37.980 they're actually philosophically
00:21:40.020 or ideologically opposed
00:21:41.540 to the propositions.
00:21:43.060 And so to what degree
00:21:44.760 do you think the latter
00:21:46.020 is the determining factor
00:21:47.940 behind the relatively small
00:21:49.960 degree of support
00:21:50.780 that you guys have been
00:21:52.520 able to drum up?
00:21:53.520 It's a big thing
00:21:54.080 that a group of faculty
00:21:56.000 signed an open letter
00:21:57.180 to the university
00:21:58.900 complaining about the violence
00:22:00.740 and that the administration
00:22:03.240 need to make the campus safe.
00:22:04.740 Safe, yeah.
00:22:05.300 They did the same thing
00:22:06.080 with me after I made my video.
00:22:08.260 I made the campus unsafe
00:22:09.860 and 200 people signed a petition.
00:22:12.720 What does unsafe mean?
00:22:14.760 I mean, this is the problem.
00:22:16.560 The left, the far left
00:22:21.460 are taking words
00:22:22.600 that have a traditional meaning,
00:22:23.920 a traditional definition
00:22:24.900 and they're blowing
00:22:26.120 that definition completely away.
00:22:30.040 And at one time,
00:22:31.440 harm meant that
00:22:32.780 there was an infliction
00:22:34.720 of damage
00:22:36.020 that would have lasting effect
00:22:37.800 and it would compromise
00:22:39.080 the appearance
00:22:39.980 or the function, right?
00:22:41.480 We can think about damage
00:22:42.420 to a car, right?
00:22:43.540 Lasting and it's affecting
00:22:45.800 the appearance
00:22:46.760 or the function.
00:22:47.760 That's what harm is.
00:22:49.180 But they've stretched
00:22:50.080 that definition
00:22:50.800 so that it becomes meaningless
00:22:52.180 that an objectionable idea
00:22:54.960 becomes harm.
00:22:56.800 That when you show a video,
00:22:59.120 you've made a place unsafe.
00:23:01.520 And that...
00:23:02.900 Yeah, that's the language
00:23:03.660 of trigger warnings
00:23:04.520 and safe space.
00:23:05.380 But it's disingenuous.
00:23:07.100 There was a trans rally
00:23:08.600 and one of the speakers
00:23:09.720 said that letting...
00:23:11.300 I hope I can quote this properly.
00:23:12.500 Letting Peterson's views
00:23:13.860 be heard in the classroom
00:23:15.240 is violence.
00:23:16.800 It is violence.
00:23:18.320 Yeah, right, right.
00:23:19.140 Although there's certainly...
00:23:20.900 Yes, you can react with violence.
00:23:22.760 Yes, well that's often
00:23:23.560 what I think that...
00:23:24.400 I've thought a lot about
00:23:25.300 one of the tenets
00:23:26.680 of postmodernism,
00:23:28.580 less so I would say
00:23:30.320 of critical theory,
00:23:31.060 but particularly
00:23:31.760 of postmodernism
00:23:32.740 and it's more Marxist variants
00:23:34.120 is that the only motivation
00:23:36.760 for the construction
00:23:37.760 of hierarchies is power.
00:23:40.720 You think,
00:23:41.040 well that's...
00:23:42.480 No.
00:23:43.420 There's lots of reasons
00:23:44.280 for producing hierarchies, right?
00:23:45.860 There's hierarchies
00:23:46.480 of competence,
00:23:47.300 there's hierarchies
00:23:47.800 of interest,
00:23:48.480 there's hierarchies
00:23:49.540 of aesthetic quality.
00:23:50.940 Like there's all sorts of...
00:23:51.840 Wherever you can make
00:23:52.460 a qualitative judgment,
00:23:53.640 you make a hierarchy.
00:23:55.020 So there's...
00:23:55.940 The idea that power
00:23:56.900 is the only driving force
00:23:58.820 between...
00:23:59.620 Behind the construction
00:24:00.520 of hierarchies
00:24:01.180 is absolutely preposterous.
00:24:04.580 So you think,
00:24:05.200 well why in the world
00:24:05.800 would anyone make that claim
00:24:07.040 that it's only power
00:24:08.500 that exists?
00:24:09.740 Well as far as I can tell,
00:24:11.040 at least one of the reasons
00:24:12.040 is that it justifies
00:24:13.040 the use of power.
00:24:14.300 Now if you have your position
00:24:15.440 because of power,
00:24:16.660 which is basically tyranny,
00:24:18.260 then I'm fully warranted
00:24:19.900 in my use of power
00:24:20.920 against you,
00:24:21.580 that's all there is.
00:24:22.800 So I think it's
00:24:23.900 a great justification for it.
00:24:25.660 Okay, so how many people
00:24:27.120 signed the petition
00:24:27.960 stating that the campus
00:24:29.860 had become unsafe?
00:24:31.080 That was like 79.
00:24:32.120 79, just like that.
00:24:34.820 Okay, so you got more people
00:24:36.040 signing a petition
00:24:36.900 claiming that what Shepard did
00:24:38.680 made the campus unsafe
00:24:39.960 than you did getting...
00:24:41.360 Okay, so that's interesting
00:24:42.420 because one of the things
00:24:43.220 we're going to address later
00:24:44.280 is the president's letter
00:24:46.060 as a consequence of the inquiry
00:24:48.140 into the Lindsay Shepard affair.
00:24:49.740 And one of the things she says,
00:24:51.940 people who've tried to downplay
00:24:54.220 what happened at Wilfrid Laurier
00:24:56.200 have said basically
00:24:57.200 two or three things.
00:24:59.520 One is that
00:25:01.040 well, that Shepard
00:25:03.120 is not to be trusted
00:25:03.940 and she's really
00:25:04.620 like a subtle arm
00:25:06.980 of the right wing.
00:25:07.980 That's one...
00:25:09.620 And that she's
00:25:10.140 a reprehensible character.
00:25:11.520 Yes, yes, or Peterson.
00:25:12.640 No, they directly went after her.
00:25:14.080 I'm quite sneaky that way.
00:25:15.960 The second is that
00:25:17.420 Pimlot, Rambucana, and Joel
00:25:20.120 misinterpreted Bill C-16,
00:25:22.720 which I think is
00:25:23.420 absolutely preposterous.
00:25:24.620 I think they interpreted
00:25:25.640 exactly the way
00:25:26.780 that it was written,
00:25:27.900 especially if you consider
00:25:28.840 the surrounding policies.
00:25:29.880 And that's what I was warning
00:25:30.720 about last September.
00:25:32.200 And the third is
00:25:33.520 that this was
00:25:34.760 an isolated incident
00:25:35.860 and doesn't truly reflect
00:25:37.480 the reality
00:25:38.120 either of Wilfrid Laurier
00:25:39.400 or other campuses.
00:25:40.520 And that's stated explicitly
00:25:41.680 in the president's letter.
00:25:43.080 And so that's one of the things
00:25:44.160 I wanted to discuss
00:25:45.060 because I don't buy that.
00:25:46.440 I think this wasn't
00:25:47.420 an anomaly.
00:25:48.260 This wasn't people
00:25:48.940 stepping out of line.
00:25:50.060 And I think the proof
00:25:51.100 of that is
00:25:51.700 not what Rambucana did
00:25:53.320 or Pimlot.
00:25:54.100 Because we could say,
00:25:55.500 yeah, yeah,
00:25:55.880 they're ideologically
00:25:56.740 committed professors
00:25:58.080 and they're not very professional
00:26:00.960 in their administrative abilities
00:26:02.440 and they went after a TA
00:26:03.800 unprofessionally
00:26:04.720 and stupidly.
00:26:06.060 That's bad.
00:26:07.740 That's not really bad.
00:26:08.940 What's really bad
00:26:09.680 was that there was
00:26:10.320 a paid administrator
00:26:11.680 at the meeting
00:26:12.500 who was hired
00:26:13.360 to do exactly that.
00:26:15.160 And so the fact
00:26:15.860 that she was there
00:26:16.880 is the proof to me
00:26:18.740 that this is not only
00:26:20.180 not an isolated incident,
00:26:21.400 it's actually
00:26:22.300 a logical
00:26:23.780 and inevitable
00:26:26.860 consequence
00:26:27.560 of legislative moves
00:26:29.240 that made these
00:26:30.000 bureaucratic positions
00:26:31.040 necessary
00:26:31.580 and the practical reality
00:26:33.720 that these administrative
00:26:35.040 positions do exist
00:26:36.540 on the campuses.
00:26:37.800 So there's no
00:26:38.900 isolated incident
00:26:40.120 issue there.
00:26:41.060 Now, how do you think
00:26:41.840 Lindsay's been treated
00:26:42.660 at Wilfrid Laurier?
00:26:43.900 Like, what's your impression
00:26:46.220 of her personal situation
00:26:48.300 there?
00:26:48.580 I think that
00:26:50.140 so on the positive side
00:26:51.740 there have been students
00:26:53.420 who have rallied
00:26:55.140 to her support
00:26:56.280 and that's been
00:26:58.000 really encouraging to see.
00:26:59.540 It was some students
00:27:01.520 on campus
00:27:02.180 who are dedicated
00:27:03.820 to freedom of expression.
00:27:05.260 They mostly are coming
00:27:06.300 from the conservative
00:27:07.840 clubs,
00:27:09.960 whether it's the
00:27:10.760 conservative political club
00:27:11.880 or other conservative groups,
00:27:14.220 although definitely
00:27:16.020 invitations have been
00:27:16.940 extended to other
00:27:18.300 groups of other
00:27:19.460 political stripes
00:27:20.220 or other,
00:27:20.740 they really haven't rallied
00:27:22.080 to Lindsay, sadly.
00:27:24.280 So those students
00:27:25.820 have, to a certain extent,
00:27:28.560 befriended her
00:27:29.340 or brought her
00:27:30.580 under their wing
00:27:31.120 or just have begun
00:27:32.460 associating with her
00:27:33.520 and saying,
00:27:34.200 how can we support you?
00:27:35.520 I think in her classes,
00:27:37.380 and I'm just going
00:27:38.140 from what I've seen,
00:27:38.940 I follow her on Twitter,
00:27:40.160 so I see what's been
00:27:41.000 going on there.
00:27:42.540 Apparently, you know,
00:27:43.420 and I don't think
00:27:44.500 this is inaccurate,
00:27:45.680 the other grad students
00:27:47.660 are being quite scathing.
00:27:49.340 Yeah, yeah,
00:27:49.740 that's what I've heard
00:27:50.680 from her and from her tweets,
00:27:52.140 is that at least
00:27:52.900 they're cold,
00:27:53.760 at minimum they're cold,
00:27:55.400 and the professors as well,
00:27:56.800 including the one
00:27:57.440 who told her
00:27:58.040 that she couldn't use
00:27:59.140 her laptop in class
00:28:00.380 because she didn't
00:28:01.240 want to be recorded.
00:28:02.520 I mean,
00:28:02.840 you couldn't script
00:28:03.700 this level of idiocy.
00:28:05.160 But my thought is,
00:28:06.640 students always ask me,
00:28:08.300 Dr. Haskell,
00:28:09.220 can I record
00:28:09.860 what you're talking about?
00:28:10.960 And I say, yes.
00:28:11.560 Yes, the answer is yes.
00:28:12.520 The answer is yes
00:28:13.480 because you know what?
00:28:14.520 I don't say anything
00:28:15.720 in my class
00:28:16.480 that I wouldn't
00:28:17.760 publicly say
00:28:18.660 because I,
00:28:19.780 and I want to be accountable.
00:28:21.520 I want people to know
00:28:22.720 what I'm saying in my class.
00:28:23.780 I want them to know
00:28:24.500 I'm fair,
00:28:25.320 I'm balanced,
00:28:26.140 I present both sides
00:28:27.200 of the argument,
00:28:27.840 I'm not afraid of that.
00:28:29.500 I mean,
00:28:30.220 why are people afraid
00:28:31.240 of accountability?
00:28:32.300 That's beyond my understanding.
00:28:33.720 Yeah, well,
00:28:34.280 that's a very good,
00:28:35.160 that's a very good question.
00:28:37.220 So, okay,
00:28:37.540 so I think what we'll do now
00:28:42.400 is go through this letter
00:28:44.060 because what happened yesterday,
00:28:45.980 I guess,
00:28:46.380 is the president had appointed
00:28:48.280 a third-party fact finder
00:28:50.120 to look into what happened
00:28:51.900 with the Lindsay Shepard affair,
00:28:53.420 right?
00:28:53.600 And there were concerns about that
00:28:54.820 because many people,
00:28:56.360 including Christy Blatchford,
00:28:57.640 were concerned,
00:28:58.300 and the lawyer
00:28:58.720 that's representing Lindsay,
00:29:00.560 Howard Leavitt,
00:29:02.860 Howard Leavitt
00:29:03.460 was concerned
00:29:04.380 that the person
00:29:05.360 who was appointed
00:29:06.140 to do the third-party investigation
00:29:07.740 wouldn't be neutral
00:29:09.360 because he had tweeted
00:29:10.900 his agreement
00:29:11.660 with a variety of,
00:29:13.020 let's call them
00:29:13.540 politically correct issues
00:29:14.580 quite publicly.
00:29:15.500 But it does look like
00:29:16.420 he's done a credible job.
00:29:17.700 That's how it appears to me.
00:29:19.100 Anyways,
00:29:19.560 the president,
00:29:20.440 who was very closed mouth
00:29:23.100 or assiduously neutral
00:29:25.320 about this whole affair,
00:29:26.880 has released a report
00:29:28.020 and I thought we could go through it
00:29:29.500 and talk about
00:29:30.600 whether or not we think
00:29:31.340 that it addressed the issues reasonably.
00:29:33.520 So,
00:29:33.700 because I think it did
00:29:34.440 in some part,
00:29:35.060 but I think it didn't
00:29:35.880 in others.
00:29:36.720 So,
00:29:37.860 this is from
00:29:38.540 McClatchy,
00:29:40.640 Deborah McClatchy,
00:29:41.540 PhD,
00:29:42.120 who's the president
00:29:42.780 and vice chancellor
00:29:44.340 at Wilfrid-Lurie
00:29:45.060 and relatively new at it.
00:29:46.440 So, I mean,
00:29:46.840 she's really being raked
00:29:47.740 through the coals,
00:29:48.500 that's for sure.
00:29:49.160 But she was the vice president
00:29:50.220 academic,
00:29:50.860 which was the second
00:29:51.620 most senior position
00:29:52.780 for the last five years.
00:29:54.240 So she's not...
00:29:54.940 So she's accustomed to this.
00:29:56.320 Yeah.
00:29:56.640 Okay.
00:29:57.460 Okay.
00:29:57.940 It is,
00:29:58.720 I believe it is time
00:29:59.740 for some clarity
00:30:00.520 around the events
00:30:01.300 of the past few weeks
00:30:02.320 here at Wilfrid-Lurie
00:30:03.180 University stemming
00:30:04.320 from the very regrettable
00:30:05.420 meeting,
00:30:06.120 so that's an interesting
00:30:07.020 turn of phrase
00:30:07.580 to begin with,
00:30:08.500 that followed the showing
00:30:09.360 of a TVO clip
00:30:10.320 by a teaching assistant
00:30:11.340 during a tutorial.
00:30:12.700 As the newly appointed
00:30:13.640 president and vice chancellor
00:30:15.040 of this incredible
00:30:16.000 106-year-old institution,
00:30:17.640 I'm here to set
00:30:18.620 the record straight
00:30:19.380 and announce
00:30:19.900 some important changes.
00:30:21.340 The issue has highlighted
00:30:22.500 some deficiencies,
00:30:24.280 but as importantly,
00:30:25.720 it has created opportunities.
00:30:26.940 Yeah, well,
00:30:28.760 to me,
00:30:29.220 that's a kind of
00:30:30.560 marketing doublespeak.
00:30:32.240 It's like,
00:30:32.560 we could just go
00:30:33.200 with the deficiencies
00:30:34.060 issue for now.
00:30:35.600 Opportunities for Laurier
00:30:36.540 to improve our own performance,
00:30:38.180 to lead a broader discussion
00:30:39.360 on academic freedom
00:30:40.360 and freedom of expression,
00:30:42.460 and opportunities
00:30:43.740 to work together
00:30:44.680 as a community
00:30:45.600 to demonstrate
00:30:46.600 the strengths
00:30:47.140 we have as an institution.
00:30:48.920 When the issue
00:30:49.620 first broke,
00:30:50.340 I erred on the side
00:30:51.300 of caution.
00:30:52.380 As a person
00:30:53.020 and as the president
00:30:54.880 of Laurier,
00:30:55.380 I am sensitive
00:30:56.040 to the viewpoints
00:30:56.880 and concerns
00:30:57.460 of our students,
00:30:58.600 staff,
00:30:59.000 and faculty.
00:31:00.020 As an employer,
00:31:00.760 I am cognizant
00:31:01.540 that the four people
00:31:02.420 who were in that meeting room
00:31:03.440 are employees
00:31:04.240 and one is also a student.
00:31:05.940 All four are entitled
00:31:07.040 to due process.
00:31:08.280 I did not want
00:31:08.940 to rush judgment.
00:31:10.200 Rather,
00:31:10.580 I wanted to ensure
00:31:11.320 we were able
00:31:11.800 to objectively assess the facts
00:31:13.420 and make sound decisions
00:31:14.940 flowing from that assessment.
00:31:16.560 That seems reasonable enough.
00:31:17.900 And I would say
00:31:18.740 the events
00:31:19.340 that have transpired
00:31:20.440 probably justified
00:31:21.420 her approach.
00:31:23.000 Although I had taken issues
00:31:24.360 with some of the things
00:31:25.260 that she had said
00:31:26.520 and not said
00:31:27.080 when she was on the agenda.
00:31:28.360 But whatever.
00:31:29.680 We hired an external fact finder
00:31:31.260 with expertise
00:31:31.880 in human resources issues.
00:31:33.540 I have received the report
00:31:34.640 and we are taking
00:31:35.420 decisive action
00:31:36.380 to ensure these events
00:31:37.420 will not be repeated.
00:31:38.680 The report,
00:31:39.620 along with what we already knew,
00:31:41.080 has led me
00:31:41.620 to the final conclusions,
00:31:42.980 following conclusions
00:31:43.800 and actions.
00:31:45.200 There were numerous
00:31:46.500 errors in judgment
00:31:47.760 made in the handling
00:31:48.920 of the meeting
00:31:49.580 with Ms. Lindsay Shepard,
00:31:51.180 the TA of the tutorial
00:31:52.400 in question.
00:31:53.020 In fact,
00:31:54.440 the meeting
00:31:55.000 never should have happened
00:31:56.380 at all.
00:31:57.340 Okay,
00:31:57.540 that's probably
00:31:58.180 the most damning statement
00:31:59.360 in the entire report,
00:32:00.560 I would say.
00:32:01.580 And then she says,
00:32:02.840 no formal complaint
00:32:04.060 nor informal concern
00:32:05.760 relative to a Laurier policy
00:32:07.480 was registered
00:32:08.540 about the screening
00:32:09.340 of the video.
00:32:10.340 This was confirmed
00:32:11.060 in the fact finding report.
00:32:12.520 Okay,
00:32:12.780 so we can take that apart
00:32:13.800 a little bit.
00:32:15.060 No formal complaint.
00:32:17.080 Okay,
00:32:17.420 so Rambucana claimed
00:32:20.120 that one or more students
00:32:22.420 had complaint.
00:32:24.000 He wouldn't say
00:32:24.740 how many
00:32:25.220 and he wouldn't say
00:32:25.980 what the nature
00:32:26.660 of the complaint was.
00:32:28.080 Now,
00:32:28.300 what this document
00:32:28.980 seems to indicate
00:32:29.840 that is that,
00:32:31.800 well,
00:32:32.480 if there was a complaint,
00:32:33.780 which it leaves vague,
00:32:35.040 there was nothing
00:32:35.680 that would constitute
00:32:36.580 a genuine complaint
00:32:38.000 in an administrative sense.
00:32:39.760 And that's why
00:32:40.400 the meeting
00:32:40.720 should have never happened.
00:32:41.640 So I guess
00:32:42.340 one question would be
00:32:44.080 what,
00:32:46.000 if any,
00:32:46.560 appropriate disciplinary action
00:32:48.320 should be taken
00:32:49.060 against Rambucana
00:32:50.120 and Pimlot?
00:32:51.180 And I don't know
00:32:51.820 the answer to that
00:32:52.700 because,
00:32:53.440 you know,
00:32:53.840 they're not
00:32:54.860 administrative experts
00:32:55.940 and I don't think
00:32:56.720 faculty can be.
00:32:58.220 But,
00:32:59.100 by the same token,
00:33:00.360 I don't feel like
00:33:02.100 I understand
00:33:02.960 exactly what happened
00:33:04.740 to bring about
00:33:05.780 the meeting
00:33:06.160 to begin with.
00:33:06.980 Do you guys know?
00:33:08.700 I mean,
00:33:09.420 whatever we do know,
00:33:10.200 we've had to piece together
00:33:11.340 from different media reports
00:33:13.320 because,
00:33:13.840 as has been said,
00:33:16.160 our president
00:33:17.060 is not releasing
00:33:17.940 the findings of this.
00:33:20.240 Like,
00:33:20.480 this is going to be,
00:33:21.720 this is a secret,
00:33:22.520 the independent investigation,
00:33:24.300 we will never know
00:33:25.600 what it actually says.
00:33:26.800 We don't know
00:33:27.500 what all the recommendations are.
00:33:29.040 I think we can take her
00:33:30.240 at her word
00:33:30.820 that she's telling us
00:33:32.400 what's going to happen.
00:33:32.740 So why is she making it secret
00:33:34.180 or keeping it secret?
00:33:35.420 Is that,
00:33:35.700 is that this concern
00:33:37.540 with,
00:33:38.140 what do you call it,
00:33:38.900 confidentiality
00:33:39.800 that seems to be
00:33:40.680 the,
00:33:41.520 what,
00:33:42.100 the camouflage
00:33:43.660 behind which
00:33:44.500 these things
00:33:44.960 are always hidden?
00:33:45.760 That seems to be implied
00:33:47.260 or even said explicitly,
00:33:49.320 but I've seen other cases
00:33:50.700 where there's been
00:33:51.620 disciplinary measures
00:33:52.840 and,
00:33:53.920 and we,
00:33:55.380 we get more details
00:33:56.400 than this,
00:33:57.460 right?
00:33:57.800 So,
00:33:58.220 so I don't know,
00:33:59.240 I don't know the level
00:34:00.120 of confidentiality
00:34:01.300 that is required under law,
00:34:02.780 but what I can say,
00:34:04.200 and I'll let Will talk
00:34:05.340 about what the disciplinary
00:34:06.720 actions can be.
00:34:07.500 Let's keep in mind
00:34:08.600 that when Rambukana
00:34:10.600 said that there
00:34:12.180 had been a complaint
00:34:13.160 and it says here
00:34:14.440 that there wasn't,
00:34:15.780 he then echoes that
00:34:17.360 in his apology
00:34:18.280 to Lindsay.
00:34:19.920 He then says,
00:34:21.040 of course,
00:34:21.820 and I'm,
00:34:22.340 I'm paraphrasing here,
00:34:23.460 so I'm not being
00:34:24.100 completely accurate
00:34:24.960 in terms of what
00:34:25.980 he exactly said,
00:34:26.960 but he said something like,
00:34:28.400 of course,
00:34:28.840 there are things
00:34:29.280 I can't discuss
00:34:29.820 because of the complaint
00:34:31.120 that was made
00:34:31.640 by a student.
00:34:32.480 Right.
00:34:32.720 So he's echoing
00:34:33.900 what seems to be
00:34:35.060 an untruth.
00:34:36.020 Yes.
00:34:36.580 And,
00:34:37.220 well,
00:34:37.820 this is about
00:34:38.380 as close a statement
00:34:39.240 as you might imagine
00:34:40.220 in a statement like this,
00:34:41.620 stating that it was
00:34:42.380 an untruth.
00:34:43.240 I mean,
00:34:43.580 he said,
00:34:44.360 she said,
00:34:45.380 no formal complaint
00:34:46.720 nor informal concern
00:34:48.840 relative to a Laurier policy
00:34:50.640 was registered.
00:34:51.540 I mean,
00:34:51.800 that's,
00:34:52.460 that's,
00:34:54.080 that's as close
00:34:55.700 as you can get
00:34:56.480 to coming right out
00:34:57.480 and saying that
00:34:58.420 the statement
00:34:59.440 that there was a complaint
00:35:00.780 was a falsehood.
00:35:01.700 And I just want to follow
00:35:02.620 that thread for a second.
00:35:04.060 So here we have
00:35:05.400 a controversy
00:35:06.160 that was started
00:35:07.260 on an untruth.
00:35:11.760 And it seems to be
00:35:13.180 that this is part
00:35:14.400 of the whole
00:35:15.420 modus operandi
00:35:16.880 here
00:35:17.640 when we hear
00:35:18.420 and there's been harm.
00:35:19.960 Right.
00:35:20.440 And it's unsafe.
00:35:21.480 Right.
00:35:21.900 Daily violence.
00:35:22.420 Daily violence.
00:35:23.660 Although,
00:35:24.140 again,
00:35:24.680 when the media,
00:35:25.960 Global National News,
00:35:27.300 Globe and Mail,
00:35:27.880 checked in
00:35:28.300 to see if there were
00:35:28.920 any police reports
00:35:30.000 related to
00:35:31.260 any harassment
00:35:32.220 or any threats,
00:35:33.860 no police reports.
00:35:34.880 Yeah.
00:35:35.200 Same thing happened
00:35:35.860 at the University of Toronto.
00:35:37.000 So,
00:35:37.400 so at some point,
00:35:38.360 don't we have to say
00:35:39.060 there's a boy
00:35:39.640 who cried wolf?
00:35:40.580 Mm-hmm.
00:35:41.040 Well,
00:35:41.340 this is even,
00:35:42.100 this is more egregious
00:35:43.220 even though
00:35:43.660 than claiming harm.
00:35:44.860 I mean,
00:35:45.060 because,
00:35:45.480 you know,
00:35:45.680 maybe people were
00:35:46.320 getting nasty tweets
00:35:47.320 and so forth
00:35:47.920 and I suspect
00:35:48.760 they were.
00:35:50.180 But the thing is,
00:35:52.040 is that Rambucana
00:35:52.900 and Pimlott
00:35:53.540 directly claimed
00:35:54.840 that there had been
00:35:55.640 a complaint.
00:35:56.420 Right.
00:35:56.700 And so that's
00:35:57.300 a big problem
00:35:58.160 that isn't
00:35:58.680 thoroughly addressed here.
00:35:59.980 Well,
00:36:00.280 and in either
00:36:01.580 somebody heard
00:36:03.320 about the tutorial
00:36:04.740 and the fact
00:36:05.480 that a Peterson
00:36:06.060 video was shown
00:36:07.240 and,
00:36:08.580 or Rambucana
00:36:09.840 found out somehow,
00:36:11.200 but he decided
00:36:12.080 that was unacceptable.
00:36:13.480 Mm-hmm.
00:36:14.260 And that the right
00:36:15.300 way to approach it
00:36:16.060 was to claim
00:36:16.660 that a student
00:36:17.260 had complained
00:36:18.000 because it's not
00:36:18.840 a problem
00:36:19.280 that he found it,
00:36:20.300 it's not such a big problem
00:36:21.700 that he found it unacceptable,
00:36:23.080 let's say.
00:36:23.520 It is his class.
00:36:24.940 Like,
00:36:25.260 he has a right
00:36:25.840 to talk to his TA
00:36:27.180 about what's going
00:36:27.900 to be shown
00:36:28.340 and what's not
00:36:28.880 going to be shown,
00:36:29.680 even though he handled it,
00:36:31.180 I think,
00:36:31.680 reprehensibly in that meeting.
00:36:33.300 But,
00:36:33.880 he could come out
00:36:35.400 and say,
00:36:35.720 look,
00:36:35.980 like,
00:36:36.320 that isn't what,
00:36:37.240 the sort of thing
00:36:37.700 I want to be discussed
00:36:38.540 in my class.
00:36:39.160 I don't agree with Peterson.
00:36:40.080 I think he's a jerk.
00:36:41.640 And,
00:36:42.020 like,
00:36:42.480 here's the other things
00:36:43.380 you should be concentrating on.
00:36:44.840 But to come out
00:36:45.500 and say,
00:36:46.540 a student complained,
00:36:47.920 and then to buttress that
00:36:49.120 with the accusation
00:36:50.420 that she had violated
00:36:51.360 federal and provincial law,
00:36:52.940 as well as the university.
00:36:53.720 And to bring in
00:36:54.440 Andrea Joel.
00:36:55.320 Exactly.
00:36:55.640 And I don't understand
00:36:56.540 why Joel was there
00:36:57.500 without some sort
00:36:58.300 of formal paperwork
00:36:59.300 or evidence
00:37:01.380 of a complaint.
00:37:02.680 Well,
00:37:02.900 I think that
00:37:03.660 the reason for that
00:37:06.020 is that
00:37:06.400 the positions
00:37:07.360 that people like Joel
00:37:08.560 occupy
00:37:09.360 are so ill-defined
00:37:11.420 and so fundamentally
00:37:12.780 reprehensible
00:37:13.540 in their organization,
00:37:14.740 in their aims,
00:37:15.960 is that this is exactly
00:37:17.020 the sort of thing
00:37:17.640 that you would expect.
00:37:18.520 And so I thought,
00:37:19.860 she didn't say much
00:37:20.600 in that little
00:37:22.040 inquisitorial recording,
00:37:23.580 but I thought
00:37:24.060 the things she did say
00:37:25.140 were spectacularly
00:37:26.960 concerning,
00:37:29.640 let's put it that way.
00:37:31.040 So what's the discipline?
00:37:32.280 What is the discipline?
00:37:33.560 Do you have any sense of this?
00:37:35.360 Like,
00:37:35.620 I can't speculate.
00:37:37.200 I don't know.
00:37:37.680 Communications?
00:37:38.700 Well,
00:37:39.300 what happens
00:37:41.100 when somebody lies
00:37:42.200 or when somebody
00:37:42.960 brings,
00:37:44.220 you know,
00:37:44.820 forth a complaint
00:37:45.540 that wasn't a complaint?
00:37:46.480 I don't know.
00:37:47.120 Well,
00:37:47.240 that is,
00:37:47.700 well,
00:37:48.100 that's one of the things
00:37:48.820 this document
00:37:49.420 does not address.
00:37:50.540 Like,
00:37:50.760 it's a big problem.
00:37:52.360 It's a big problem
00:37:53.500 if there was no complaint
00:37:55.280 and the reason
00:37:56.420 she was disciplined
00:37:57.180 was because there was,
00:37:58.500 because there was a claim
00:37:59.440 that there was a complaint.
00:38:00.540 Like,
00:38:00.740 that's,
00:38:01.520 well,
00:38:01.940 we can,
00:38:02.300 we don't have to beat
00:38:03.120 that to death anymore.
00:38:03.580 But what about if there's a claim
00:38:04.120 that there's harm?
00:38:05.980 What about if there's a claim
00:38:06.880 that the campus
00:38:07.700 has daily violence?
00:38:08.960 What if there's a claim
00:38:10.040 that such and such area
00:38:12.240 has become unsafe?
00:38:13.440 Does that need to be proven?
00:38:15.340 Or should we be seeking
00:38:16.800 disciplinary action
00:38:17.760 against people
00:38:18.240 who are making those claims?
00:38:19.220 Well,
00:38:19.480 that's a very good,
00:38:20.520 that's a very good question.
00:38:21.740 Okay,
00:38:22.020 so that's a problem
00:38:23.940 that isn't addressed
00:38:24.740 in this report.
00:38:25.480 It's a big one.
00:38:26.500 Okay,
00:38:27.160 and I mean,
00:38:28.020 the president
00:38:28.480 is obviously not happy
00:38:30.480 with this
00:38:31.420 because she also says
00:38:32.820 the errors in judgment,
00:38:37.320 okay,
00:38:37.920 no formal complaint,
00:38:39.120 no informal concern
00:38:40.740 was registered
00:38:41.420 about the screening
00:38:42.060 of the video.
00:38:42.780 This was confirmed
00:38:43.600 in the fact-finding report.
00:38:44.880 So they're not beating
00:38:45.620 around the bush about this.
00:38:46.740 They're stating it
00:38:47.460 very clearly.
00:38:48.900 The errors in judgment
00:38:50.160 were compounded
00:38:51.760 by misapplication
00:38:53.120 of existing university
00:38:54.280 policies and procedures.
00:38:56.120 Basic guidelines,
00:38:57.420 basic guidelines
00:38:58.340 and best practices
00:38:59.380 on how to appropriately
00:39:00.520 execute the roles
00:39:01.500 and responsibilities
00:39:02.220 of staff and faculty
00:39:04.040 were ignored,
00:39:05.520 not just not understood.
00:39:08.300 Ignored
00:39:08.780 or not understood.
00:39:09.860 Okay,
00:39:10.360 that's a pretty damn
00:39:11.260 damning statement
00:39:12.060 there too.
00:39:13.140 I don't even know
00:39:14.440 all the particulars here.
00:39:15.880 I heard Howard Levitt
00:39:16.940 say that she was entitled
00:39:19.220 to some sort of represent,
00:39:20.540 Lindsay was entitled
00:39:21.180 to some representation.
00:39:22.500 Under the bylaws
00:39:23.200 of our university,
00:39:24.140 she was supposed
00:39:24.720 to have had that.
00:39:25.360 That nobody offered
00:39:26.260 that to her.
00:39:27.220 Right,
00:39:27.760 so that's an administrative
00:39:28.640 follow-up
00:39:29.260 at the level
00:39:29.760 of employee-employer
00:39:30.780 relationships
00:39:31.320 to say nothing
00:39:32.080 of the academic issues
00:39:33.640 at stake.
00:39:34.100 We don't have
00:39:34.720 policies and procedures
00:39:35.520 about how to carry out
00:39:36.480 an inquisition.
00:39:37.780 That's not what she's saying.
00:39:38.880 I think there's
00:39:40.060 a medieval document
00:39:40.960 that you can use.
00:39:43.440 But one thing,
00:39:44.280 Jordan,
00:39:44.480 I want to point out here
00:39:45.420 is that the errors
00:39:46.800 in judgment
00:39:47.280 were compounded
00:39:48.060 by misapplication
00:39:49.400 of existing
00:39:50.360 university policies.
00:39:52.260 Misapplication
00:39:52.700 of existing
00:39:53.220 university policies.
00:39:54.420 At the end
00:39:54.880 of this document,
00:39:55.520 she's going to say
00:39:56.240 that our gendered
00:39:57.380 and sexual violence
00:39:58.160 policy needs
00:39:58.860 to be reviewed.
00:39:59.820 So which is it?
00:40:01.960 Was it an error
00:40:03.680 in application
00:40:04.320 or an error in policy?
00:40:05.940 And this is confusing.
00:40:07.900 Yeah, it is.
00:40:08.440 Because my suggestion
00:40:10.020 would be
00:40:10.520 the policy
00:40:11.500 is terribly flawed.
00:40:12.980 We have a colleague
00:40:13.620 who's one of the
00:40:15.000 free speech proponents
00:40:16.500 at our university,
00:40:17.340 Dr. Andrew Robinson.
00:40:18.780 He is an expert
00:40:19.680 in human rights law
00:40:20.720 and he went through
00:40:21.800 our gendered
00:40:22.580 and sexual violence policy
00:40:23.680 with a fine-tooth comb
00:40:24.680 and he says
00:40:25.280 this document
00:40:26.720 is unworkable.
00:40:28.460 It makes thought
00:40:29.520 a crime
00:40:30.120 and he wrote
00:40:31.400 an op-ed
00:40:31.860 to that effect.
00:40:32.440 Yeah, I remember.
00:40:33.140 So my point would be...
00:40:34.880 And who did he...
00:40:36.400 What organization
00:40:37.180 is he part of?
00:40:38.020 He's a laureate.
00:40:38.800 Yeah, but which sub...
00:40:40.100 Which human rights
00:40:41.600 and human diversity?
00:40:42.220 Right.
00:40:42.660 That's exactly it.
00:40:43.840 This is his field.
00:40:44.720 Yes, exactly.
00:40:45.400 And so when he looked
00:40:46.280 at this, he says
00:40:46.860 this goes beyond
00:40:48.280 what the Ontario government
00:40:49.440 was even asking for.
00:40:51.060 And it gets to the point
00:40:52.300 where it actually makes...
00:40:54.860 You can be guilty
00:40:55.840 of thought crime.
00:40:58.780 You can be guilty
00:40:59.420 of transphobia
00:41:00.960 without any intent.
00:41:03.020 Oh yeah, well that's the same
00:41:04.140 in the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
00:41:04.820 If someone says
00:41:06.240 I've been harmed mentally,
00:41:07.280 that is enough
00:41:08.140 for conviction
00:41:08.920 under this particular policy.
00:41:10.960 It's the same
00:41:11.880 with the Ontario
00:41:12.480 Human Rights Commission's policies.
00:41:14.080 Intent doesn't matter.
00:41:15.440 So this isn't misapplication.
00:41:17.380 I'm saying...
00:41:18.100 Yeah, that's the issue.
00:41:18.780 Did Adria Joelle
00:41:19.840 actually get it right?
00:41:21.880 Right.
00:41:22.440 And so is it
00:41:23.260 a misapplication or do...
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00:44:11.700 So it'll be interesting
00:44:13.020 if the university
00:44:13.880 does discipline her
00:44:15.020 if she gets legal representation
00:44:17.060 who claims that she was actually
00:44:19.200 applying the policies correctly
00:44:20.560 because that is the question,
00:44:22.160 right?
00:44:22.400 So,
00:44:22.720 but it could be two things.
00:44:23.860 It could be the policies
00:44:24.720 are flawed
00:44:25.300 and this is the consequence
00:44:26.520 and they were misapplied.
00:44:28.240 We don't know.
00:44:28.980 But there's definitely
00:44:30.060 ambiguity here
00:44:31.080 and that's a crucial issue.
00:44:32.820 I think Lindsay was guilty
00:44:34.100 under the gender
00:44:35.360 and sexual violence policy
00:44:36.680 and she was,
00:44:38.320 Adria was right
00:44:38.940 in accusing her.
00:44:39.840 She was wrong about C-16.
00:44:41.860 It would have been
00:44:42.460 an Ontario Human Rights
00:44:43.780 code violation.
00:44:45.900 But GSB,
00:44:47.300 she was right.
00:44:47.940 If there had been a complaint.
00:44:49.140 Right.
00:44:49.380 Right.
00:44:49.820 And how many angels
00:44:53.340 can dance on the head
00:44:54.020 of a hand?
00:44:54.640 Okay.
00:44:55.040 Procedures
00:44:55.680 in how to apply
00:44:57.260 university policies,
00:44:58.480 same issue here,
00:44:59.500 and under what circumstances
00:45:00.840 were not followed.
00:45:02.040 The training of key individuals
00:45:03.640 to meet the expectations
00:45:04.780 of the university
00:45:05.560 in addressing
00:45:06.140 such an issue
00:45:06.860 as such as this
00:45:08.300 was not sufficient
00:45:09.440 and must be improved.
00:45:11.440 Okay.
00:45:11.920 The question is,
00:45:12.860 who are these key individuals?
00:45:15.660 Do they mean
00:45:16.200 Rambucana,
00:45:16.960 Pimlot,
00:45:17.420 and Joel?
00:45:18.180 Are they putting
00:45:18.820 all three of those
00:45:19.460 in there?
00:45:20.020 And then the next question
00:45:21.200 would be,
00:45:22.180 how are they going
00:45:23.060 to improve
00:45:24.020 the training
00:45:24.640 of key individuals?
00:45:25.660 Because that actually
00:45:26.260 worries me
00:45:26.820 as a faculty member,
00:45:27.900 right?
00:45:28.160 Because whenever
00:45:29.760 the administration
00:45:30.440 decides that it's
00:45:31.500 going to engage
00:45:32.240 in some additional
00:45:32.980 training of faculty members,
00:45:34.340 then that raises
00:45:35.180 the hair on the back
00:45:36.140 of my neck.
00:45:36.620 Like,
00:45:36.780 is this unconscious
00:45:37.560 bias training?
00:45:38.500 Is that what
00:45:39.180 they're talking about?
00:45:40.240 Which has been,
00:45:41.020 well,
00:45:41.400 I think,
00:45:42.120 I can't remember.
00:45:43.840 I've just read recently.
00:45:44.720 Nozak himself,
00:45:45.920 who developed the IAT,
00:45:47.260 just published a review paper.
00:45:48.760 Stating clearly,
00:45:50.400 stating clearly that
00:45:51.880 attempts to reduce
00:45:53.100 unconscious bias
00:45:54.000 by explicit training,
00:45:55.900 there's no evidence
00:45:56.740 whatsoever that they have
00:45:58.120 any positive effect.
00:45:59.040 And that was Nozak himself
00:46:00.360 who helped develop the IAT.
00:46:02.500 Because the little coterie
00:46:03.540 that developed that test,
00:46:06.220 the chair of the Harvard
00:46:07.920 psychology department,
00:46:09.240 I'll remember her name
00:46:09.960 in a minute,
00:46:10.700 Greenwald,
00:46:11.740 Anthony Greenwald,
00:46:12.580 and Nozak,
00:46:14.420 what's her name,
00:46:15.120 Mazarin Banaji,
00:46:16.100 three of them developed it.
00:46:17.180 They're starting to fragment a bit
00:46:18.620 because the thing
00:46:19.640 has been pushed way too hard.
00:46:21.280 Right?
00:46:21.440 It's not a test
00:46:22.520 that's valid
00:46:23.180 for the purposes
00:46:23.820 that it's being put to.
00:46:25.080 And they know it perfectly well,
00:46:26.460 even though they're
00:46:27.060 consulting about it
00:46:28.400 and have made
00:46:29.240 quite an enterprise
00:46:30.100 out of it.
00:46:30.960 But Nozak is,
00:46:32.160 you know,
00:46:32.480 seems to be
00:46:32.980 a pretty credible scientist
00:46:34.020 and he's actually
00:46:34.660 looking at the data.
00:46:35.600 And it's clear
00:46:36.120 that these unconscious
00:46:37.520 bias training programs
00:46:38.720 have zero positive impact.
00:46:40.880 There's some evidence
00:46:41.560 that they have negative impact
00:46:42.780 because, of course,
00:46:43.440 people don't like being accused
00:46:44.620 of being unconscious racists.
00:46:46.520 Right?
00:46:46.920 So I'm wondering,
00:46:47.600 is that the kind of training?
00:46:48.720 And there's nothing in here
00:46:50.200 that says this,
00:46:50.960 but this is the problem
00:46:51.880 that it says
00:46:52.800 there will be training.
00:46:54.520 Unconscious bias,
00:46:55.400 is that the same
00:46:56.040 as systemic discrimination?
00:46:58.280 Well,
00:46:58.640 it's the neurological equivalent
00:47:00.800 of systemic discrimination.
00:47:02.060 So imagine
00:47:02.920 systemic discrimination
00:47:04.360 is built
00:47:05.080 into the structure
00:47:05.940 of the system,
00:47:06.940 right?
00:47:07.920 Unconscious bias
00:47:08.860 is built
00:47:09.460 into your perceptual structures.
00:47:11.600 So even before you act
00:47:13.580 or think,
00:47:14.420 you're biased towards,
00:47:16.080 against the members
00:47:16.840 of an out group.
00:47:17.600 That's the claim.
00:47:18.340 And not only biased
00:47:19.500 against the members
00:47:20.820 of out group,
00:47:21.760 which is a different claim
00:47:23.000 than biased in favor
00:47:24.200 of your in group,
00:47:25.060 which, of course,
00:47:25.520 almost every human being is,
00:47:26.840 especially if you think
00:47:27.600 about your family.
00:47:28.900 But that implicit bias
00:47:32.120 also manifests itself
00:47:33.960 in behaviors
00:47:34.600 that would essentially
00:47:36.020 be categorizable
00:47:37.480 as racist,
00:47:39.260 at least at a low level.
00:47:40.320 And there's very little evidence
00:47:41.660 that the implicit bias
00:47:43.000 that this test
00:47:43.740 hypothetically measures
00:47:45.180 manifests itself
00:47:46.720 in measurable behavior.
00:47:48.620 So it's...
00:47:49.460 We went through
00:47:50.020 a thing in the summer
00:47:50.820 where they ran
00:47:52.340 a regression
00:47:52.880 on salaries
00:47:53.820 at Laurier
00:47:55.100 and found that
00:47:56.000 women were paid
00:47:57.580 a little bit less
00:47:58.740 than men
00:47:59.120 by about 4%.
00:48:00.100 And so they gave all the...
00:48:01.540 Did they include age
00:48:03.200 as a covariate?
00:48:04.620 The answer to that
00:48:05.580 would be no.
00:48:06.540 The model was...
00:48:08.420 It had rank
00:48:10.580 and I don't know
00:48:12.300 that it had age.
00:48:13.240 It only had 4 categories
00:48:14.920 of professor, though.
00:48:16.060 It had faculty, rank...
00:48:17.180 When this has been done
00:48:17.880 at University of Michigan,
00:48:19.300 for instance,
00:48:19.660 because I looked
00:48:20.080 at comparables,
00:48:21.420 they had 21 categories
00:48:22.840 of professor
00:48:23.720 or 21...
00:48:25.720 Departments.
00:48:26.340 Departments.
00:48:26.900 They really broke it down.
00:48:27.740 And at ours,
00:48:28.620 we had 4.
00:48:29.320 So you were comparing
00:48:30.180 people, for instance,
00:48:31.780 within the business school
00:48:32.780 who might be in marketing
00:48:34.300 versus someone who...
00:48:35.420 Psychology.
00:48:36.620 Yeah.
00:48:37.420 Well, I know from
00:48:38.600 setting up regression
00:48:39.460 equations ad nauseum
00:48:40.860 that the covariates
00:48:43.040 that you include
00:48:43.660 in the equation
00:48:44.280 determine the outcome
00:48:45.220 of the equation.
00:48:46.820 Well, the conclusion
00:48:47.640 they reached,
00:48:48.400 the explanation
00:48:49.020 for the statistical
00:48:50.120 significance
00:48:50.580 of the gender coefficient
00:48:51.400 was systemic discrimination.
00:48:53.200 Right, right, right.
00:48:54.040 Of course.
00:48:54.520 Well, that wasn't
00:48:55.680 the conclusion
00:48:56.200 they reached.
00:48:56.860 That was the conclusion
00:48:58.040 they stepped into
00:48:59.100 the inquiry with
00:49:00.200 and they gerrymandered
00:49:01.480 the statistics
00:49:02.100 until they found
00:49:02.860 a regression equation
00:49:03.740 that supported
00:49:04.280 their initial claim.
00:49:06.280 So that's not an inquiry.
00:49:08.340 But so there's...
00:49:09.200 What I hear you saying
00:49:10.020 is there's really
00:49:10.680 no scientific basis
00:49:11.860 for this idea
00:49:12.620 that there could be
00:49:13.320 this unconscious bias
00:49:14.420 that could drive...
00:49:16.500 Well, there is evidence
00:49:17.780 that we're full
00:49:18.520 of unconscious biases.
00:49:19.820 I mean, we couldn't even see
00:49:20.960 if we didn't have
00:49:21.660 unconscious biases
00:49:22.520 because we have to use
00:49:23.560 shortcuts and heuristics
00:49:24.780 to just process the world.
00:49:26.860 The issue is
00:49:27.880 what measurable impact
00:49:30.600 does that have
00:49:31.240 on behavior?
00:49:31.980 That's the first thing
00:49:32.820 and it's minimal
00:49:33.620 at best.
00:49:34.600 First of all,
00:49:35.240 it's not easy
00:49:35.900 to distinguish
00:49:36.500 between racial bias
00:49:37.540 and novelty avoidance.
00:49:39.680 Right?
00:49:40.000 Because what you'd have to do
00:49:41.020 is you'd have to find
00:49:41.920 a person in a racial group,
00:49:43.560 say a white person,
00:49:44.380 who was just as familiar
00:49:45.980 with black people
00:49:46.900 as with white people
00:49:47.840 and then show
00:49:48.720 that there was a bias
00:49:49.560 because otherwise
00:49:50.060 you can't distinguish it
00:49:51.020 from a novelty,
00:49:52.040 novelty aversion.
00:49:52.860 and people are characterized
00:49:54.320 by novelty aversion.
00:49:55.740 You already have developed
00:49:57.700 a preference for that cup
00:49:59.120 over this cup.
00:50:00.260 I mean, it happens that quickly
00:50:01.380 and it's that subtle
00:50:02.640 and great and grand,
00:50:04.420 let's say.
00:50:05.180 So the first issue is
00:50:06.720 we can't really distinguish
00:50:07.960 unconscious bias
00:50:09.120 from perceptual habit,
00:50:10.880 let's say,
00:50:11.300 or stereotyping from categorization
00:50:14.000 for that matter
00:50:14.920 and that literature
00:50:15.700 has been under assault
00:50:16.640 in a major way
00:50:17.500 in the social psychology literature.
00:50:18.840 But even assuming
00:50:20.480 that an implicit bias
00:50:21.540 does exist,
00:50:22.820 which you might,
00:50:24.460 there might be grounds for
00:50:25.580 by noting that people
00:50:26.760 do have an in-group preference,
00:50:28.480 say, for their family members
00:50:29.680 and perhaps even
00:50:30.320 for their racial members,
00:50:31.300 although it's hard
00:50:31.800 to distinguish that
00:50:32.520 from novelty
00:50:33.060 or from familiarity preference.
00:50:35.560 Putting all that aside,
00:50:37.460 which you can't,
00:50:39.480 there's no evidence
00:50:40.640 that these courses
00:50:41.680 that are put in place
00:50:42.840 to reduce that bias
00:50:44.280 have any effect whatsoever
00:50:45.940 on the bias.
00:50:46.920 It's complete,
00:50:47.620 even the people
00:50:48.620 who are pushing the IAT
00:50:49.780 and the idea of implicit bias
00:50:51.400 are willing to say,
00:50:52.900 well, all these things
00:50:53.640 that we're doing
00:50:54.060 to try to reduce it
00:50:55.200 have absolutely no effect
00:50:56.560 or, if anything,
00:50:57.580 a negative effect.
00:50:58.600 And again,
00:50:59.080 we don't know
00:50:59.800 what the training
00:51:00.520 is going to be.
00:51:01.140 I guess where we went
00:51:02.100 down this rabbit hole
00:51:03.000 was we don't know
00:51:03.780 what the training
00:51:04.200 is going to be, right?
00:51:05.200 We don't know.
00:51:06.040 We have no evidence
00:51:07.460 to assume,
00:51:08.200 we have no reason
00:51:08.760 to assume that the training
00:51:09.900 is going to address
00:51:10.720 the proper problem
00:51:11.600 and every reason
00:51:12.480 to be skeptical
00:51:13.080 that it won't.
00:51:14.180 Okay, so next,
00:51:14.900 there is also
00:51:17.480 institutional failure
00:51:18.700 that allowed this to happen.
00:51:20.360 Well, we don't know
00:51:21.020 what that means
00:51:21.640 because I'd like to know
00:51:22.380 what the institutional failure was
00:51:23.940 but that's a pretty broad
00:51:25.580 and she says
00:51:26.560 when there is
00:51:27.360 institutional failure
00:51:28.340 responsibility
00:51:29.000 ultimately starts
00:51:30.380 and ends with me.
00:51:31.340 Well, that's a nice statement
00:51:32.500 and okay,
00:51:33.160 she's taking responsibility
00:51:34.140 for it
00:51:34.720 but unless it's specified
00:51:36.040 what the institutional failures are
00:51:37.680 it's just hand-waving.
00:51:38.580 Going forward
00:51:39.680 we will implement
00:51:40.420 improved training
00:51:41.340 and new procedures
00:51:42.420 and engage in a very specific
00:51:44.120 administrative review
00:51:45.440 details would be nice
00:51:46.960 to strengthen
00:51:47.780 and enhance confidence
00:51:48.900 in what students
00:51:49.660 and employees
00:51:50.160 can expect at Laurier.
00:51:51.900 Specifically,
00:51:52.940 there was no wrongdoing
00:51:54.860 on the part of Ms. Shepard
00:51:56.340 in showing the clip
00:51:57.280 from TVO
00:51:57.980 in her tutorial.
00:52:00.160 Showing a TVO clip
00:52:01.180 for the purposes
00:52:01.780 of an academic discussion
00:52:02.900 is a reasonable
00:52:03.740 classroom teaching tool.
00:52:05.280 Well, thank God for that
00:52:06.380 given that TVO
00:52:07.300 is a publicly funded
00:52:08.540 middle-of-the-road
00:52:10.780 left-leaning
00:52:11.760 liberal news media
00:52:13.440 establishment.
00:52:14.320 A credible one
00:52:14.960 for sure.
00:52:15.720 I wish that
00:52:16.760 early on
00:52:18.440 immediately following
00:52:20.720 this story breaking
00:52:21.680 that administration
00:52:23.760 had said exactly that
00:52:25.140 because remember
00:52:26.320 for more than a month now
00:52:27.620 the public
00:52:29.160 the Canadian public
00:52:30.220 has wondered
00:52:30.860 can you show
00:52:32.320 TVOntario videos
00:52:34.320 in classrooms at Laurier?
00:52:36.560 Right.
00:52:37.820 And I'm not
00:52:38.800 I'm not joking.
00:52:39.620 Yeah.
00:52:40.080 Like this was
00:52:40.840 Right.
00:52:41.420 Well, that is the question.
00:52:42.380 And there has not been
00:52:43.760 an answer from administration
00:52:44.920 on that very basic question.
00:52:47.080 Yeah.
00:52:47.520 And so people
00:52:48.400 who are thinking
00:52:49.020 about sending their kids
00:52:50.380 to Laurier
00:52:50.940 are thinking
00:52:52.100 is that the place
00:52:53.120 where they didn't know
00:52:54.660 whether or not
00:52:55.700 you could show
00:52:56.400 public television
00:52:57.620 in a classroom?
00:52:58.980 Is that the place
00:53:00.300 where it took
00:53:01.040 a independent investigation
00:53:02.840 to come to the conclusion
00:53:05.080 that it's okay
00:53:06.280 to play a clip
00:53:07.600 from the agenda?
00:53:08.520 Right.
00:53:08.920 That
00:53:09.160 Well, we still don't
00:53:11.000 yes, exactly.
00:53:12.160 It is the place
00:53:12.960 where all of that
00:53:13.520 was in doubt.
00:53:14.320 That is Wilfrid Laurier.
00:53:15.520 It is the place
00:53:16.200 where those things
00:53:16.880 were in doubt.
00:53:18.000 And so they're not
00:53:18.480 quite as in doubt
00:53:19.260 but we also still
00:53:20.180 don't know
00:53:20.560 what else is
00:53:21.240 what else
00:53:22.400 is still in doubt.
00:53:23.900 Right.
00:53:24.140 Because if that can be
00:53:24.980 you wonder
00:53:25.400 well, you know
00:53:26.220 that's pretty damn innocuous.
00:53:27.540 Okay.
00:53:28.540 Any instructional material
00:53:29.740 needs to be grounded
00:53:30.880 in the appropriate
00:53:31.680 academic underpinnings
00:53:32.820 to put it in context
00:53:33.780 for the relevance
00:53:34.500 of the learning outcomes
00:53:35.500 of the course.
00:53:38.620 Yeah.
00:53:39.180 Well, the question there is
00:53:40.200 any instructional material
00:53:41.920 needs to be grounded
00:53:42.900 in the appropriate
00:53:43.920 academic underpinnings
00:53:45.340 to put it in context.
00:53:46.520 The question there is
00:53:47.320 who decides
00:53:48.500 what the appropriate
00:53:50.060 academic underpinnings
00:53:51.420 to put it in context are?
00:53:53.160 Because that's supposed
00:53:53.840 to be the
00:53:54.320 that's supposed to be
00:53:55.260 the bailiwick
00:53:56.040 of the professor.
00:53:57.120 Period.
00:53:57.880 Right.
00:53:58.240 And with some leeway
00:53:59.600 for the teaching assistants
00:54:00.980 and so on.
00:54:02.120 But I worry
00:54:02.880 when I hear about context
00:54:04.500 because I've seen
00:54:05.960 opinion pieces
00:54:07.000 from some of my colleagues
00:54:08.540 who tell me
00:54:09.560 that the appropriate context
00:54:10.980 is within the frame
00:54:12.720 of social justice
00:54:13.820 or within the frame
00:54:14.700 of critical theory.
00:54:16.260 Well, that's what
00:54:16.900 Rambucana said to Shepard
00:54:18.500 was that
00:54:18.960 well, part of the reason
00:54:20.320 you were wrong
00:54:20.960 was because you
00:54:21.740 portrayed it neutrally.
00:54:23.220 If you had contextualized it
00:54:25.140 essentially
00:54:25.740 if you had contextualized
00:54:27.100 Peterson as Hitler
00:54:28.200 which was Rambucana's statement
00:54:29.760 then it would have been
00:54:30.700 perhaps appropriate
00:54:31.540 to air the video.
00:54:33.980 And that is equivalent
00:54:35.140 to leading the witness.
00:54:36.720 Right?
00:54:37.160 And leading the witness
00:54:37.880 is when we have a lawyer
00:54:39.200 an authority figure
00:54:40.520 telling the person
00:54:41.780 on the stand
00:54:42.360 what to say.
00:54:43.760 Taking my ideas
00:54:44.680 and putting them
00:54:45.320 into that person's mouth.
00:54:46.800 Right.
00:54:47.140 Well, that's how you produce
00:54:48.060 unconscious bias.
00:54:49.060 Well, but my point would be
00:54:51.960 so I'm not saying
00:54:52.980 that this is in here
00:54:53.940 but we really need clarifying.
00:54:55.680 Yeah, well, that's a sentence
00:54:57.340 that I'm not happy about.
00:55:00.340 Appropriate academic underpinnings
00:55:01.960 to put it in context
00:55:03.080 for the relevance
00:55:03.780 of the learning outcomes
00:55:04.880 of the course.
00:55:05.860 Jesus, it's just
00:55:06.860 administrative double speak
00:55:08.620 the whole way through.
00:55:09.440 Yeah, well, that's the question
00:55:22.460 is who decides that.
00:55:23.720 The answer to that
00:55:24.640 there's a simple answer to that.
00:55:26.320 The professor.
00:55:27.180 That's the answer.
00:55:28.160 There isn't another answer.
00:55:29.440 There's no board.
00:55:30.320 There's no higher authority.
00:55:31.740 There's nothing else.
00:55:33.200 You know, and I show
00:55:33.840 I do show clips from Hitler
00:55:35.580 in my class
00:55:36.320 in my personality class
00:55:37.280 when we talk about
00:55:38.060 orderliness and totalitarianism.
00:55:39.440 I show clips from
00:55:40.440 the triumph of the will
00:55:42.220 and I show this other documentary
00:55:44.080 called Crumb
00:55:45.040 which is about
00:55:46.440 an underground cartoonist
00:55:49.420 from the 1960s
00:55:50.400 named Robert Crumb
00:55:51.160 and it is an absolutely
00:55:52.420 shocking documentary.
00:55:54.160 Like if you ever
00:55:54.820 want to know more
00:55:56.040 than you want to know
00:55:56.800 about rapists
00:55:57.680 and serial killers
00:55:58.640 that documentary will tell you.
00:56:00.260 It's really
00:56:00.800 it's a tough
00:56:03.320 it's a tough watch.
00:56:05.500 You know, and
00:56:05.840 I can't
00:56:07.120 I can't imagine
00:56:08.920 like a committee
00:56:11.760 reviewing my
00:56:13.080 teaching materials
00:56:14.340 and allowing
00:56:16.000 those things
00:56:16.900 to go forward
00:56:17.760 without challenge.
00:56:18.900 It'd be a disaster.
00:56:20.840 Okay.
00:56:21.260 The ensuing discussion
00:56:22.420 also needs to be handled
00:56:23.760 properly.
00:56:25.920 Yeah.
00:56:26.640 Well
00:56:26.980 we have no reason
00:56:29.240 we have no reason
00:56:29.260 to believe this discussion
00:56:30.260 was not handled well
00:56:31.500 in the tutorial in question.
00:56:32.860 Okay.
00:56:33.180 So whatever handled
00:56:33.980 properly means
00:56:34.900 Lindsay Shepard managed it.
00:56:36.660 Which I think
00:56:37.260 is a good sign here
00:56:38.040 because if we take
00:56:38.860 that as the model
00:56:39.620 Lindsay did present
00:56:41.520 the information neutrally
00:56:42.900 and she was not
00:56:44.440 taking sides
00:56:45.120 and if that's our model
00:56:46.160 that's a good sign.
00:56:47.180 Okay.
00:56:47.480 That's good.
00:56:47.940 So that's acceptable.
00:56:49.320 So I'm a bit troubled
00:56:50.880 by this
00:56:51.400 because we're going to
00:56:52.220 in three or four paragraphs
00:56:53.580 find out that we need
00:56:54.560 enhanced training
00:56:55.500 for TAs.
00:56:56.880 Right.
00:56:57.400 So did she handle it properly?
00:56:59.300 Right.
00:56:59.700 Why do we need
00:57:00.360 the training?
00:57:01.360 Yes.
00:57:02.060 And again
00:57:02.880 who's going to do
00:57:03.520 the training?
00:57:04.240 Because it's not going
00:57:04.900 to be the faculty
00:57:05.640 because the faculty
00:57:06.900 don't have time
00:57:07.640 or the inclination
00:57:08.640 for that matter
00:57:09.280 to run that kind of training.
00:57:10.820 Is it going to be
00:57:11.240 the diversity and equity?
00:57:12.300 Yeah.
00:57:12.540 Right.
00:57:12.840 Well that's the question.
00:57:13.840 Who's going to do the training?
00:57:15.420 I have apologized
00:57:16.080 to Ms. Shepard publicly
00:57:17.400 as has Dr. Rambucana
00:57:19.160 her supervising professor.
00:57:21.340 The university
00:57:22.220 has conveyed to her today
00:57:23.360 that the results
00:57:24.040 of the fact-finding report
00:57:25.320 to make
00:57:26.000 the results
00:57:26.900 of the fact-finding report
00:57:28.000 to make sure
00:57:28.660 she understands
00:57:29.420 it is clear
00:57:30.360 that she was involved
00:57:31.700 in no wrongdoing.
00:57:33.160 Yes.
00:57:33.460 Well for someone
00:57:34.340 who was involved
00:57:35.080 in no wrongdoing
00:57:36.100 she sure bloody well
00:57:37.060 got raked over the coals
00:57:38.280 for the last month.
00:57:39.800 So the university
00:57:41.100 is taking concrete steps
00:57:42.400 to make changes
00:57:43.160 to ensure this
00:57:43.840 doesn't happen again.
00:57:45.280 Yeah.
00:57:45.780 Well good.
00:57:47.100 It has been made clear
00:57:48.220 to those who were involved
00:57:49.280 in the meeting
00:57:49.760 with Ms. Shepard
00:57:50.580 that their conduct
00:57:51.300 does not meet
00:57:51.940 the high standards
00:57:52.700 I set for staff
00:57:53.740 and faculty.
00:57:54.560 Well that is a big question
00:57:55.600 there right?
00:57:57.320 How has it been made clear
00:57:58.980 to those who were involved
00:58:00.120 in the meeting
00:58:00.640 with Ms. Shepard
00:58:01.460 that their conduct
00:58:02.220 does not meet
00:58:02.940 those high standards?
00:58:04.200 Because we don't know.
00:58:05.460 Does that mean
00:58:05.920 did the president
00:58:06.800 talk to them?
00:58:07.500 Is there been
00:58:07.840 disciplinary action?
00:58:08.900 like we
00:58:10.120 because if it was
00:58:11.400 I don't even know
00:58:12.580 what would be appropriate
00:58:13.500 but I would say
00:58:15.460 that not
00:58:16.260 knowing
00:58:17.760 what was done
00:58:18.960 is not appropriate.
00:58:20.980 So
00:58:21.140 and I think
00:58:23.120 it deserves specifics.
00:58:24.560 I mean that's
00:58:24.880 what got me
00:58:25.380 into this
00:58:25.900 was you
00:58:26.320 the
00:58:26.820 Christy Blackford's
00:58:28.320 article
00:58:28.620 was very accurate
00:58:30.460 because she already
00:58:31.220 had the audio
00:58:31.840 but then when we
00:58:32.540 heard the audio
00:58:33.220 it was so appalling
00:58:34.760 what was done
00:58:35.620 to her
00:58:35.960 in that room.
00:58:36.500 it was such
00:58:37.220 horrible bullying
00:58:38.680 and just such
00:58:40.420 a violation
00:58:40.920 of what the
00:58:41.300 university
00:58:41.760 should stand for
00:58:43.340 that's what
00:58:44.580 coalesced
00:58:45.440 all of the anger.
00:58:46.480 I mean
00:58:46.680 in Canada
00:58:47.380 Yeah the devil's
00:58:48.080 in the details.
00:58:50.020 So it's the same
00:58:50.960 with the
00:58:51.420 how it has been
00:58:53.440 made clear
00:58:54.040 to those who
00:58:54.580 were involved.
00:58:56.080 So because I don't
00:58:56.980 I mean
00:58:58.520 maybe this is something
00:58:59.480 we could talk about too
00:59:00.360 I don't know
00:59:00.920 what would constitute
00:59:01.980 appropriate disciplinary
00:59:03.520 measures
00:59:03.940 as a consequence
00:59:05.780 I mean
00:59:06.080 you have here
00:59:07.360 three people
00:59:08.340 acting on
00:59:09.560 a non-existent
00:59:10.440 complaint
00:59:10.900 who produced
00:59:11.900 an international
00:59:12.860 scandal
00:59:13.640 that damaged
00:59:15.040 Lindsay
00:59:15.900 in a real sense
00:59:17.320 although it might have
00:59:18.020 also made her stronger
00:59:18.940 but it certainly
00:59:20.020 it certainly
00:59:21.080 didn't have to
00:59:21.940 because a lesser
00:59:22.640 person would have
00:59:23.340 crumbled
00:59:23.680 I don't know
00:59:24.140 if she would feel
00:59:24.700 that she
00:59:25.040 I think she might
00:59:26.040 take exception to that
00:59:26.980 she certainly
00:59:28.360 has not claimed
00:59:29.420 any kind of
00:59:30.160 victim status
00:59:30.860 throughout this whole thing
00:59:31.760 and I think that's
00:59:32.900 no but that's more
00:59:33.720 a testament to her
00:59:34.620 character than
00:59:35.380 anything else
00:59:36.240 because I mean
00:59:37.140 she was subject
00:59:37.860 to the kind of
00:59:38.640 attacks I would say
00:59:39.600 that would have
00:59:40.040 snowed under
00:59:40.720 a lesser person
00:59:41.820 yes but
00:59:42.760 she has
00:59:44.140 risen to this
00:59:45.220 challenge
00:59:45.540 yes definitely
00:59:46.400 definitely
00:59:47.160 well and
00:59:47.840 thank God for that
00:59:48.800 but then there has
00:59:49.860 been real harm done
00:59:50.720 to the university
00:59:51.460 as far as
00:59:52.200 so and I
00:59:53.780 don't know how
00:59:54.420 you would quantify
00:59:55.140 that in financial
00:59:56.080 terms but I
00:59:56.820 suspect it's
00:59:57.500 substantial
00:59:58.060 but reputational
00:59:59.100 terms
00:59:59.500 I mean now I
01:00:00.660 would say
01:00:01.060 internationally
01:00:01.720 this is what
01:00:02.560 Wilfrid Lurie
01:00:03.180 is known for
01:00:03.960 so maybe that's
01:00:05.100 an overstatement
01:00:05.700 but I don't
01:00:06.180 think so
01:00:06.700 as these are
01:00:08.280 individual employment
01:00:09.180 issues I cannot
01:00:09.900 go into greater
01:00:10.580 detail on any
01:00:11.400 individual case
01:00:12.240 well that could be
01:00:13.320 but know that the
01:00:14.280 university has
01:00:15.240 and is taking
01:00:16.120 action to rectify
01:00:17.060 the situation
01:00:17.660 and send a clear
01:00:18.500 signal that this
01:00:19.340 cannot and will
01:00:20.080 not happen again
01:00:20.860 that sounds
01:00:21.880 pretty forthright
01:00:23.380 yeah it is
01:00:24.060 one key improvement
01:00:26.240 highlighted is the
01:00:27.120 need to enhance
01:00:27.840 our faculty and
01:00:28.720 TA training
01:00:29.460 yeah well like I
01:00:33.460 said as a faculty
01:00:34.260 member whenever I
01:00:35.040 see that I don't
01:00:36.000 see the role of
01:00:36.840 the administrators
01:00:37.540 at a university
01:00:38.300 to to train the
01:00:39.780 faculty that's not
01:00:41.060 their role their
01:00:42.280 role is to move
01:00:43.420 paper around for the
01:00:44.560 faculty fundamentally
01:00:45.680 it is the
01:00:47.000 responsibility of
01:00:47.820 course instructors
01:00:48.480 to develop guidelines
01:00:49.460 for the roles and
01:00:50.280 expectations of their
01:00:51.200 TAs fair enough
01:00:52.700 the university also
01:00:53.740 has high expectations
01:00:55.120 of professors as
01:00:56.200 TA supervisors we
01:00:57.920 recognize the need
01:00:58.820 to do more in
01:00:59.480 this area
01:01:00.020 the university's
01:01:03.380 intent is to
01:01:04.000 enhance the
01:01:04.600 training and
01:01:05.040 support for both
01:01:05.780 TA supervisors and
01:01:06.940 teaching assistants
01:01:07.780 making these
01:01:08.580 mandatory and
01:01:09.520 standardized
01:01:10.200 that's my
01:01:11.880 favorite part
01:01:12.500 jesus dismal
01:01:13.680 so that so my
01:01:15.300 suspicions as a
01:01:17.080 skeptic are that
01:01:17.980 the making of
01:01:20.940 training for faculty
01:01:22.760 mandatory and
01:01:24.820 standardized will do
01:01:25.900 more harm than
01:01:28.340 this scandal has
01:01:29.920 done over the long
01:01:31.480 run so we don't know
01:01:32.540 what the training is
01:01:33.500 we don't know who's
01:01:34.420 going to do it we
01:01:35.120 don't know what it's
01:01:35.660 going to be about but
01:01:36.580 the one thing we do
01:01:37.220 know is it will be
01:01:38.080 mandatory yeah
01:01:39.200 mandatory and
01:01:40.420 standardized right
01:01:41.860 yeah mandatory and
01:01:43.600 standardized be
01:01:44.580 interesting to see how
01:01:45.420 they'll do that too
01:01:46.200 because it isn't so
01:01:47.000 easy to make training
01:01:47.940 mandatory for faculty
01:01:49.080 members right you
01:01:50.060 can't just do that by
01:01:51.060 fiat because they can
01:01:52.220 generally tell you to
01:01:53.000 go to hell and
01:01:53.860 should gendered and
01:01:56.280 sexual violence policy
01:01:57.660 it has become clear to
01:02:00.080 us that managing the
01:02:01.540 new gendered and
01:02:02.300 sexual violence policy
01:02:03.660 now that's the one
01:02:05.180 that's mandated by the
01:02:06.460 provincial government
01:02:07.640 so it was bill 163
01:02:10.220 provincial bill that
01:02:11.440 said you need to have
01:02:12.480 a policy on gendered
01:02:14.280 and sexual violence
01:02:15.100 according to our
01:02:17.000 colleague Dr. Andrew
01:02:18.620 Robinson he says we go
01:02:19.900 way beyond what the
01:02:20.880 province even asked for
01:02:22.280 to the point where it
01:02:24.040 becomes unmanageable and
01:02:26.340 and you have instances of
01:02:28.040 thought crime so so
01:02:29.280 that's what we have
01:02:29.940 like this like this
01:02:31.760 yeah where you can
01:02:32.960 claim that somebody is
01:02:33.900 transphobic for simply
01:02:36.820 showing a video
01:02:37.840 can I can I read you
01:02:39.120 the definition
01:02:40.220 is this from the
01:02:41.780 gendered and
01:02:42.420 yes it is
01:02:43.140 this is from our
01:02:43.760 policy
01:02:44.140 this is from our
01:02:44.740 policy
01:02:45.140 okay
01:02:45.600 it is an action
01:02:46.940 that reinforces
01:02:48.300 gender inequalities
01:02:49.420 resulting in physical
01:02:51.220 sexual emotional
01:02:52.500 economic or mental
01:02:53.840 harm
01:02:54.240 okay so what's the
01:02:55.860 first part of that
01:02:56.500 again
01:02:56.800 yes
01:02:57.600 yeah you get lost
01:02:58.760 don't you
01:02:59.100 okay it is an
01:03:00.300 action that reinforces
01:03:01.880 gender inequality
01:03:03.060 okay so let's start
01:03:04.180 with that
01:03:04.640 an action
01:03:05.900 that reinforces
01:03:07.780 gender inequalities
01:03:09.060 okay so the first
01:03:10.380 thing we might point
01:03:11.240 out is that no one
01:03:12.440 knows what the hell
01:03:13.160 that means
01:03:13.780 right
01:03:14.360 it's a box that
01:03:15.380 you can put anything
01:03:16.100 in so
01:03:16.500 actions
01:03:17.440 that's a problem
01:03:18.900 because what
01:03:20.080 it isn't obvious
01:03:20.840 what constitutes an
01:03:21.780 action
01:03:22.120 or an inaction
01:03:23.040 for that matter
01:03:23.800 so I mean
01:03:24.760 and then
01:03:25.920 that reinforces
01:03:27.280 gender inequalities
01:03:28.940 right so that
01:03:30.760 that's
01:03:31.200 that's the sort
01:03:32.260 of sentence
01:03:32.700 that only someone
01:03:33.520 who's ideologically
01:03:34.400 possessed to the
01:03:35.320 maximum would create
01:03:36.360 because you can't
01:03:37.320 parse it
01:03:37.860 gender inequalities
01:03:39.400 like what does
01:03:40.380 that mean exactly
01:03:41.180 I don't
01:03:43.320 well anyways
01:03:44.060 discrimination
01:03:44.880 on sex
01:03:46.020 or gender
01:03:46.460 it doesn't talk
01:03:47.180 about discrimination
01:03:47.900 it talks about
01:03:48.640 inequality
01:03:49.200 right which is
01:03:50.640 which is
01:03:51.140 it would be
01:03:51.700 different if
01:03:52.200 the phrasing
01:03:53.300 had included
01:03:53.940 the words
01:03:54.380 discrimination
01:03:54.960 okay and the
01:03:56.440 next part is
01:03:57.200 resulting in
01:03:58.380 physical
01:03:58.880 sexual
01:03:59.480 emotional
01:04:00.100 economic
01:04:00.760 or mental
01:04:01.340 harm
01:04:01.740 right right
01:04:02.800 so it's as
01:04:03.320 broadly construed
01:04:04.280 both
01:04:05.040 both clauses
01:04:06.080 are as broadly
01:04:07.120 construed as
01:04:07.880 they can be
01:04:08.560 and the reason
01:04:09.900 for that
01:04:10.340 is to allow
01:04:11.020 maximum scope
01:04:12.200 for interpretation
01:04:13.120 which is exactly
01:04:13.960 what happened
01:04:14.460 with Adria Jewell
01:04:15.280 well mental harm
01:04:16.420 again mental harm
01:04:17.460 and and as
01:04:18.520 you pointed out
01:04:19.360 mental harm
01:04:21.020 is not backed up
01:04:22.660 by the empirical
01:04:23.280 evidence
01:04:23.760 apart from
01:04:24.440 post-traumatic
01:04:26.140 stress syndrome
01:04:26.800 like cognitive
01:04:28.100 behavioral therapy
01:04:29.400 would suggest
01:04:30.040 that you actually
01:04:30.900 can do mental
01:04:31.520 good by exposing
01:04:33.180 someone to
01:04:33.760 objectionable ideas
01:04:34.580 when they've
01:04:35.000 in moderation
01:04:35.960 in order to
01:04:37.140 help them become
01:04:37.960 less mentally
01:04:38.880 fragile
01:04:39.340 Scott Lillefeld
01:04:41.300 out of Emory
01:04:41.960 University
01:04:42.560 a very credible
01:04:43.800 scholar
01:04:44.400 well he is
01:04:45.700 one of the
01:04:46.420 he's written
01:04:47.800 several textbooks
01:04:48.560 on psychopathology
01:04:49.760 right he knows
01:04:50.360 his stuff
01:04:50.740 and just this
01:04:52.200 year he put
01:04:52.780 out a paper
01:04:53.740 where he explored
01:04:54.680 the the
01:04:55.800 empirical evidence
01:04:56.840 around microaggressions
01:04:58.520 and he did
01:04:59.600 all of the
01:05:00.260 literature
01:05:00.620 and microaggressions
01:05:01.980 are of course
01:05:02.660 these innocuous
01:05:04.420 actions
01:05:04.980 that are deemed
01:05:06.160 to be
01:05:06.740 bigoted
01:05:07.700 or or somehow
01:05:09.080 sexist
01:05:09.820 it's
01:05:10.780 well they are
01:05:12.960 actually
01:05:13.340 it's showing
01:05:14.020 a video
01:05:14.580 of from TVO
01:05:16.320 is what a
01:05:16.840 microaggression
01:05:17.480 is
01:05:17.900 and what he
01:05:19.200 said was
01:05:19.840 there is absolutely
01:05:20.860 no evidence
01:05:22.080 there's no evidence
01:05:23.600 that microaggressions
01:05:25.340 these objectionable
01:05:26.340 ideas
01:05:26.820 lead to mental harm
01:05:28.600 he also said
01:05:29.740 that the
01:05:30.080 the concept itself
01:05:31.100 is extraordinarily
01:05:31.740 ill-defined
01:05:32.560 which is also
01:05:33.560 a big problem
01:05:34.200 which we can see
01:05:34.420 right
01:05:34.740 that was the beginning
01:05:35.880 of our conversation
01:05:36.560 everything is ill-defined
01:05:38.020 yeah
01:05:38.240 well that
01:05:38.840 if you make the box
01:05:39.700 big enough
01:05:40.140 you can put anything
01:05:40.900 into it
01:05:41.480 and what you see
01:05:43.180 in this gendered
01:05:44.880 and violence policy
01:05:45.620 that Will is reading
01:05:47.140 from
01:05:47.480 they are
01:05:48.380 they actually go on
01:05:49.260 to say
01:05:49.600 that
01:05:49.920 this can include
01:05:51.640 heterosexism
01:05:53.540 like you can be
01:05:54.600 your mental crime
01:05:56.500 could be heterosexism
01:05:57.560 yeah
01:05:57.920 so what if I said
01:05:58.720 something in class
01:05:59.500 like
01:05:59.760 the empirical evidence
01:06:01.100 strongly suggests
01:06:02.100 that raising children
01:06:03.000 in a two-parent family
01:06:04.260 leads to better outcomes
01:06:05.620 which it does
01:06:06.560 by the way
01:06:07.060 like it
01:06:07.500 and seriously
01:06:08.500 it does
01:06:09.140 so
01:06:09.820 then
01:06:10.440 well
01:06:10.980 so that's the question
01:06:11.740 you've transgressed
01:06:12.560 well arguably
01:06:13.840 right
01:06:14.220 arguably
01:06:14.700 I've transgressed
01:06:15.480 that policy
01:06:15.840 now here's an
01:06:16.380 interesting thing too
01:06:17.320 so
01:06:17.920 it has become
01:06:19.560 clear to us
01:06:20.280 that managing
01:06:20.980 the new gendered
01:06:21.800 and sexual violence
01:06:22.640 policy has led
01:06:23.420 to a confusion
01:06:24.300 in its application
01:06:25.320 right
01:06:25.660 okay
01:06:25.880 so this is back
01:06:26.540 to the issue
01:06:26.940 we described earlier
01:06:27.800 is it a confusion
01:06:29.000 in the application
01:06:29.960 or in the policy
01:06:30.720 now you just read
01:06:31.640 the damn policy
01:06:32.600 now it seems to me
01:06:34.100 that there's no way
01:06:35.080 you could apply
01:06:35.740 that policy
01:06:36.420 without confusion
01:06:37.220 so it's not a confusion
01:06:38.760 in its application
01:06:39.680 it might also be that
01:06:41.400 but it's a confusion
01:06:42.200 in the policy
01:06:43.160 written right into it
01:06:44.400 okay
01:06:44.800 so that's
01:06:45.300 that's of crucial importance
01:06:46.640 passed by the Board of Governors
01:06:47.720 right
01:06:48.100 in fact
01:06:49.320 the interviews
01:06:49.920 conducted by the Fact Finder
01:06:51.240 confirmed that
01:06:51.940 the rationale
01:06:52.560 for invoking the GSVP
01:06:54.340 did not exist
01:06:55.280 it was misapplied
01:06:56.500 and was a significant
01:06:57.480 overreach
01:06:58.180 yeah
01:06:58.960 I'm not so sure
01:07:00.420 about that
01:07:01.020 because I know
01:07:01.860 that these kind of
01:07:02.540 policies emerge
01:07:03.340 from the same
01:07:03.920 sort of policy
01:07:04.700 framework
01:07:05.240 that characterizes
01:07:07.160 the Ontario Human Rights
01:07:08.220 Commission
01:07:08.500 it's the same
01:07:09.140 people doing it
01:07:09.980 and the Ontario
01:07:11.320 Human Rights Commission
01:07:12.340 policies are written
01:07:13.360 so that they can be
01:07:14.760 broadly misapplied
01:07:17.040 with no significant
01:07:18.480 overreach
01:07:19.160 so
01:07:19.980 so
01:07:20.960 okay
01:07:21.480 so that's a problem
01:07:22.500 to provide clarity
01:07:24.400 of the policy's intent
01:07:25.820 and to strengthen
01:07:27.280 accountability
01:07:27.800 we will engage
01:07:28.860 in an administrative
01:07:29.700 review
01:07:30.420 with the goal
01:07:31.360 of finding the
01:07:32.020 appropriate structure
01:07:33.120 to oversee
01:07:33.740 and execute
01:07:34.440 the GSVP
01:07:35.360 and its accompanying
01:07:36.140 procedures
01:07:36.640 we will also
01:07:37.740 undertake a full
01:07:38.640 review of the policy
01:07:39.840 and its procedures
01:07:40.680 okay
01:07:41.060 so good
01:07:41.660 so there
01:07:42.280 they're saying
01:07:42.800 well it might have
01:07:43.820 been misapplied
01:07:44.440 but maybe the policy
01:07:45.280 itself also has
01:07:46.180 some problems
01:07:46.600 I think this is
01:07:47.220 really good news
01:07:47.920 and we had
01:07:49.220 a meeting with
01:07:50.300 our colleague
01:07:51.020 Andrew
01:07:51.720 Andrew Robinson
01:07:52.420 today
01:07:52.760 and we said
01:07:53.120 well you know
01:07:53.360 what do you think
01:07:53.820 about this
01:07:54.280 and he was pleased
01:07:55.460 he said
01:07:56.080 you know
01:07:56.480 if some good
01:07:57.960 has come out
01:07:58.560 of this
01:07:59.040 controversy
01:07:59.820 this is one
01:08:01.140 of those
01:08:01.800 good things
01:08:02.900 because
01:08:03.560 definitely
01:08:04.660 the gendered
01:08:05.740 and sexual
01:08:06.080 violence policy
01:08:06.800 we have at
01:08:07.240 Laurier
01:08:07.500 isn't workable
01:08:08.980 it is prejudiced
01:08:10.360 against certain
01:08:11.000 people
01:08:11.340 and certain
01:08:12.180 ideas
01:08:12.660 and so
01:08:13.460 it needs
01:08:13.920 to be reworked
01:08:14.760 because
01:08:15.040 it is not
01:08:16.440 an inclusive document
01:08:17.340 it excludes
01:08:18.420 and so
01:08:19.100 it needs
01:08:19.440 to be fixed
01:08:19.900 so this is a good thing
01:08:20.760 well and it's also
01:08:22.500 a canary in the coal mine
01:08:23.980 for similar policies
01:08:25.000 at universities
01:08:25.640 all across Canada
01:08:26.760 would say
01:08:27.540 and maybe broader
01:08:28.280 because one
01:08:28.820 thing you'd hope
01:08:30.180 is that
01:08:30.620 the Lindsay Shepard affair
01:08:32.280 has produced
01:08:33.260 enough
01:08:33.800 negative repercussions
01:08:35.500 to set people back
01:08:36.680 on their heels
01:08:37.200 a little bit
01:08:37.700 and make them
01:08:38.280 dig into
01:08:38.800 these policies
01:08:39.500 because I can't
01:08:40.520 imagine that
01:08:41.100 there's another
01:08:41.520 university in Canada
01:08:42.560 who would enjoy
01:08:43.540 partaking in
01:08:44.460 a scandal
01:08:45.020 of equivalent
01:08:45.620 magnitude
01:08:46.220 what I would hope
01:08:48.040 and on
01:08:48.620 that point
01:08:49.580 Jordan
01:08:50.080 if someone
01:08:52.160 is a student
01:08:52.840 or if someone
01:08:53.740 is a faculty member
01:08:54.800 ask for the evidence
01:08:56.640 that's what I've learned
01:08:58.380 from this
01:08:58.900 there are a lot
01:08:59.780 of claims out there
01:09:00.700 mental harm
01:09:01.860 our campuses
01:09:02.700 become unsafe
01:09:03.500 the ideas
01:09:05.300 that are contained
01:09:05.980 in the
01:09:06.500 the gendered
01:09:07.920 and sexual violence
01:09:08.560 policy
01:09:08.900 I'm saying
01:09:09.420 okay
01:09:09.780 what is the evidence
01:09:12.340 that proves this
01:09:13.840 because this is
01:09:15.240 what a university
01:09:16.240 is supposed to be
01:09:16.900 based on
01:09:17.360 from the enlightenment
01:09:18.400 to today
01:09:18.940 we are supposed
01:09:20.060 to be able to say
01:09:20.840 here's the evidence
01:09:22.100 for why we do this
01:09:23.840 and the further
01:09:25.140 we get away from
01:09:25.960 evidence
01:09:26.640 and the more
01:09:27.620 we embrace ideology
01:09:28.800 we completely
01:09:30.040 remove what the mission
01:09:31.200 of a university
01:09:31.800 is supposed to be
01:09:32.440 well and the idea
01:09:33.160 of evidence
01:09:33.720 we remove the idea
01:09:34.740 of evidence
01:09:35.180 which means we remove
01:09:36.520 the idea of knowledge
01:09:37.900 because there's no
01:09:38.760 distinction between
01:09:39.620 knowledge and evidence
01:09:40.560 right right
01:09:41.360 so so if you are a student
01:09:43.960 and you want to say
01:09:45.020 what what can I do
01:09:45.800 say what's the evidence
01:09:47.260 of mental harm
01:09:47.960 what's the evidence
01:09:48.960 that that this
01:09:50.220 that I'm transphobic
01:09:51.580 what's right
01:09:52.140 well well so partly
01:09:53.340 what you're also saying
01:09:54.420 there is a restatement
01:09:55.480 of the old presumption
01:09:56.660 of innocence idea
01:09:57.740 it's like okay
01:09:59.000 you're accusing me
01:09:59.900 of something
01:10:00.420 prove it
01:10:01.240 I'm innocent
01:10:02.180 buddy
01:10:02.640 prove it
01:10:03.660 where's your evidence
01:10:04.640 yeah I know we do
01:10:05.840 I know
01:10:06.320 well part of that's
01:10:07.600 tied up with this
01:10:08.480 with the sexual harassment
01:10:09.900 issue because
01:10:10.680 increasingly
01:10:11.660 and this is
01:10:12.200 this is
01:10:12.560 this has started
01:10:13.740 I think most
01:10:14.600 particularly in the
01:10:15.340 United States
01:10:15.900 we're moving towards
01:10:16.820 a preponderance
01:10:17.660 of evidence
01:10:18.280 standard
01:10:18.980 instead of a
01:10:19.760 assumption of
01:10:20.420 innocence standard
01:10:21.240 that's especially
01:10:22.000 true with these
01:10:22.600 sexual harassment
01:10:23.280 policies that are
01:10:24.040 being derived
01:10:25.160 by
01:10:25.480 derived
01:10:27.100 from
01:10:28.460 institutions
01:10:30.020 and administrators
01:10:30.880 concerned with
01:10:31.620 such things
01:10:32.120 as the gendered
01:10:32.980 and sexual
01:10:33.480 violence policy
01:10:34.620 and that's related
01:10:35.820 to the comment
01:10:36.920 you made earlier
01:10:37.600 about the lawyer
01:10:38.300 who wasn't
01:10:38.820 allowed to speak
01:10:40.180 right because
01:10:40.720 she had the
01:10:41.440 temerity to offer
01:10:42.520 someone who was
01:10:43.480 accused of a crime
01:10:44.380 a legal defense
01:10:45.480 when apparently
01:10:47.440 what we were supposed
01:10:48.240 to do was just
01:10:48.940 assume that the people
01:10:50.240 who were making
01:10:50.800 the accusations
01:10:51.480 were right because
01:10:52.420 they claimed that
01:10:53.160 they were wronged
01:10:54.440 so
01:10:54.680 and to be
01:10:56.360 I mean we always
01:10:57.260 have to do our
01:10:57.760 caveats don't we
01:10:58.500 we say
01:10:59.260 I know
01:11:00.820 that we want
01:11:02.040 to protect people
01:11:03.020 who are victims
01:11:04.260 like
01:11:04.660 each of us
01:11:05.940 would agree
01:11:06.440 but it can't
01:11:07.600 be done
01:11:07.860 by sacrificing
01:11:09.400 truth
01:11:09.860 well you don't
01:11:10.460 protect people
01:11:11.240 from being victimized
01:11:12.360 by undermining
01:11:13.100 the rule of law
01:11:14.040 quite the contrary
01:11:15.220 because ultimately
01:11:17.020 it comes back
01:11:17.920 to bite you
01:11:18.420 in the behind
01:11:18.860 yes that's for sure
01:11:19.980 and very very rapidly
01:11:21.080 so okay
01:11:22.320 in the interim
01:11:23.060 we will ensure
01:11:23.840 access to the
01:11:24.880 existing support
01:11:25.740 and complaints
01:11:26.300 procedures
01:11:26.760 by providing
01:11:27.380 management
01:11:27.860 and oversight
01:11:28.420 through the
01:11:28.860 office of dispute
01:11:30.200 resolution and support
01:11:31.440 okay I'm not sure
01:11:33.220 what that means
01:11:33.940 well it's actually
01:11:34.660 very good news
01:11:35.480 okay okay
01:11:36.160 it means that
01:11:36.860 the oversight
01:11:38.800 of this
01:11:39.580 is being removed
01:11:40.700 from the diversity
01:11:41.340 and equity office
01:11:42.300 and put under
01:11:43.660 the president's
01:11:44.400 direct control
01:11:45.200 so she doesn't
01:11:46.560 think that
01:11:47.180 they're responsible
01:11:48.500 and I'm very worried
01:11:51.560 about diversity
01:11:52.240 and equity office
01:11:53.160 overreach
01:11:53.820 this suggests
01:11:54.520 that the president
01:11:55.160 as you should be
01:11:56.140 it suggests the president
01:11:57.080 is also worried
01:11:58.020 about the diversity
01:11:58.820 and equity office
01:11:59.700 that she has said
01:12:01.380 we're not
01:12:01.680 I can't imagine why
01:12:02.500 but the fact
01:12:04.200 that she has done
01:12:04.980 this is really
01:12:06.140 a strong sign
01:12:07.800 that she is aware
01:12:08.960 that that office
01:12:10.480 needs to be
01:12:11.700 it needs to be
01:12:12.380 reined in
01:12:12.700 right or at least
01:12:13.480 that she's concerned
01:12:14.260 enough about the
01:12:14.960 reputation of the
01:12:15.700 university so that
01:12:16.460 she's not going to
01:12:17.140 let the same mistake
01:12:17.980 happen again
01:12:18.620 which is a good thing
01:12:19.640 like I don't care
01:12:20.200 why she's doing it
01:12:21.120 particularly
01:12:21.540 but it's a good thing
01:12:23.140 that it is being done
01:12:23.920 okay so fine
01:12:24.740 so that's good news
01:12:26.380 this has the added
01:12:28.180 benefit of improved
01:12:29.300 accountability
01:12:29.860 as that office
01:12:30.840 reports through
01:12:31.520 to me as president
01:12:32.600 yeah okay
01:12:33.580 well you can see
01:12:34.520 in those lines
01:12:35.100 that she's not
01:12:35.840 particularly happy
01:12:37.020 about what's happened
01:12:37.760 I wonder what sort
01:12:38.740 of financial hit
01:12:39.520 Wilfrid Laurier took
01:12:40.540 because you can imagine
01:12:42.840 that while the donors
01:12:44.100 are going to be
01:12:44.520 a lot more conservative
01:12:45.280 than the professors
01:12:46.760 and the administrators
01:12:47.600 and the students
01:12:48.540 well we have
01:12:49.880 we've been contacted
01:12:51.480 by a group of alumni
01:12:52.700 who have now organized
01:12:53.920 they haven't yet
01:12:55.000 released what would be
01:12:56.600 their press release
01:12:57.740 but slowly they've been
01:12:58.820 reaching out to other alumni
01:13:00.900 and it's the Laurier alumni
01:13:02.920 for free expression
01:13:03.720 and what they have said
01:13:05.260 is their mandate is
01:13:06.660 one to withhold
01:13:07.960 all donations
01:13:08.660 until Laurier accepts
01:13:11.460 the Laurier statement
01:13:12.380 for freedom of expression
01:13:13.400 and I haven't checked in
01:13:16.280 it was just someone
01:13:17.840 acting on her own
01:13:19.020 she's a Laurier alumni
01:13:20.620 she has I guess
01:13:23.420 contacts within
01:13:24.360 the alumni association
01:13:25.620 and she just
01:13:26.800 she sent us
01:13:28.020 some contact information
01:13:29.280 and said
01:13:29.620 here's what I'm doing
01:13:30.560 wanted you to know
01:13:31.420 I support your efforts
01:13:32.540 and I'm working on this
01:13:34.360 I'll let you know
01:13:35.020 when I'm ready to go
01:13:36.200 and so that was
01:13:36.720 really encouraging
01:13:37.300 I have a colleague
01:13:38.060 who does a survey
01:13:39.100 of chief financial officers
01:13:41.180 quarterly to gauge
01:13:42.340 their optimism
01:13:43.160 about the economy
01:13:44.020 and started down at Duke
01:13:45.260 and he's doing it
01:13:45.960 now for Canada
01:13:46.580 and he got responses
01:13:48.120 from two
01:13:48.800 because he sent out
01:13:50.840 an email just shortly
01:13:51.520 after this broke
01:13:52.180 he got responses
01:13:53.160 from two alumni
01:13:53.900 who just said
01:13:54.940 you know
01:13:55.740 why should I participate
01:13:56.660 in this
01:13:56.920 why should I help you
01:13:57.620 this is nuts
01:13:58.180 I don't have any respect
01:13:59.100 for you
01:13:59.340 these are alumni
01:14:00.160 of Wilfrid Laurier University
01:14:02.460 yes well
01:14:02.960 and I can imagine too
01:14:03.880 that enrollment
01:14:04.580 is going to take
01:14:05.340 a pretty vicious hit
01:14:06.280 you know
01:14:06.580 our business school
01:14:07.300 is quite excellent
01:14:08.200 we have a great
01:14:09.240 co-op program
01:14:09.900 we in the finance area
01:14:11.260 attract a lot
01:14:11.880 of very strong students
01:14:12.680 and we compete
01:14:13.520 for top tier students
01:14:14.920 in Ontario
01:14:15.800 the entry average
01:14:17.140 is like 89
01:14:17.940 or something
01:14:18.620 and we really compete
01:14:20.220 for what we call
01:14:20.860 the high flyers
01:14:21.800 and they can choose
01:14:22.760 any school
01:14:23.520 in the province
01:14:24.640 right
01:14:25.240 yeah well it doesn't
01:14:26.920 take much of a hit
01:14:27.680 to a reputation
01:14:28.440 to give people
01:14:29.340 who have options
01:14:30.080 the reason to go
01:14:30.880 elsewhere
01:14:31.300 right
01:14:31.880 and then you lose
01:14:32.500 the best people
01:14:33.360 and that's when things
01:14:34.520 really start to fall apart
01:14:35.720 and what you might
01:14:36.500 begin to see
01:14:37.140 and I would say
01:14:38.160 that this is something
01:14:39.080 that the general public
01:14:40.420 might look at
01:14:40.960 watch what happens
01:14:42.280 to the entrance averages
01:14:43.400 in the arts
01:14:44.420 and humanities
01:14:45.080 so we might not
01:14:47.560 take a hit
01:14:48.160 but let's see
01:14:49.840 if the averages
01:14:50.420 take a hit
01:14:51.100 because suddenly
01:14:52.820 and currently
01:14:54.180 the entrance average
01:14:55.320 to get into
01:14:56.460 our general arts program
01:14:57.580 in communications
01:14:58.900 let's just talk
01:14:59.420 communications
01:14:59.860 is mid 70s
01:15:01.200 with an average
01:15:02.240 of 60 in English
01:15:03.380 so I don't
01:15:07.060 I mean
01:15:07.560 right
01:15:08.120 which is basically
01:15:09.040 a failing grade
01:15:09.920 right
01:15:10.180 because if you hand
01:15:11.380 in an essay
01:15:12.220 in high school
01:15:13.320 you'll get 60
01:15:14.420 you really will
01:15:15.540 right
01:15:15.740 so it's basically
01:15:16.740 the grading basically
01:15:17.720 runs from 60
01:15:18.640 it goes zero
01:15:19.640 you didn't hand it in
01:15:21.060 60 to 100
01:15:22.260 you handed it in
01:15:23.440 and let's keep in mind
01:15:24.780 that the tutorial
01:15:26.160 that Lindsay was running
01:15:27.680 was a grammar tutorial
01:15:29.200 the content of which
01:15:30.760 looked a lot like
01:15:31.520 grade 6 curriculum
01:15:32.760 yeah
01:15:33.440 yeah
01:15:33.880 well that gets us
01:15:34.740 into a discussion
01:15:35.480 of the schools
01:15:36.180 in general
01:15:36.720 but
01:15:36.980 we're all right
01:15:37.780 I'm thinking that
01:15:39.040 maybe it's not a good
01:15:40.240 idea to lower
01:15:41.080 standards any anymore
01:15:42.620 right
01:15:43.140 right
01:15:43.940 right
01:15:44.320 okay
01:15:44.820 okay
01:15:45.300 so
01:15:45.760 academic freedom
01:15:47.060 and freedom of expression
01:15:48.160 for those who have
01:15:49.740 chosen to use this
01:15:50.860 incident as an
01:15:51.700 indictment of
01:15:52.480 Wilfrid Laurier University
01:15:53.720 or the plight of
01:15:54.820 Canadian universities
01:15:55.700 in general
01:15:56.380 I say your assertion
01:15:57.880 is unreasonable
01:15:58.660 and unfounded
01:15:59.640 well we better
01:16:00.160 stop this interview
01:16:00.880 yeah
01:16:01.220 yeah
01:16:01.560 well
01:16:01.860 you can say that
01:16:03.100 all you want
01:16:03.680 I would say instead
01:16:05.520 that what happened
01:16:06.480 at Wilfrid Laurier
01:16:07.280 is a precise
01:16:08.300 manifestation of
01:16:09.380 exactly the sort
01:16:10.280 of rot
01:16:10.800 that both produced
01:16:12.020 Bill C-16
01:16:12.820 and that I was
01:16:13.520 warning about
01:16:14.080 last September
01:16:14.800 and so
01:16:15.620 I don't think
01:16:16.380 the assertion
01:16:16.980 is unreasonable
01:16:17.560 and unfounded
01:16:18.520 at all
01:16:19.140 and here's one
01:16:19.880 piece of data
01:16:20.640 80% of humanities
01:16:22.960 papers are not
01:16:23.880 cited once
01:16:24.740 so
01:16:27.080 so let's just
01:16:29.540 translate that
01:16:30.140 for the viewing
01:16:30.560 public
01:16:30.940 yes
01:16:31.460 that means
01:16:32.160 that they're
01:16:32.880 producing scholarship
01:16:33.800 that nobody
01:16:34.380 looks at
01:16:34.940 yes
01:16:35.280 that even
01:16:36.340 their friends
01:16:36.960 don't look at
01:16:37.820 and because
01:16:38.680 okay so what a
01:16:39.360 citation is
01:16:40.020 is I read
01:16:40.560 someone's paper
01:16:41.180 and I find a good
01:16:41.880 idea in it
01:16:42.560 and then I use
01:16:43.440 that idea to
01:16:44.140 buttress an idea
01:16:44.860 of my own
01:16:45.380 or to riff off
01:16:47.180 or to
01:16:47.600 criticize even
01:16:50.140 for that matter
01:16:50.820 and then I cite
01:16:51.840 them
01:16:52.060 I say who they
01:16:52.780 were and when
01:16:53.220 they published it
01:16:53.820 and then the
01:16:54.220 paper
01:16:54.540 there's a huge
01:16:56.600 bureaucracy that
01:16:57.380 keeps track of
01:16:58.040 citations
01:16:58.480 and it's a major
01:16:59.220 indication of
01:17:00.100 academic ability
01:17:01.280 to be cited
01:17:02.040 right
01:17:02.400 it's like
01:17:04.060 it's academic
01:17:04.900 payment to be
01:17:05.880 cited
01:17:06.180 okay so
01:17:07.020 80% of
01:17:07.920 humanities papers
01:17:08.780 don't get
01:17:09.700 cited once
01:17:11.080 it's absolute
01:17:12.640 failure
01:17:13.120 absolute failure
01:17:14.120 as a game
01:17:14.820 if someone
01:17:15.200 wanted to
01:17:15.700 play a game
01:17:16.720 I would suggest
01:17:18.220 that they go
01:17:18.960 and they look
01:17:19.660 at the publications
01:17:21.020 of the professors
01:17:22.680 in a particular
01:17:23.280 area
01:17:23.720 and see if the
01:17:25.000 titles all
01:17:26.040 sound the same
01:17:26.820 and if they all
01:17:28.980 say something
01:17:29.580 about intersectionality
01:17:31.200 colonialism
01:17:33.460 and these other
01:17:35.720 various social
01:17:38.200 justice words
01:17:39.140 you might wonder
01:17:40.480 am I going to get
01:17:41.320 taught the same
01:17:42.020 course again and
01:17:43.140 again by every
01:17:43.940 professor in this
01:17:44.720 program because it
01:17:46.080 seems to me that
01:17:46.700 all of their research
01:17:47.500 is very similar
01:17:48.720 and how can that
01:17:51.960 be when there's
01:17:52.620 such a broad
01:17:53.360 base of knowledge
01:17:54.140 in the world
01:17:54.820 that we can have
01:17:56.220 such similarity
01:17:58.020 between every
01:17:58.920 publication
01:17:59.500 which then
01:18:00.300 goes on
01:18:01.080 why do I need
01:18:02.040 to read my
01:18:02.700 colleague stuff
01:18:03.400 when it's exactly
01:18:04.140 like my own
01:18:04.960 which we see
01:18:07.200 so just as a
01:18:08.460 baseline
01:18:08.820 Jordan
01:18:09.560 what would you say
01:18:11.580 what would you say
01:18:11.600 is someone
01:18:12.740 who's doing
01:18:13.200 some good research
01:18:14.060 how many citations
01:18:15.580 would they be
01:18:16.760 receiving maybe
01:18:17.420 collectively
01:18:18.700 like what are we
01:18:19.840 looking at
01:18:20.160 thousands
01:18:20.460 yeah well a good
01:18:21.960 like if you
01:18:22.760 write a good
01:18:24.920 paper
01:18:25.460 then like a great
01:18:28.500 paper will get you
01:18:29.660 a hundred citations
01:18:30.620 right an
01:18:31.240 outstanding
01:18:31.940 overwhelmingly
01:18:33.040 outstanding paper
01:18:34.100 will get you a
01:18:34.620 thousand citations
01:18:35.640 ten isn't none
01:18:38.640 you know it you
01:18:39.720 register with ten
01:18:40.920 but zero is
01:18:42.840 that's failure
01:18:43.840 right
01:18:44.440 it means your work
01:18:45.480 had zero impact
01:18:46.320 it it means your
01:18:47.520 work wasn't worth
01:18:48.380 the paper it was
01:18:49.240 published on
01:18:49.820 and this this brings
01:18:50.840 us to a kind of
01:18:52.000 interesting little issue
01:18:53.480 with regards to the
01:18:54.460 rot in the
01:18:55.060 universities which
01:18:55.820 which Deborah
01:18:56.520 McClatchy says
01:18:57.300 does not exist
01:18:58.100 it's like here's
01:18:58.700 how the game
01:18:59.160 works is that
01:18:59.920 we set up a
01:19:01.320 little ideological
01:19:02.140 garden right
01:19:03.780 the ten of us
01:19:04.360 play in and
01:19:05.540 then we all
01:19:06.080 publish in the
01:19:06.760 same journal
01:19:07.260 and we peer
01:19:07.840 review each
01:19:08.420 other's articles
01:19:09.120 and we just
01:19:09.940 publish them
01:19:10.840 there's no
01:19:11.380 critique or
01:19:12.400 very little
01:19:12.960 so the
01:19:13.700 barrier for
01:19:15.640 publication is
01:19:16.580 very very low
01:19:17.240 when it should be
01:19:17.820 very high
01:19:18.300 like a good
01:19:18.860 journal a good
01:19:19.920 journal will
01:19:20.480 reject 90% of
01:19:21.780 the papers that
01:19:22.720 are that are
01:19:23.460 submitted to
01:19:25.780 it right
01:19:26.440 so rejection
01:19:29.080 rates really
01:19:29.600 matter
01:19:29.900 so the
01:19:32.260 question is
01:19:32.880 why do the
01:19:33.760 these papers get
01:19:34.960 published since
01:19:35.780 no one reads
01:19:36.680 them and they
01:19:37.400 have nothing to
01:19:37.940 offer and the
01:19:38.500 answer to that
01:19:38.900 is very
01:19:39.260 straightforward
01:19:39.800 the journals
01:19:41.420 are extremely
01:19:42.020 expensive are
01:19:43.000 way more
01:19:43.600 expensive than
01:19:44.160 they should be
01:19:44.560 so just to
01:19:45.120 buy a single
01:19:46.100 paper online for
01:19:47.380 the ordinary
01:19:47.820 person is like
01:19:48.580 $40 which is
01:19:49.620 more than a
01:19:50.020 hardcover book
01:19:50.660 that's just to
01:19:51.240 download the
01:19:51.940 PDF and so
01:19:53.200 the journal
01:19:53.660 itself
01:19:54.260 the libraries
01:19:54.920 are full of
01:19:55.320 them are very
01:19:55.820 expensive and the
01:19:56.600 subscriptions are
01:19:57.260 very expensive
01:19:57.940 and so what
01:19:58.800 happens is the
01:19:59.540 professors pressure
01:20:00.820 the university
01:20:01.600 libraries to buy
01:20:02.540 the journals and
01:20:03.740 the library funds
01:20:05.180 the publisher and
01:20:06.540 so the publishers
01:20:07.340 will publish
01:20:07.880 anything
01:20:08.360 Routledge is a good
01:20:09.140 example of that
01:20:09.860 much to my
01:20:10.700 chagrin because
01:20:11.300 they published my
01:20:11.980 first book but
01:20:13.160 and they used to
01:20:13.780 be a great
01:20:14.120 publishing house
01:20:14.680 but they'll
01:20:15.000 publish damn near
01:20:15.640 anything and
01:20:16.120 the reason for
01:20:16.600 that is that the
01:20:17.520 libraries are
01:20:18.080 forced to pay
01:20:18.960 radically inflated
01:20:20.140 prices for the
01:20:21.860 publications that
01:20:23.180 no one ever
01:20:23.800 reads and so
01:20:24.780 people write to
01:20:26.580 publish in
01:20:27.240 journals that
01:20:27.820 libraries have to
01:20:29.100 purchase at
01:20:29.640 inflated prices to
01:20:31.480 produce knowledge
01:20:32.600 that no one will
01:20:33.660 ever read and
01:20:34.480 that's the little
01:20:35.120 scandal that plagues
01:20:37.020 the humanities I
01:20:37.940 think it
01:20:38.220 characterizes the
01:20:39.020 humanities more
01:20:39.640 than plagues them
01:20:40.260 so the idea that
01:20:41.240 there's no systemic
01:20:42.800 rot let's say in
01:20:44.000 the universities
01:20:44.520 especially in the
01:20:45.220 humanities is just
01:20:46.080 not the case
01:20:46.720 well this is just
01:20:47.080 far too general
01:20:47.900 there is rot and
01:20:50.620 it's not everywhere
01:20:51.520 and this just
01:20:53.100 reveals that I
01:20:53.800 don't think she's
01:20:54.620 that familiar with
01:20:55.620 the situation she's
01:20:56.820 in and I've been
01:20:58.000 listening to some of
01:20:59.140 your work and
01:20:59.820 Jonathan Haidt and
01:21:01.000 trying to understand
01:21:01.860 what's been going on
01:21:02.740 over the last two
01:21:03.540 years in universities
01:21:04.940 protected as I am in
01:21:07.140 a business school and
01:21:07.840 starting to realize
01:21:08.580 that it's not
01:21:09.160 everywhere it's
01:21:10.240 social justice
01:21:11.700 perspective
01:21:12.120 the STEM fields are
01:21:12.960 fine so far
01:21:13.780 right
01:21:14.140 yeah and the
01:21:14.820 business schools
01:21:15.500 although there
01:21:16.460 there are moves
01:21:17.320 into the business
01:21:18.020 schools but they're
01:21:18.680 still doing all
01:21:19.360 right
01:21:19.620 philosophy is not
01:21:20.780 doing too badly
01:21:21.520 like there are
01:21:22.260 disciplines that have
01:21:23.240 still remained
01:21:23.860 untouched and
01:21:25.160 mostly what's
01:21:26.180 happened so far is
01:21:27.040 that if the
01:21:27.680 discipline has a
01:21:28.480 strong economic or
01:21:30.140 scientific footing
01:21:31.280 it's proved much
01:21:32.260 harder to corrupt
01:21:33.160 and empirical
01:21:33.800 yeah that's right
01:21:34.980 for my part so I
01:21:36.560 play in the
01:21:37.200 playground of
01:21:37.940 sociology of
01:21:38.680 religion but all
01:21:39.700 my stuff well most
01:21:40.860 of my stuff is
01:21:41.460 quantitative so I
01:21:42.360 actually I wasn't
01:21:43.520 familiar with what
01:21:44.860 was going I don't I
01:21:46.060 go to conferences
01:21:46.760 where everybody has
01:21:48.260 to have strong
01:21:49.020 empirical evidence I
01:21:50.240 publish in journals
01:21:51.040 that are international
01:21:51.820 journals that are
01:21:53.060 scientific study of
01:21:54.960 religion is what we
01:21:56.540 do so you know I'm
01:21:58.440 familiar with Foucault
01:21:59.760 and that stuff but
01:22:00.760 that's not where I
01:22:01.360 play so I wasn't
01:22:02.540 really exposed to
01:22:03.720 what's going on and
01:22:04.440 you don't and you
01:22:04.920 don't really think
01:22:05.620 well they can't
01:22:06.960 there's no reason to
01:22:07.820 be that concerned
01:22:08.520 about it until about
01:22:09.300 three years ago
01:22:10.000 well this is it and
01:22:10.740 but then I'm trying
01:22:11.660 to get into the
01:22:12.280 headspace of some
01:22:13.920 of my colleagues so
01:22:15.420 I got out a
01:22:16.080 textbook it was
01:22:17.280 called race class
01:22:18.400 and gender and
01:22:19.120 it's it's an
01:22:19.740 anthology that's
01:22:20.540 used in cultural
01:22:22.320 studies courses in
01:22:23.440 women's studies
01:22:24.040 courses and it's
01:22:25.100 sort of the go-to
01:22:25.920 text so I'm told
01:22:27.020 and I'm reading it
01:22:28.600 and I turned it and
01:22:29.340 I I turned to page
01:22:31.060 14 and I can tell
01:22:31.900 you it's page 14
01:22:32.740 because I was so
01:22:33.440 astounded by what I
01:22:34.320 found and it said
01:22:35.960 we oh it says
01:22:38.500 objectivity as found
01:22:40.600 through rational
01:22:41.360 thought is a
01:22:42.800 western and
01:22:43.900 masculine concept
01:22:44.960 that we will
01:22:46.000 challenge throughout
01:22:47.000 this text yeah
01:22:47.940 right yeah yeah
01:22:49.340 and I said it's
01:22:50.480 too bad it's too
01:22:51.440 bad that you're
01:22:52.100 shocked by that
01:22:52.980 because I couldn't
01:22:53.920 believe it so you
01:22:54.840 want to go for
01:22:55.540 irrational the PC
01:22:56.560 types have been
01:22:57.240 saying exactly that
01:22:58.200 since the 1970s
01:22:59.620 like that is
01:23:00.220 exact they make
01:23:01.240 no mistake about
01:23:02.060 this this is why
01:23:02.680 McClatchy is wrong
01:23:03.580 this isn't this
01:23:04.980 isn't something
01:23:05.540 they're secreting
01:23:06.380 in this is the
01:23:08.120 dead statement
01:23:08.960 oh yeah it's
01:23:09.780 that the the
01:23:11.540 whole notion of
01:23:12.400 logic and
01:23:13.300 coherence and
01:23:14.180 empirical data for
01:23:15.120 that matter
01:23:15.640 evidence is a
01:23:17.300 very nature
01:23:17.720 evidence let's
01:23:19.340 question let's
01:23:20.200 question the
01:23:20.740 definition of
01:23:21.440 evidence because
01:23:22.240 the underlying
01:23:22.820 idea remember the
01:23:23.880 underlying idea
01:23:24.580 here is that all
01:23:25.460 hierarchies are
01:23:26.880 predicated on
01:23:27.580 power so if the
01:23:29.260 reason that I put
01:23:30.200 forward something as
01:23:31.040 evidence isn't
01:23:32.020 because it's
01:23:32.480 evidence it's
01:23:33.860 because it's
01:23:34.240 evidence that I
01:23:34.880 get to have that
01:23:35.520 position of
01:23:36.080 power and so if
01:23:37.380 you're a
01:23:37.680 postmodernist and
01:23:38.540 you say well I'm
01:23:39.100 going to question
01:23:39.540 your evidence what
01:23:40.380 you think you're
01:23:41.280 saying is you're
01:23:42.300 going to question my
01:23:43.520 claim to that
01:23:44.300 arbitrary power the
01:23:45.700 whole idea that
01:23:46.360 there's evidence
01:23:47.040 outside of claims of
01:23:48.280 arbitrary power the
01:23:49.460 postmodernists dispensed
01:23:50.740 with that in the
01:23:51.220 1970s that's Derrida
01:23:52.940 that's exactly what he
01:23:54.920 said and all this
01:23:56.360 time I've been trying
01:23:57.120 to get samples of
01:23:57.960 thousands so that I
01:23:58.880 could say you know
01:23:59.520 this is a little bit
01:24:00.400 we can say something
01:24:02.400 you can generalize
01:24:03.800 no no that just
01:24:04.660 demonstrates how
01:24:05.480 thoroughly entrenched
01:24:06.500 you are in the
01:24:07.240 reigning patriarchal
01:24:08.160 ideology I guess and
01:24:09.480 I was just hoping to
01:24:10.320 get beyond anecdotal
01:24:11.760 there's no beyond
01:24:13.220 there's no beyond
01:24:14.480 anecdotal that's
01:24:15.380 become a methodology
01:24:16.180 that's auto
01:24:16.940 experience it's called
01:24:18.080 auto ethnography
01:24:19.300 there's a technical
01:24:20.600 term for it and
01:24:21.300 auto ethnography is
01:24:22.540 the publication of a
01:24:24.460 journal of a of a
01:24:25.740 private diary
01:24:26.640 essentially in a
01:24:28.000 hypothetically
01:24:29.640 reputable
01:24:30.320 reputable
01:24:32.580 academic journal
01:24:34.200 it's only because of
01:24:37.400 in the last three or
01:24:38.280 four years that these
01:24:39.060 things have been
01:24:39.480 happening that I
01:24:39.980 say well where
01:24:40.500 where do they get
01:24:41.180 this how do they
01:24:42.500 how do they find
01:24:44.320 these thoughts
01:24:45.180 yes well we don't
01:24:46.540 we don't want to
01:24:47.300 fall into the mistake
01:24:48.360 of making of making
01:24:49.660 the assumption that
01:24:50.860 this hasn't been
01:24:51.540 thought through
01:24:52.140 no people are not
01:24:53.640 just misunderstanding
01:24:54.880 what evidence is
01:24:56.080 that isn't what's
01:24:57.120 happening at all
01:24:57.800 when they say they
01:24:58.820 want to question the
01:24:59.820 definition of evidence
01:25:00.940 that's exactly what
01:25:02.340 they mean when they
01:25:03.280 say we want to
01:25:03.980 question the definition
01:25:05.280 of evidence because
01:25:06.140 the definition of
01:25:07.220 evidence currently
01:25:08.440 supports the
01:25:09.300 scientific power
01:25:10.080 structure in
01:25:10.720 chemistry say and
01:25:11.820 that's fundamentally
01:25:12.740 dominated by let's
01:25:13.820 say white men we
01:25:15.020 can go after the
01:25:15.680 definition of evidence
01:25:16.520 itself and that's
01:25:17.960 how we're going to
01:25:18.380 bring it down and
01:25:19.540 so the next people on
01:25:20.540 the hit list are
01:25:21.160 going to be the
01:25:21.660 biologists they're
01:25:22.420 already under attack
01:25:23.480 from the social
01:25:24.040 justice warriors
01:25:24.600 that said that
01:25:25.180 mathematics is
01:25:26.000 whiteness yeah
01:25:26.760 yeah yeah definitely
01:25:28.220 i didn't know that
01:25:30.100 mathematics could have
01:25:31.360 a race
01:25:31.760 yeah but the thing
01:25:33.740 the thing is there's
01:25:34.340 nothing illogical about
01:25:35.460 these claims once you
01:25:36.500 accept this central
01:25:37.760 axioms the axioms are
01:25:39.060 straightforward the
01:25:40.420 world is a battleground
01:25:42.100 of power hierarchies
01:25:43.220 that's what it is there
01:25:44.860 isn't anything else
01:25:45.840 outside of that and
01:25:47.700 each power hierarchy
01:25:48.940 generates its own
01:25:50.200 internal narrative
01:25:52.300 including rules for what
01:25:54.500 constitutes evidence
01:25:55.600 that support and
01:25:56.940 buttress the structure
01:25:57.820 of that hierarchy
01:25:59.220 and because the
01:26:01.320 hierarchies exclude
01:26:02.380 then it's in the best
01:26:03.600 interests of the people
01:26:04.500 who are excluded to
01:26:05.540 invert the hierarchy
01:26:06.520 and of course they also
01:26:07.520 regard that as just
01:26:08.460 even though that's
01:26:09.480 part of the incoherence
01:26:11.000 of the entire argument
01:26:11.980 that's where they have
01:26:12.940 to turn to Marxism
01:26:14.020 but make no mistake
01:26:15.540 about it this isn't
01:26:16.920 this isn't accidental
01:26:17.900 it isn't people
01:26:18.540 misunderstanding what
01:26:19.820 constitutes evidence
01:26:20.760 not at all
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01:27:32.980 slash Jordan that's
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01:27:35.920 Jordan
01:27:36.300 now I've been listening
01:27:40.900 to some of your
01:27:41.520 lectures on this for the
01:27:42.540 last year and thinking
01:27:43.780 you sound a little
01:27:44.680 deranged well I might
01:27:48.920 be a little deranged
01:27:49.660 but I'm not deranged
01:27:50.500 about this and then
01:27:52.400 this whole episode of
01:27:53.620 Lindsay Shevard just
01:27:54.500 just proves that every
01:27:56.420 dimension of this is
01:27:57.600 about power the
01:27:59.840 doublespeak the the
01:28:00.940 changing of terminology
01:28:02.060 from harm that exposing
01:28:03.920 people to ideas could be
01:28:04.920 violent the circling the
01:28:07.120 sacred circling around
01:28:08.000 the victim group well
01:28:09.640 look at look at what
01:28:10.340 happened at Wilfrid
01:28:11.320 Laurier one of the things
01:28:12.280 that was so bloody
01:28:12.860 interesting that I
01:28:14.060 thought was just
01:28:14.560 fascinating was the
01:28:16.160 unbelievably strategic
01:28:19.020 attempt to transform
01:28:21.100 Sheppard into the
01:28:22.280 perpetrator and Rambucanna
01:28:23.660 and Pimlot into the
01:28:24.680 victims especially
01:28:25.340 Rambucanna as a
01:28:26.220 professor of color right
01:28:27.840 so so what what
01:28:29.140 happens the the
01:28:30.720 reverse narrative was
01:28:32.000 well Lindsay Sheppard
01:28:33.160 was using something
01:28:34.040 like her white
01:28:34.840 privilege and her
01:28:35.660 white tears yeah to
01:28:37.120 to harass a poor
01:28:39.460 professor of color
01:28:40.780 untenured professor of
01:28:42.340 color yeah yeah and
01:28:43.840 that and there was
01:28:44.740 every attempt made on
01:28:47.240 the part of the people
01:28:48.180 who were going after
01:28:49.000 Sheppard to make that
01:28:50.600 the narrative so well
01:28:52.440 and they they started
01:28:53.360 accusing everyone of
01:28:54.640 being transphobic just
01:28:57.000 right out of the blocks
01:28:57.980 within days of this we
01:28:59.160 were all tired with that
01:29:00.440 epithet immediately the
01:29:02.400 labels have been just
01:29:03.280 flying and without any
01:29:05.000 regard to the intent of
01:29:06.100 the person or even the
01:29:07.000 content here here's
01:29:08.040 something interesting
01:29:08.760 about the transphobia
01:29:09.760 issue too so I've had
01:29:11.300 at least now a number
01:29:13.000 of good discussions with
01:29:14.320 trans people by the way
01:29:15.320 but also a number of
01:29:16.340 letters from trans people
01:29:17.440 over the last year about
01:29:18.620 40 of them as a matter of
01:29:19.760 fact which is a lot of
01:29:20.840 letters because there
01:29:21.500 aren't that many trans
01:29:22.460 people and every single
01:29:24.120 one of them I think I
01:29:25.000 got one letter from a
01:29:26.300 trans person who wasn't
01:29:27.280 happy with what I was
01:29:28.120 doing but every single
01:29:29.700 one of the other letters
01:29:30.540 said the same thing we
01:29:31.920 are sick and tired of
01:29:33.040 being the poster child for
01:29:34.960 these activists who claim
01:29:36.400 to speak in our name
01:29:37.580 because that's another
01:29:38.300 thing that we should be
01:29:39.060 very aware of is just
01:29:40.000 because an activist comes
01:29:41.200 out and says I'm a
01:29:42.660 member of this minority
01:29:43.680 group and therefore I
01:29:44.980 speak for them it's like
01:29:46.100 the first claim might be
01:29:47.440 true but the second claim
01:29:48.740 is not only unjustifiable
01:29:50.940 it's actually I would say
01:29:52.940 it's it's not racist
01:29:55.180 exactly but it's it's
01:29:56.540 groupist because it's
01:29:58.480 predicated on the
01:29:59.200 assumption that just
01:29:59.980 because you happen to be
01:30:00.940 the member of a class
01:30:02.080 that you're a
01:30:03.340 representative member of
01:30:04.740 that class that class is
01:30:06.000 so homogenous that
01:30:07.840 everyone in it is the
01:30:08.900 same enough so that all
01:30:10.080 the members within it can
01:30:11.040 speak for all the other
01:30:11.920 members right used to
01:30:13.380 call that racism when it
01:30:14.580 was it applied to racial
01:30:15.440 categories absolutely but
01:30:17.220 Lindsay has been very good
01:30:18.340 to point out and so have
01:30:19.760 some of the media that
01:30:21.200 there have been uh
01:30:22.520 transgendered students at
01:30:24.260 Laurier who have spoken
01:30:26.500 out in support of Lindsay
01:30:27.700 and we have to keep this in
01:30:29.300 mind that this is not a
01:30:30.440 transgendered issue no and
01:30:32.040 neither was my comments on
01:30:33.360 bill c16 because I mean all
01:30:36.780 I know that Lindsay as
01:30:40.700 she even said she is not
01:30:42.580 transphobic she supports
01:30:44.260 the rights of transgendered
01:30:45.740 people this is she's
01:30:47.060 unequivocal in that uh and
01:30:49.680 and I think that that
01:30:50.560 that's just cover story for
01:30:52.100 her true right-wing beliefs
01:30:53.660 and there are transgendered
01:30:56.720 students who have come to
01:30:58.180 her support and at great
01:30:59.320 personal cost to themselves
01:31:00.760 like those are some brave
01:31:02.100 people there right to break
01:31:04.480 with that group that the
01:31:06.100 hostility in that group is
01:31:07.320 real in the activist end of
01:31:09.680 the group you bet you bet
01:31:11.480 they were so quick uh to take
01:31:14.100 over this uh issue as their
01:31:16.840 own and claim that the the
01:31:18.820 debate itself was violence yeah
01:31:20.740 and that it was just cover for
01:31:22.480 this uh transphobic climate uh
01:31:24.740 that existed and it has nothing
01:31:26.840 to do with transgendered people
01:31:28.600 well you know it's it's funny
01:31:30.200 too you saw the same thing with
01:31:31.700 um rinaldo walcott when he was
01:31:33.660 on the director of the women's
01:31:35.060 and diversity women's and
01:31:36.420 gender studies at at the at oise
01:31:38.420 at the university of toronto he
01:31:40.420 claimed that he claimed like
01:31:42.080 four times in that interview that
01:31:43.600 the university of toronto was a
01:31:45.080 white supremacist organization and
01:31:46.820 i thought i i just don't know
01:31:48.620 what to make of that like i i
01:31:50.460 traveled down to my office about
01:31:51.920 a week after that that uh that
01:31:54.600 interview and i happened by some
01:31:56.880 students who were standing outside
01:31:58.380 waiting to write an exam so
01:32:00.900 there's about a hundred of them
01:32:01.840 may and like this is
01:32:04.360 particularly true at the
01:32:05.180 university of toronto i would say
01:32:06.680 that you you could look at that
01:32:10.240 group of students for more than
01:32:11.720 two seconds and think that that
01:32:13.260 was a white supremacist
01:32:14.340 organization i mean it's so
01:32:16.500 ethnically diverse if you think
01:32:19.240 that the university of toronto is a
01:32:21.440 white supremacist organization then
01:32:24.920 what that essentially means is that
01:32:26.620 the most tolerant institution in the
01:32:30.080 most tolerant city in the most
01:32:32.060 tolerant province in the most
01:32:33.520 tolerant country in the world is
01:32:36.100 white supremacist so it's like well
01:32:40.140 then well i don't well i don't i don't
01:32:43.480 even know what you could especially
01:32:45.100 when you say that as someone who's a
01:32:48.280 full professor i don't know if he's a
01:32:50.580 full professor who's a professor at
01:32:52.540 that institute it's like where's your
01:32:54.400 evidence for this that same professor
01:32:56.800 was using racial slurs against lindsay
01:33:00.440 oh yes the white tears thing they're
01:33:04.280 also misogynistic right because it's
01:33:06.360 white girl tears i could never ever
01:33:10.040 do something like that to any student of
01:33:14.860 any race i just don't understand how the
01:33:17.120 people on the far left can rationalize
01:33:19.660 that kind of behavior it it just it's
01:33:22.820 well i think they can rationalize it with
01:33:25.460 power but in terms of civility just in
01:33:28.060 civility in recognizing the humanity in
01:33:30.680 every person how can you resort to those
01:33:33.780 kind of racial slights i just i don't i
01:33:37.100 don't understand how you can say don't
01:33:38.440 be racist and then you make racial
01:33:40.320 comments terribly racist comments i just i
01:33:44.020 don't do people well no there's the
01:33:46.000 idea there is straightforward you cannot
01:33:48.580 utter racist comments against the
01:33:50.920 dominant group that's the rule if
01:33:54.060 there's a dominant group so once you
01:33:55.440 identify them as oppressor you can say
01:33:57.200 anything you want about them because
01:33:58.420 by definition this is axiomatic in in the
01:34:01.260 ideology you can't say anything racist
01:34:03.460 about the oppressors that that's like a
01:34:05.600 rule it's it's it's it's a rule of
01:34:08.320 discourse so here's where i go with
01:34:10.300 this for self-interest do you not
01:34:12.700 realize when you say i don't care about
01:34:16.060 your effing white fragility now that was
01:34:18.280 not waldecott is that his did i get his
01:34:20.540 name right no walcott walcott he didn't
01:34:25.180 say but others other pundits have said
01:34:27.040 that and it's appeared on lindsey's
01:34:29.000 twitter page where they've assaulted her
01:34:30.520 there or at least that's too dramatic
01:34:32.300 where they've made insulted her there
01:34:35.320 insulted her there uh but my point would
01:34:39.100 be even in your self-interest do you not
01:34:41.180 realize that you are giving ammunition
01:34:43.240 to the real white supremacist do you not
01:34:46.600 realize that there are really dangerous
01:34:48.680 people on the right who are looking for
01:34:50.820 that exact kind of comment to rationalize
01:34:54.020 their behavior well if you're trying to
01:34:55.660 burn something down what makes you think
01:34:57.280 you're going to be so careful about how
01:34:59.140 it burns down and i really mean that look
01:35:01.640 i mean i've i've i've have interactions
01:35:03.980 with the right-wing racial supremacists
01:35:07.080 online they're not very happy with me and
01:35:09.140 it's because i call them out for the same
01:35:10.760 sort of behavior that the leftists
01:35:12.260 manifest which is like i don't i'm not
01:35:15.100 impressed by your manifestation of group
01:35:17.660 identity uber all let's say but i
01:35:20.680 understand that the radical right-wingers
01:35:23.640 are playing the same game as the radical
01:35:25.600 left-wingers so you might say well why
01:35:27.060 would the radical left-wingers play into
01:35:28.440 their hands i would say well if you're
01:35:30.340 trying to if you're trying to burn the
01:35:31.820 whole damn house down then why not
01:35:34.060 inflame the people who are most likely to
01:35:35.620 do it and you might think well no that
01:35:37.600 that's not in anybody's best interest
01:35:39.240 it's like it's the stated aim of this
01:35:41.240 ideology right they want to invert the
01:35:43.600 they want to invert the patriarchy
01:35:45.760 essentially well what's the patriarchy
01:35:47.760 well it's the white supremacist university of
01:35:50.740 toronto so who cares if you're handing
01:35:54.700 your opponents weapons you're hoping that
01:35:57.420 it will escalate that the people on the
01:35:59.160 left as well as the people on the right
01:36:00.460 escalated yeah it's the point it's so
01:36:04.140 that it's power because uh this is the
01:36:07.080 same thing that happened at evergreen
01:36:08.280 state and the whole uh justification
01:36:10.780 there was racism not i know and they
01:36:13.480 went after brett weinstein who was about
01:36:15.380 is i mean brett is he's a bernie he's a
01:36:19.060 bernie supporter right exactly well they
01:36:21.580 eat their own last week from mike paris
01:36:24.000 who was the only colleague of his that
01:36:26.400 publicly defended him and he emails me and
01:36:29.500 he says i've been following the story
01:36:30.940 closely and i just want to reach out and
01:36:32.920 just you know commiserate with you and
01:36:35.780 wonder is there anything we can do or
01:36:37.340 talk about together and i thought no
01:36:40.080 you're from evergreen state you know
01:36:41.760 that's a nightmare and i thought we're
01:36:43.780 not that bad but but it's the same
01:36:47.620 pattern repeated it's not about
01:36:50.960 transgender people and and their rights
01:36:53.660 and and so just the victim oh yeah
01:36:56.040 no the the transgender people as far as
01:36:58.920 i'm concerned we're we're like
01:37:00.360 sacrificial animals on the altar of bill
01:37:02.540 c16 the activists have a new group
01:37:05.020 that's oppressed to wave the flag for
01:37:06.580 to push forward their ideology and and
01:37:08.600 and as i said the consistent message i've
01:37:10.900 got from transsexual people is i wish
01:37:12.820 they just shut the hell up and quit
01:37:14.920 putting us out in in the in the public
01:37:17.280 eye in that guise because all they're
01:37:18.920 doing is making our life more difficult
01:37:20.580 it's like well it doesn't matter we're
01:37:22.100 trying to tear down the patriarchy who
01:37:23.600 cares if your life is being made more
01:37:25.040 difficult it's like you have you don't
01:37:27.340 make an omelet without breaking a few
01:37:28.860 eggs we want to keep that in mind
01:37:30.780 okay laurie prepares our students and
01:37:34.060 instructors for difficult discussions
01:37:35.900 yeah probably not we support our
01:37:39.580 teachers in navigating complex and
01:37:41.240 divisive issues with care and
01:37:42.580 confidence that's a more credible
01:37:45.340 statement i mean especially given the
01:37:47.280 outcome of this i just want to take you
01:37:48.980 back to the last sentence of the
01:37:50.440 previous paragraph laurie has a
01:37:52.420 commitment to academic freedom freedom
01:37:54.640 of expression well that's unequivocal
01:37:56.880 perfect yes except that they won't
01:37:59.980 adopt the the the chicago principles
01:38:02.200 and something else to keep in mind that
01:38:04.780 i think this is the first time anybody's
01:38:07.220 talked about this when we were
01:38:09.440 established in 1973 the wilfrid laurier
01:38:14.000 act says specifically that this
01:38:18.180 university will be dedicated to
01:38:21.820 research and teaching in the spirit of
01:38:24.520 free inquiry and free expression that is
01:38:27.460 the establishing act of our university
01:38:29.580 charter the charter statement and and
01:38:31.820 and that is what it says is our mission
01:38:34.200 so in fact we are breaking the law by not
01:38:39.740 standing behind maximum free expression
01:38:43.520 and max free inquiry because it it is
01:38:46.180 right in our very founding principle our
01:38:48.460 very founding charter and the fact that we
01:38:51.220 are so hesitant to to just embrace that and
01:38:55.160 say we know that it's within this contest of
01:38:58.800 ideas that the best facts come forward and
01:39:01.000 knowledge is advanced why are we afraid of that why are we
01:39:05.560 afraid what's made made every university a great university
01:39:09.720 since because we're doubtful about the integrity of the institution like this this critique that whose claim is that our institution
01:39:18.160 our patriarchal institutions are fundamentally corrupt and oppressive is sufficiently what would you say makes people sufficiently guilty so they're perfectly willing to circumvent their adherence to policies to charter policies like that
01:39:33.860 i i just think that at some point you have to say this is why you were created
01:39:38.420 maybe we should get back to this and maybe i mean maybe there's a someone who is in the provincial parliament who's going to say i'm kind of upset that you've actually rejected the very founding charter
01:39:50.660 i i would yeah well there's no one in the current well in the current legislature that would do that
01:39:55.700 certainly not in the current government not by any not by not no chance at all okay
01:40:00.300 um we support our teachers in navigating complex and divisive issues with care and confidence
01:40:05.500 we are leaders in ensuring our students faculty and staff have the necessary supports and tools
01:40:11.920 to help those who've experienced marginalization and discrimination to engage fully
01:40:16.400 okay okay so now you see the reversal right right away here is and this happens every time now that a modern university virtually every time that a modern university comes out
01:40:24.840 with a statement in favor of free speech the next thing they do is is bring in this competing set of claims like the uh
01:40:32.500 to help those who have experienced marginalization and discrimination to engage fully
01:40:38.120 as soon as the word marginalization is in there then you know that that postmodern ethos is in has has what has has
01:40:45.300 has manifested itself within the within the confines of the document properly grounded academic debate at laurier occurs every day
01:40:53.740 and encourages critical thinking and civil discourse yeah ideas that one finds objectionable should be challenged and debated
01:41:01.180 the common good of society depends on the search for knowledge and its free expression
01:41:05.340 hey fair enough good statements free expression in academic university academic freedom at the university require accompanying
01:41:13.060 responsibilities and accountabilities to be met by members of the university community
01:41:17.200 the other should drugs
01:41:18.500 well even that statement's not so bad i mean okay faculty members have responsibilities and they should be accountable
01:41:25.720 i think i think that university should be a civil place i think that it should be civil
01:41:30.500 yes right yes definitely and and i think that there should be tolerance but tolerance is very different
01:41:36.500 from an embrace and a complete embrace of what diversity is now defined as or equity is defined it tolerance means
01:41:43.700 i disagree but i'm going to let you speak anyway yes and that really is the goal of a university
01:41:48.480 uh so anyway yeah okay we we will continue to ensure that we are protected against protecting against and dealing
01:41:55.120 with hate and intolerance these have those have no place in civil society see that i'm not so sure about
01:42:02.000 that hate and intolerance have no place in civil society the problem with that is hate hate and
01:42:07.860 intolerance is not defined here that that is the problem and and the i keep hearing hate speech is not
01:42:14.520 free speech and then when i ask well what do you mean by hate speech yes that is the problem
01:42:19.020 well the other thing too is i'm actually allowed to hate you it's okay you might have done something
01:42:25.680 that makes me hate you but that but there are limits on what i can do as a consequence of that hate and
01:42:31.140 that is not so there's two problems right the first problem is this is a big one who defines hate that's
01:42:36.680 a major problem and the second is well you don't limit hate you can't limit hate any more than you can
01:42:42.840 limit anger or aggression but you can limit the manner in which people conduct themselves when they're
01:42:47.860 motivated by those emotions and let's be clear there is really a clear definition of hate when you look
01:42:53.740 at the criminal code under sections 318 and 319 it says you cannot advocate physical violence against
01:43:01.480 an identifiable group i am totally on board with that like let's let's be clear you can't say go and
01:43:09.180 hurt these people i got that but that's really clear where's that definite well i just want to see
01:43:16.560 well the issue there is something we discussed earlier is well then we can gerrymander the definition of
01:43:22.040 hurt right well i'm talking physical advocating physical violence right physical i throw that
01:43:28.340 physical in there because the criminal code also does i think it does it in such a way to say we can
01:43:32.940 harm what is harm again harm is long-term infliction of damage that compromises your ability to function
01:43:42.580 or your appearance right it's a pragmatic definition and it's grounded in common law so we actually have a
01:43:47.740 history of defining it so that's safe and let's not move away from these definitions because they're the thing
01:43:52.720 that allow us to have conversations that are uncomfortable but needed
01:43:57.340 okay good they uh these have no place in civil society let alone on a university campus they will
01:44:06.540 not be tolerated at laurier yes well we see we saw an example of that not being tolerated with the
01:44:13.500 lindsay shepard case i remain concerned by the way faculty staff and students involved in aspects of
01:44:19.180 this situation were targeted with such vitriol now now things are starting to get out of hand
01:44:24.360 i remain concerned by the way faculty staff and students involved in aspects of this situation
01:44:29.780 were targeted with what with such vitriol vitriol that's acid eh so um is she you think she's talking
01:44:35.960 about the tweets that lindsay has received then is that faculty staff and students so not just lindsay
01:44:42.220 but i just wonder is this does this apply to those who have been advocating free speech and and i i'm
01:44:50.140 i'm just i'm pointing it out there i mean all of us who have come out in favor of maximum free speech
01:44:55.220 have been subjected to a lot of vitriol uh both emails and and it's always anonymous emails it's always
01:45:02.980 from people who will not say who they are so but my point would be i and unless there was something
01:45:09.840 that simply said i am threatening your life i just i delete it that's what i do because this is what
01:45:16.820 happens i mean i wish people were civil but they're not there's no discussing hard issues without
01:45:22.200 conflict like that's just not happening the question is how you limit the conflict and you can't limit it
01:45:27.720 to none because then people can't have a conflict they can't solve a problem so what you do is you you
01:45:32.700 limit it well as we've limited quite successfully in our country to date right we use the definitions of
01:45:38.340 violence that have prevailed throughout the establishment of english common law and that
01:45:41.960 works just fine my concern about that paragraph is is that she's kowtowing let's say to concerns
01:45:50.660 about the way that the people who actually let's say perpetrated this event were um dealt with by
01:45:58.100 members of the general public so okay member members of the university community must be supported
01:46:04.640 to work and study in an environment free of discrimination and harassment that's a tougher
01:46:09.880 one and they have my commitment we will continue to make this a university priority yeah that's a
01:46:16.240 sentence that worries me in an environment free of discrimination and harassment and they have my
01:46:21.660 the problem is it's so difficult to distinguish that between real dispute you know i mean if you're
01:46:28.280 if you're committed to a line of argumentation you've staked your whole your whole life on it say
01:46:32.840 your your whole academic career and you're engaged in a dispute with someone else who holds a contrary
01:46:37.940 viewpoint there's going to be heat and sparks generated by that exchange there has to be
01:46:43.140 because otherwise you're not talking about anything of any importance yeah if we all agree we don't need
01:46:48.040 free speech i mean that's yes that's the standard that's the thing right but when i read this line
01:46:53.000 uh members of the university community must be supported to work and study in an environment free of
01:46:59.600 discrimination and harassment and and i just wonder how equally that idea has been applied at my university
01:47:09.500 so far because certainly we know that our president has sent out letters of support to the lgbtq community
01:47:17.660 which she was right to do if if they are feeling harassed i have no problem with that but at the same
01:47:24.180 time there are official bodies at our university the women's center uh and other bodies that are under the
01:47:30.700 auspices of the diversity and equity office if i'm correct that are petitioning to have uh there's a pro-life
01:47:37.380 group on campus and and they are petitioning to have them defunded and shut down right so so did deborah
01:47:44.260 mcclatchy send out a letter to all the people who are supporting lindsey shepherd to say well we're really sorry about all the
01:47:49.800 harassment this is my point you're receiving this is my point our president is aware that there's a group on campus
01:47:56.140 that are marginalized yeah these are the the pro-life students and i don't care what your position is pro-life
01:48:03.180 or or or pro-choice whatever your position is you bloody well have to admit that there's at least a debate
01:48:08.900 there is a debate but and the point i would make is here truly is a marginalized group of students
01:48:15.200 who have received no support from our university none and i know my president is aware because early
01:48:21.600 on in this controversy i said and another matter is that these students are being attacked or i'm sorry
01:48:28.640 i don't want to use hyperbolic language these students are being harassed and they are being harassed
01:48:33.720 because they're they're being threatened with having their funding removed by official bodies of the
01:48:39.220 university yeah well this the pro-life students are real canaries in the coal mine as far as i'm concerned
01:48:44.360 regardless of what you think about what they're doing they represent diversity it's ideological
01:48:50.080 diversity but we're not seeing any reception of these diverse students do they are they being
01:48:57.220 included in this diversity and inclusion no they're being excluded purposely by actual offices of my
01:49:04.220 university so i'm saying yeah that's that's standard practice i would say on campuses across the
01:49:09.640 country it's just uneven yeah it's uneven and i think that what what we need to see uh is just a
01:49:17.340 policy that applies to all students and not just those who smell right or are orthodox to the social
01:49:23.960 justice orthodox who are in the what would you call acceptable class of victims that's right okay it
01:49:30.020 bears repeating in the current context that laurier's support for our lesbian gay bi trans queer and two
01:49:35.580 spirited campus community and transgender people in particular is unwavering it isn't obvious that it
01:49:40.920 bears repeating in the current context because the issue here fundamentally is that lindsay shepard was
01:49:47.100 was subject to an administrative inquisition despite the fact that she was 100 innocent by the
01:49:54.080 university's own standards and so it doesn't bear repeating in the current context that laurier's support
01:50:00.120 for our lbgt2 lgbtqts campus community and and transgender people in particular is unwavering
01:50:08.960 it actually isn't about them it's not about them at all it's about the fact that she got pilloried for
01:50:14.480 doing something that she was actually right to do so i'm not happy with the fact that this paragraph
01:50:20.840 was inserted into here i think it's an indication of exactly the kind of administrative weakness that
01:50:27.420 allowed this sort of event to occur to begin with now this is the theme though right of the justice
01:50:33.000 warriors is that this is the victim group yeah they've repeated over and over that there's been
01:50:37.120 violence harassment vitriol everybody's picking up on that the union president said that was daily
01:50:43.160 occurrence the president's repeated she's issued a campus-wide email in response to the open letter
01:50:48.420 saying uh we're going to make this a safe campus uh she's repeating it here so the validation of their
01:50:54.240 narrative of victimization emerging from the lindsey shepard event without evidence we we we actually
01:51:00.140 sent an email to our faculty uh the union the union president and we said we're concerned about this
01:51:08.220 daily uh violence on campus could you please supply us with evidence of this and she wrote back and she
01:51:16.420 said uh what did she say well something as i'm telling everyone in the press no yeah because it would
01:51:23.480 inflate didn't she say because it would inflame the it would inflame the situation even further
01:51:28.600 yeah with something like that so how how in the world providing evidence that something like that
01:51:33.860 we're members of the union we are paying our fees just like everyone else and we just we wanted
01:51:40.380 substanti some some substantiation to these claims that there was violence as a daily occurrence the whole
01:51:47.760 premise is that there's injury happening and that's why we can't speak about these things
01:51:51.920 so if they can establish the violence then maybe we're sympathetic to the argument that the speech
01:51:56.720 shouldn't occur but but that's susceptible to bogus claims if there's no substantiation
01:52:02.280 you can't build policy that way yeah not without getting into the kind of trouble that's already emerged
01:52:09.120 in light of recent events we have added measures to improve campus safety well it is by no see that that
01:52:16.360 that that actually seems to me to be the one sentence in this article so far that's actually a mistake
01:52:23.400 because by going forward with um what practices that are going to improve campus safety then
01:52:32.580 the president is validating the claims of the people who claim that this occurrence produced an unsafe
01:52:40.360 environment on the campus it's like so i i i think that that was weak we will ensure that all students
01:52:49.180 staff and faculty know exactly what our commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression means
01:52:53.800 in the classroom that would be good to us in that end we have established the task force on freedom
01:52:59.220 of expression to take input from our community which we should point out which won't include lindsay
01:53:05.080 shepherd yeah right because she asked to be part of that task force in fact i believe that they
01:53:09.800 offered it to her i'm not exactly sure about she was some some grad students nominated her and it was
01:53:15.460 prior to the revelation being made that it would be the position would be filled by the president of
01:53:21.140 the graduate students association who and i think this was poor form uh just before that announcement
01:53:29.160 was made the president of the graduate students association put out a statement where i i'm not
01:53:36.380 sure if it's a he or a she or i'm not sure of the the uh gender pronoun used but um that they were
01:53:43.080 standing 100 behind the trans and lgbtq yeah and they and that the fact that they were going to sit
01:53:49.900 on the on the task force would indicate that all students would be represented properly but it's just
01:53:54.940 they they showed this incredible uh bias and and then they said and we're going to be sitting on
01:54:01.600 this i just don't i don't know that that does a service to all the grad students who they represent
01:54:05.840 all right look at best practices beyond laurier hey they could look at chicago that'd be good
01:54:13.540 and develop a clear tangible and you never know maybe they will you never know and develop a clear
01:54:18.880 tangible set of practical implementable guidelines that will bring clarity to this issue for our own
01:54:23.680 classrooms and will have the potential to serve as best practices for others well that's exactly
01:54:27.840 what you guys are recommending that is my commitment to you well and it's not like the university of
01:54:32.740 chicago is a lightweight and it's not just the university of chicago over 30 universities many of
01:54:38.640 them ivy league have adopted right the chicago statements to great effect right right and so so this
01:54:43.600 is this is something that has worked yeah that is working yeah it's clearly something that should
01:54:49.440 happen in canada it would be a wonderful thing it would be a wonderful thing it would be it would
01:54:53.280 be a wonderful so it's not like we're trying to institute this policy that hasn't worked and that
01:54:58.880 hasn't been been accepted by really prominent universities in the u.s and it doesn't it doesn't
01:55:05.200 involve u.s uh law or legalese it is simply a statement of philosophy about what we want and which
01:55:12.960 is maximum free expression and free inquiry within the bounds of the law and i just think this task force
01:55:18.160 is going to be a disaster because the justice uh advocates aren't interested in free speech they
01:55:25.760 they want to forbid certain forms of speech and it's just a question of which topics and who's going
01:55:30.880 to control the well there might be enough public scrutiny like i don't think interest in wilfrid lorie
01:55:35.760 i'm sure that the president would be real happy if this went away but i think the probability that
01:55:40.800 it's going to go away is very low because i think wilfrid lorie is now being watched and being watched by
01:55:45.920 very many people to see what the genuine outcome of this will be and i think that even if it was
01:55:51.360 ignored by the mainstream media which it might be it's not going to be ignored by people on youtube
01:55:56.240 and the people who've been who've been generating content associated with lindsay shepard and the
01:56:01.440 the magnitude of that content online is absolutely overwhelming i don't know if the wilfrid lorie
01:56:06.320 administrators know because you know people older than 40 usually don't know much about online media
01:56:11.840 but the amount of commentary this has been generated this is generated on youtube is
01:56:16.960 absolutely beyond belief like it was a major scandal back to the task force though and will you've said
01:56:22.640 this in the past the freedom of expression proponents we already are the compromise position
01:56:28.400 because we are saying we want you to be able to articulate whatever position you have
01:56:34.000 we want you to be able like we are the compromise position we're not saying we want to shut down
01:56:39.280 anybody whatever your position is let's hear it that's that that is where we are so we're already
01:56:46.960 in that compromise position within the boundaries of the law within the boundaries of the law actions
01:56:51.040 of the and and out of respect for the university and its operations of course so so we're already
01:56:56.480 saying we want all these sides to be able to be heard i don't understand it's already a pro-diversity
01:57:01.920 of opinion it is it is and and so what i have to look at is many of the colleagues that i have who are
01:57:09.120 on the left and are hoping for restriction of free expression are really to a certain extent linguistic
01:57:16.400 imperialists that's exactly why i objected to bill c16 i said that i wasn't going to let the linguistic
01:57:23.680 imperialists take control over my voice the fact that it happened to be about transgender pronouns was
01:57:29.360 well that was just how that problem manifested itself at that period of time but that that what
01:57:34.960 did you call them linguistic imperialists that's exactly right and and these the the these ideal
01:57:40.480 ideologues on the radical left who are so good at neologisms are unbelievably good at grasping the
01:57:46.560 linguistic territory i mean the the the propagation of words like cisgendered is a perfect example of that
01:57:52.080 so yeah it's just i don't understand how they can be so against colonialism and imperialism and
01:57:59.360 then want to do that in in the sphere of language put in an authoritarian structure which can only be
01:58:06.160 abused well that's that's part of the weird see there's this weird marriage between post-modernism
01:58:13.040 and marxism right which makes no sense because you actually can't be a post-modernist and i guess you
01:58:18.160 can be a critical thinker and a marxist but you cannot be a post-modernist and a marxist at the
01:58:23.040 same time because the post-modernists hypothetically are critical of grand narratives right they don't
01:58:29.680 believe that they that they have any universal validity of course the problem with that is that
01:58:33.680 without a grand narrative you can't act but they sneak the marxism in through the back door and then
01:58:39.200 the justification i think is for these authoritarian impositions is that well it doesn't matter as long as
01:58:45.360 the right people are being hurt by them and the right people would be the people who are in
01:58:49.360 positions of power now who who have no justification for being in those positions of power right because
01:58:55.760 they don't a stable solution but you're making the assumption that what's being sought after is a
01:59:01.200 stable solution and i think that's i think that's a dangerous assumption because i think that the
01:59:07.040 university activists mean exactly what they say when they say that we should be flipping over the
01:59:13.280 patriarchy they've put no counter proposal forward throughout this right it's like they don't have
01:59:19.040 a solution uh they're not even talking about a list of forbidden topics and who's gonna adjudicate
01:59:26.880 it and what the appeals process that's always that's always done post-hoc that way you can keep the
01:59:31.440 level of fear the highest you can keep adding to the list as well yes definitely that would because
01:59:35.600 it's way better it's way better if you it's way better if you want to exercise power over people
01:59:40.720 to never let them be sure which policies they are violating and i think that what happened to
01:59:45.680 lindsay shepard is an excellent example of that so it's a it's a canonical example of that free it's
01:59:51.280 it's the uh orwellian idea freedom is the ability to say two plus two equals four and they want to
01:59:56.640 keep avoiding the ability to say two plus two is four by creating new answers and moving on you just
02:00:03.120 went through this whole process yes came up with a statement on free expression and goes on from
02:00:08.640 paragraphs and paragraphs and then the last nearly the last sentence is freedom of expression does
02:00:13.680 not trump all other rights in the university community freedom of expression can only thrive
02:00:20.480 constructively when accompanied by other rights including the equality rights of equity diversity
02:00:26.480 and inclusion there you go there you go that's right and so now you no longer have free expression
02:00:30.400 man that's the snake in the garden right there reading that yeah so there's there's this but how
02:00:34.720 i mean those those are so complicated there's individual rights and group rights there's
02:00:38.720 positive rights and negative rights and they're all in this salad with no guidance as to how you're
02:00:44.080 going to trade them off against each other it's it's like you say it just ad hoc uh as we go forward
02:00:49.520 we'll we'll yeah well it's so funny to produce an entire document talking about freedom of expression
02:00:54.400 and then to put a sentence like that in as a codicil it's and by the way also this it's like wait a second
02:00:59.840 it's not also this it's that little admixture of poison uh destroys the integrity of the entire
02:01:06.880 argument and and and to and to put all those words in there diversity okay what the hell do you mean
02:01:12.000 by that exactly inclusivity that's a word that really that's one i really have a trouble with
02:01:17.600 because it's very difficult to understand even what that means and equity equity is equality of outcome
02:01:23.760 and so that's an impossible goal to begin with because it multiplies in difficulty as you add
02:01:29.600 number of measurement dimensions right so and that's the intersectionality problem so to speak
02:01:35.520 so all right well well with the task force the interesting thing is will didn't want to sit on it
02:01:41.200 because having looked at what had happened i i suppose it was the experience at ubc that that well i just
02:01:48.320 saw big arguments happening with no no possibility of a constructive outcome and so but i was more
02:01:55.600 hopeful and i understand will's position completely right uh yes well it's easy as a faculty member to
02:02:01.840 get pulled into interminable administrative duties that have no positive outcome whatsoever in fact it's
02:02:07.200 pretty much par for the course well he makes the i mean your most compelling argument well two one look
02:02:12.800 what happened at ubc and two we're already the compromised position you mean what what more can
02:02:17.920 you want and and i get that but i i have let my name stand for nomination uh we'll see this week i
02:02:25.600 guess whether or not i i'll i don't know if i'll get voted well one of the things we should find out
02:02:31.520 and and publicize is whether any people who have a strong free speech orientation will end up on that task
02:02:37.280 force yeah i mean that that's a that's of absolutely critical importance well they'll certainly get
02:02:42.560 their work done quickly if no one from the free speech side is on it because they'll just say right
02:02:48.160 but maybe they'll have to create a list of their own about what can't be talked about
02:02:52.000 right who knows where that will go one one thing that strikes me though is just the disregard for
02:02:57.760 history uh people who uh are marginalized or would be considered in the marginalized group if we look at
02:03:05.040 how did they get the rights that they have today right how did that happen it was because of free
02:03:12.640 expression right actually the easy case to make for free speech is left-wing it's like powerful people
02:03:19.840 don't need their free speech protected they're powerful they're rich they can say whatever the
02:03:24.080 hell they want it's people who are precisely marginalized and oppressed who need all the protection of
02:03:29.520 the law of course they want to weight it against saying yes we want to have people without power to
02:03:34.640 have the freedom of expression but let's make this a quicker process by making sure those that have
02:03:38.960 power can't speak whoever those who have power is right well that's that's the issue not to
02:03:44.000 well you know you could say well wouldn't it be wonderful if those who had unfair power
02:03:47.920 weren't allowed to speak it's like well maybe it would be wonderful but who the hell is going to
02:03:52.080 decide who has power and who has unfair power like the devil's in the details there so the only fair
02:03:59.280 application of this principle is to let everybody have equal opportunity right not equal outcome by
02:04:05.600 the way well that's the free market solution right because you can't determine these by central fiat
02:04:11.360 because it's technically impossible which is actually something post-modernists should know because
02:04:15.760 that's actually one of the logical consequences of their philosophy right things are too complicated
02:04:20.160 to decide by fiat in some sense but all right is there anything else that you guys want to say
02:04:25.920 that that that you've observed as a consequence of this lindsay shepherd affair or that or that
02:04:31.520 you're hopeful about or pessimistic about what what what's the how do we solve this just the way
02:04:37.920 we're solving it this is the way to solve it is to is to have i think this is a textbook case of the
02:04:44.480 utility of free speech shepherd was able to make her case publicly there's been a huge debate about it
02:04:50.160 there's been some moves made on the part of the university that look positive we've got ample opportunity
02:04:55.200 everyone has ample opportunity to have their voice heard you know this video we're making tonight
02:04:59.200 will probably be watched by 150 000 people it's like and we had a perfectly reasonable discussion
02:05:04.960 you know i think we gave credit where credit was due with regards to this document and and are jointly
02:05:11.120 hopeful that something positive will come of it and made some pointed critiques about about what it
02:05:16.880 does contain and what it doesn't but we don't want to underestimate the utility of doing these things
02:05:21.840 it's useful and i think the fact that you guys have this little cabal of people at wilfrid laurier
02:05:26.480 who are willing to speak i was shocked when when you wrote that op-ed and when the toronto star
02:05:32.400 published it i mean nothing like that from an academic happened in relationship to me last year and
02:05:38.480 bill c16 we've seen such uniformity of outcry about this from all the newspapers globe star sun which
02:05:47.520 which which really just shows you the disconnect between what is happening in the academy and what
02:05:52.400 is right it's a disconnect of staggering magnitude people outside the academy say well how can you
02:05:58.000 believe that yeah what they've been saying is really this happened this actually happened that's the
02:06:04.720 universal response and and you know the response on the campuses is well yeah it happened it's and we
02:06:11.120 were right i have a solution i have a solution i mean it's not a solution but it's i don't i call it
02:06:18.160 an inoculant actually so yes let's get the laurier statement for freedom of expression at our university
02:06:24.480 and similar statements at all universities why the federal government is not tying funding to this i know
02:06:29.760 that the conservatives mentioned suggestion that i made to the conservatives well this is this is what
02:06:34.000 needs to happen but in addition to that i think that young people and and parents of young people
02:06:39.600 need to look at what's happening and they need to start educating their their kids at home and they
02:06:44.640 need to start and i've written several op-eds where i've said people ask me what is the solution i say
02:06:51.520 start watching the videos of jordan peterson start watching the videos uh there's a jonathan height
02:06:57.520 jonathan height you bet look into the heterodox academy they know what they're doing who who definitely
02:07:03.440 are scholars of repute the they they are moderate in the like incredibly civil uh there are also some
02:07:10.720 people outside of academia there's a um a fantastic youtuber uh my name is josephine she's a canadian
02:07:17.600 political science student who is at u of t moderate really well spoken articulating classical liberal ideas
02:07:25.200 my name is josephine okay yeah okay i'll have to remember her so another she's actually been at the
02:07:29.920 reason that i know she knows you she was at one of your rallies i saw it in a video there she is in
02:07:34.000 the background um there another uh young lady uh sorry woman who is her name is roaming millennial
02:07:41.280 yeah i know roaming millennial i've been on her show oh yeah yeah yeah you bet you bet yeah and she's a
02:07:46.960 tough cookie that girl you bet and i would say start watching these people yeah yeah well the young
02:07:52.480 people are watching them in droves you know she has a big following roaming millennial and i'm grateful for
02:07:56.880 that because in fact when these students go into the university classroom if they choose to go into
02:08:01.440 the arts or the humanities they're going to go in with knowledge where they can i realize it's tough
02:08:06.800 to challenge a professor but start a facebook group and say hey did you know that there are other ideas
02:08:12.560 too do you know that there's an opposite side to this debate well we should all we could also encourage
02:08:17.600 parents who might be listening or or students thinking about going to university who might be listening
02:08:22.240 to this is that check to see where the university stands on free speech and if they dampen down their
02:08:27.600 support for free speech and free inquiry with statements about diversity inclusivity and equity
02:08:33.440 then go somewhere else it's a worry another uh thing and this is just beginning in canada uh there we
02:08:40.160 have a society for academic freedom and scholarship that professors can join if if a sorry if a professor
02:08:46.800 has joined the society for academic freedom and scholarship you can be pretty sure they are going
02:08:52.080 to be wanting to give you both sides of the story so that's not a bad check either yeah yeah where do
02:08:57.760 they have to do their research though the students to due diligence well that's good it'll educate them
02:09:03.200 right i mean lindsey shepherd definitely got educated over the last two months they should just give
02:09:07.600 her the degree yeah yeah no kidding no kidding she's got her phd thesis in communication pretty
02:09:13.600 well demonstrated there's an auto ethnography for you yeah i caused an international scandal by just
02:09:20.400 revealing what had actually happened yeah all right all right good my pleasure thank you guys for coming
02:09:26.960 and also for it's not common for faculty members well to talk to me first of all like this certainly not
02:09:34.240 on record and it's certainly not common for them to be writing and speaking openly about such issues so
02:09:39.280 i don't know what the hell got into you guys it's really good that's happening at wilfrid laurier too
02:09:44.800 we realize we're finished now by being associated with you yeah yeah yeah i i said uh well it's good
02:09:50.480 good of you to offer yourself on the sacrificial altar i you've got to look your kids in the eye
02:09:55.680 eventually yeah and uh how are you going to say that you need to stand up for truth
02:10:01.120 truth if you actually don't stand up for truth that is a problem yeah yeah all right guys
02:10:17.040 so
02:10:21.040 so
02:10:31.680 so
02:10:35.040 you