As I detail in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies), universities campuses are no longer centers of higher learning, but radioactive wastelands of hard-Left indoctrination that do not allow opposing points of view. They worship “diversity,” except intellectual diversity. Ryerson University is a disgrace for giving in to the Left-fascists and submitting to their violent intimidation, but in this submission it’s just like virtually every other university and college out there these days.
“College Responds To Hosting Panel On Free Speech By Canceling It,” by Rob Shimshock, Daily Caller, August 16, 2017:
Ryerson University canceled a panel Wednesday dedicated to discussing the silencing of free speech on college campuses, citing “campus safety.”
The Canadian school canceled “The Stifling of Free Speech on University Campuses,” an Aug. 22 panel featuring three doctors and a pro-free speech journalist, citing a prioritization of “campus safety” over free speech “in light of recent events,” according to correspondence obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Social justice activists set up a Facebook page entitled “No Fascists in Our City!” to protest the event. The page’s header image depicted a swastika crossed out.
“Fascists are planning to meet on August 22nd at Ryerson University to discuss how to avoid what they call ‘SJW’ Culture,” the protest description reads. “Tickets are being sold for $20 and frankly it makes us virulently ill … Considering the rise of Nationalism here and abroad we need to show these people and their guests that we will not tolerate their backward nonsense in our city.”
Approximately 500 individuals signed up for the protest, with nearly 2,000 others stating that they were interested. Sarina Singh, a Ryerson graduate who was hosting the free speech event, received a call from Ryerson Wednesday morning informing her of the event’s cancellation.
“The reason cited was security concerns and safety of the community,” Singh told TheDCNF….
“I made three requests, suggested getting Toronto police involved for safety, [but the university] told me my event was canceled PERMANENTLY,” the event organizer said.
“There is often a tension at universities resulting from our commitment to be a place for free speech and our commitment to be a place that is civil, safe, and welcoming,” Michael Forbes, a communications officer for Ryerson, told TheDCNF. “In light of recent events, Ryerson University is prioritizing campus safety.”
The free speech panelists expressed disappointment with backlash to the event and the university’s decision.
“[Progressive activists] were calling me a Nazi, a fascist, and an anti-Semite,” Dr. Gad Saad, a Concordia University marketing professor and one of the panelists, told TheDCNF. “I’m Jewish. So, they’ve lost the plot. It’s a form of lunacy that’s difficult to diagnose.”
Saad, who had already booked a flight and hotel for the now-canceled event, termed the social justice activists’ behavior “ostrich parasitic syndrome,” stating that they denied reality and behaved as though their brains were turned into mush.
“Apparently supporting freedom of speech makes you a Nazi these days,” Saad told TheDCNF. “I think our existence is now hate speech … that I exist as an independent person who spews his thoughts freely is an affront to those who wish to control him … Orwell couldn’t have come up with the realities that we’re facing today.”
Saad noted that people who express incorrect opinions get beheaded in the Middle East. He said that while the West was not yet at that stage, activists could “do the next best thing” and go after a speaker’s livelihood, reputation, and platform to speak. He suggested that “cowardice is the eighth deadly sin,” and that universities did not possess the “effort, courage, and testicular fortitude” to stand up to those trying to silence speech….