University reinstates professor
Hall maintains issue is academic freedom for tenured professors
Suspended University of Lethbridge professor Anthony Hall has been reinstated and is back at work. The university confirmed Hall’s status via email on Thursday. In a joint prepared statement, the U of L Board of Governors and the Faculty Association announced issues around Hall’s activities will be addressed in the context of the faculty handbook.
Hall is a tenured professor in the university’s Globalization Studies program. He is also a conspiracy theorist who promotes the idea that a large number of mass shootings and terror attacks are staged as part of a secret global Zionist plot.
Hall responded by email, stating he was happy to join his colleagues and students and looking forward to returning to teaching next September.
He has maintained the issue is academic freedom for tenured professors, and that he should be allowed to promote the work he does as he sees fit.
“I believe we have a significant public service to perform at the University of Lethbridge by addressing in a properly constituted academic venue some of the contentious issues that have been raised,” he wrote. “Those most attuned to the importance of maintaining existing protections for academic freedom, for tenure, and for the conditions of healthy open debate on all subjects inside and outside of universities will appreciate the significance of delivering this matter to the internal procedures of our own institutions of higher learning.”
Hall was suspended without pay in late 2016 following an investigation by the university into his online activity. His pay was later reinstated.
At the time, the university was being criticized for their perceived lack of action regarding the issue.
The university also filed a human rights complaint against Hall for anti-Semitic activity on his Facebook page, public insistence that Zionists are behind the 9/11 terror attack, and for statements made in discussions with school administration.
According to Hall, that complaint will be withdrawn, but the university declined to confirm Hall’s assertion.
ULFA has pressed the university on the grounds it violated its own collective bargaining agreement by suspending Hall. In September, the matter was settled in court, clearing the way for arbitration on the matter.
B’nai Brith Canada issued a Statement on Thursday saying it was outraged by the decision.
The organization blamed the Notley government for passing bills that strengthened ULFA’s position in the matter.
“Premier Notley and her government bear direct responsibility for placing a discredited conspiracy theorist back in a university classroom,” stated Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “We repeatedly warned the government of the likely outcome of its actions, but they sadly chose to ignore our warnings and expose Alberta university students to anti-Semitism and discrimination instead.
“Despite this setback, we expect the University of Lethbridge to continue fighting anti-Semitism on campus, and to do whatever it takes to ensure that Hall has no podium for his unhinged anti-Semitic nonsense.”
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