Brock strips former prof of his emeritus status after ‘vulgar’ posts

An Ontario university has stripped a former professor of an honorary title after he wrote social media posts about Indigenous people that the school described as inflammatory and vulgar.

Brock University said its senate committee voted unanimously last week to strip former political science professor Garth Stevenson of his “emeritus” designation, which was given to him when he retired in 2012.

“The move came after a series of vulgar, inflammatory statements, aimed at the Indigenous community and others, were posted last week on Stevenson’s social media pages,” the university in St. Catharines said in a statement.

Stevenson did not immediately respond to requests for comment but told the St. Catharines Standard that he apologizes for the posts, which included comments on the City of Victoria’s removal of a statue of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

“While my language was intemperate and offensive and I apologize for it, I think the campaign to destroy the reputation of Sir John A. Macdonald is entirely unjustified and that was the point that I was trying to make,” Stevenson wrote in an email to the newspaper.

In one now-deleted tweet, Stevenson wrote that Victoria was removing the statue of Macdonald “to appease some snivelling aboriginals who probably never did a day’s work in their lives.”

“The concern that has been raised here is with the horrendous tone of many of the comments made online, including those that wish harm others directly, and those which openly malign the Indigenous peoples of Canada and the very First Nations on whose land we meet today,” wrote Scott Henderson, university senate chair, in a statement.