Massey College prof resigns over Wente appointment

Controversial columnist has history of plagiarism, pushing pseudo-science Margaret Wente’s appointment to Massey College is under review.

A professor at the University of Toronto has resigned from her position at Massey College following the recent appointment of media columnist Margaret Wente, formerly of The Globe and Mail, as a senior fellow at Massey College.

In a letter of resignation issued on Thursday, Alissa Trotz, an associate professor of women and gender studies and Caribbean studies, said she was

“dismayed” to discover that Margaret Wente had been appointed a 2020-21 senior member of Massey College.

“Margaret Wente is someone who has demonstrated consistent and outright hostility to questions of equity, women and gender studies and anti-racism, and moreover someone who has demonstrated such a glaring lack of professional integrity,” Trotz’s resignation letter reads.

Trotz, a member of Massey College’s Governance and Nominating Committee, says she was not aware that Wente was being considered for the position prior to her appointment.

“I understand, to my utter and complete dismay, that I must take some responsibility … that has led to Margaret Wente becoming a member of Massey College,” she wrote.

Wente, who spent decades writing for the Globe and Mail before taking a buyout in 2019, has been the subject of controversy due to columns in which she’s plagiarized material or promoted pseudo-science claiming genetic racial differences.

Wente wrote a column in 2014 with the headline, “What if race is more than a social construct?,” where she wrote positively about a book that claims societal outcomes are influenced by genetic racial differences, a claim that goes against the scientific consensus.

In 2012, the Globe and Mail disciplined Wente after she was found to have copied sentences in a 2009 column from another column in the Ottawa Citizen.

The Globe and Mail also apologized in 2016 after Wente was found to have copied sentences in two more of her columns.

Massey College principal

Nathalie Des Rosiers told the Star that the nominating committee was not aware of the controversies involving Wente.

“There was information that was not in front of the committee about Ms. Wente’s nomination and we’re trying to remedy this. The process was somewhat convoluted because of COVID, so people did not have all the information that they needed to make a good call,” Des Rosiers said.

She said the college would be launching a review of its appointment processes and that rescinding Wente’s nomination is on the table.

Wente declined to comment on Trotz’s letter.