Acadia University launches investigation of professor

Acadia University has launched a formal investigation into complaints against a professor over controversial comments he made on social media and in the classroom.

Heather Hemming, vicepresident academic at the Wolfville, school, says in a letter to Rick Mehta that the university has received complaints from students, faculty and others with concerns about his views.

She says the university has retained Wayne Mackay, professor emeritus at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, to conduct an investigation and provide a report to the university.

Mehta has come under fire for saying multiculturalism is a scam, there is no real wage gap between men and women, and the decolonization movement aims to create a victim narrative, spur endless apologies and bolster compensation to Indigenous Peoples.

He has also said on Twitter that he stands with Michael Thurlow, leader of the National Socialist Canadian Labour Revival Party, who has made comments about Jews and what he calls historical exaggerations and lies involving the residential school system.

The associate professor of psychology argues that he has done nothing wrong, and is only trying to offer students a different perspective from what he calls the dominant political orientation on campus.