Students punished for ‘disrespectful’ letter

There is no more vile use of the state’s power than to punish its adversaries.

We are fortunate to live under democracy’s relative freedom. Poets and other such grave dangers to the old Soviet Union died in its gulags. Around the globe, millions still live in fear that loved ones will suddenly and permanently disappear after displeasing a local tyrant.

While less lethal, in a democracy any use of the people’s power against them is repugnant.

President Donald Trump attacks Amazon because its owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns the Washington Post, which routinely exposes the president’s flaws. Bezos is the richest man in America and can take care of himself, but the presidential pillory is only less abhorrent by degree than a dictator’s purge.

So it is that Nova Scotians should be deeply distressed when provincial Labour and Advanced Education Minister Labi Kousoulis punishes members of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) for exercising their Charter right to free speech.

Aidan Mcnally, the Nova Scotia chair of Canada’s largest organization of post-secondary students, wrote an open letter that took the Mcneil Liberals to task for its less than rigorous action to combat sexualized violence on university campuses. The minister decided the CFS would answer for whatever offence he found in the letter.

The only offence here is that of a thin-skinned minister, who needs to either grow up or lose his seat at the adult table where the cabinet sits.

After Mcnally’s letter was published in The Coast, her organization, which represents thousands of Nova Scotian university students, was contacted by the department and the message was delivered that Kousoulis was unhappy and there would be consequences.

A meeting the CFS had arranged with the minister was cancelled, as was a meeting with the government’s legislative caucus. Cancellation of the latter meeting suggests the rot runs to the government’s core.

It’s embarrassing that Nova Scotia’s minister responsible for universities is so politically inept that he’d risk alienating thousands of students because his ego got bruised. In a conversation with senior officials in the department, Mcnally’s letter was described as “disrespectful.”

She obviously struck a nerve when, in the letter, she noted that Kousoulis and the Nova Scotia Grit government has a “less than perfect” record when it comes to violence against women.

That is her judgment, which she is free to express without retribution from the state, except in Nova Scotia, where such fundamental tenets of democracy are apparently applied selectively and at the discretion of the government.

Adding spite to slight, the government decided that, before they could be returned to a state of some grace, the CFS leaders must meet with Advanced Education Deputy Minister Duff Montgomery, apparently to learn how things are done here in Stephen Mcneil’s Nova Scotia.

That would be the Nova Scotia where doctors, teachers and others whose livelihoods are derived from the public purse will, almost without exception, air their complaints against the government only under the cloak of anonymity. In numbers too large to dismiss as paranoia, they believe that identifying themselves will bring them official grief.

To risk understatement, that is an unhealthy climate for democracy.

We are aware that Kousoulis threw around his ministerial girth because the CFS refused to be intimidated and told the story.

Initially, Kousoulis said Mcnally’s letter contained inaccuracies but was unable to name them. Department officials repeated that line this week, but they too declined to elaborate.

Kousoulis also claimed the “tone” of Mcnally’s letter was problematic. Given more time he may find the punctuation disagreeable.

The premier hasn’t corrected his heavy-handed minister, at least not publicly.

Surely, the government doesn’t condone Kousoulis’ behaviour here in Nova Scotia where we purport to have “zero tolerance” for bullying.

In a democracy, the power comes from the people because it belongs to the people and is vested in the government on a short-term loan. The people have a habit of calling their loan when a government misuses or abuses its authority, whether to punish an adversary or reward a crony.

This government likes to crow that it has stemmed the exodus of young people from Nova Scotia. The credit is questionable but, if it hopes to hang on to the talking point, a little more respect and a lot less bully-boy intimidation might be advisable.