Current controversy is rooted in the role of our academics

Re: Freedom of expression and academic freedom — March 23

I am grateful to Professor Hueglin for clarifying for me what the ongoing controversy at Wilfrid Laurier University around the aborted Faith Goldy talk is really about.

It is not about the right to free speech or the right of minorities to feel safe on campus.

It is about the right and duty of academics to inform the rest of us what is worth thinking about and what is, in his useful phrase, “not interesting enough.”

Since its beginnings in medieval Europe, the university’s role has always been to decide on our behalf what constitutes heresy and orthodoxy, or, in modern parlance, “fake news and real news.”

Hueglin’s approach to present-day controversies? If a student like Lindsay Shepherd brings forward an unacceptable idea, block it before it even reaches the classroom for discussion.

I happen to read a lot of fake news and, up until now, I’ve found the process of weighing differing facts and arguments to be quite educational. But if Shepherd, as a graduate student, is naive and unqualified to decide for herself what is interesting enough to warrant investigation and debate, then it’s clear that I, too, must be sorely in need of further instruction from Professor Hueglin.

Dylan Siebert

Kitchener