Alberta professors defend Holodomor denier
Free expression principles offer protection
EDMONTON• A coalition of academics at the University of Alberta is coming to the defence of a lecturer who declared in a Facebook post that the Holodomor famine was a hoax spread by fascists, which led to widespread condemnation and calls for his resignation from the students’ union and other groups.
“The learning environment is not ... made ‘ safe’ when any individual or group attempts to prevent another’s exercise of freedom of expression,” the letter says. “It is fundamentally undermined, as the ability to examine, analyze, and critique all ideas is the lifeblood of the university.”
The signatories of the letter, released earlier this week, were responding to a statement made Nov. 28 by Akanksha Bhatnagar, the student union president that called upon Dougal Macdonald to take back his Holodomor remarks “or resign,” and requested the university condemn his comments. ( Bhatnagar did not respond to a request for comment, but The Gateway, the student newspaper, reported the student union stands by its original statement.)
The Dec. 2 letter from the 43 academics across the university’s faculties and departments says Macdonald’s comments are protected by university principles of free expression.
The academics were joined, as well, in a separate statement from Kevin Kane, the president of the Association of Academic Staff, on Dec. 1, which said Bhatnagar’s statement “can be seen as pressure for retroactive self-censorship.”
“This is inconsistent with principles of freedom of expression.”
Kane did not respond to a request for comment.
The controversy began in November, when Dougal Macdonald, a lecturer in the faculty of education and former candidate for the Marxist- Leninist Party, called Holodomor a myth, and wrote that “in Canada, former Nazi collaborators and their spawn have long led the phony ( sic) Holodomor campaign.”
The post was first reported by The Gateway, and that led to condemnation from the Ukrainian Students’ Society, which implored in a Facebook statement that people contact the university to ensure “Dougal Macdonald is no longer allowed to share such messages.” The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is also calling for the “immediate censure and termination” of Macdonald for his statements and the Jewish Federation of Edmonton condemned it, too.
“It is irresponsible and deeply dishonest to suggest that the Holodomor didn’t happen. This type of revisionism is dangerous, and we object to it in the strongest terms.”
Holodomor refers to a period in the early 1930s in Ukraine, when agricultural collectivization under Josef Stalin’s Communist government in the Soviet Union led to millions of deaths by starvation.
“Free and public debate on issues, especially controversial issues, is a healthy aspect of our society and is, in fact, necessary, if we are to make any progress toward building a better future,” wrote Macdonald in a followup statement. The Post could not reach Macdonald Friday.
The university was unable to offer anyone for an interview Friday, but referred the Post to a statement put online Friday morning that said while Macdonald’s got the right to free expression, “his views do not represent and are not endorsed by the University of Alberta.” The statement said the university would launch a handful of initiatives to increase “awareness and learning about Holodomor on our campus and beyond.”
Denial of Holodomor received staunch criticism from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who condemned “Western, supposedly- progressive voices who were complicit in one of history’s great cover-ups.”
“These were the useful idiots of whom Lenin wrote. Westerners who purposefully lied about one of the great acts of mass murder in human history,” said Kenney.
Around 60 people also attended a protest on Tuesday evening.