Is the visit about free speech or something more?

THE recent visit to New Zealand by two Canadian citizens with wellentrenched views on multiculturalism is a rare, but notable, event.

The last two or three decades have seen rapid development of multiculturalism in New Zealand, and there is no doubt some people may not like the rapidly changing racial mix of our country.

I am somewhat disappointed that some wellprincipled individuals do consider the activities of these Canadian visitors to our country purely a matter of free speech and nothing else. I find this moral equivalence by these people somewhat disappointing.

The proposed free speech by the visiting duo is only a veil for delivery of their version of a racist, anti immigrant, antiIslamist, ideology. Only when one is racially and culturally different, like I am, does one feel the full potential impact of such ‘‘free speech’’.

I do congratulate the Mayor of Auckland and particularly Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for dissociating from such visitors and their version of ‘‘free speech’’.

Mathew Zacharias

Mosgiel

THE media went into a centrifugal spin even before Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux arrived.

The fallacious labels of ‘‘AltRight’’ and ‘‘Far Right’’ were repeated over and over. This and other signs of imagined iniquity preceded them, so by the time they finally arrived in New Zealand the popup activists’ war drums were already sounding and mouths were frothing.

There is nothing like an unhinged and uninformed mob making threats to shut down free speech. In the case of the Canadian duo and then Don Brash, they managed to do just that.

Why are we letting others bully us about who we can listen to? Why are we prepared to be spoonfed a steady diet of misinformation and hysteria as a paperthin excuse to censor the sharing of ideas?

Seems we are supposed to genuflect at the altar of ‘‘diversity’’ while doing away with ‘‘diversity’’ of ideas.

Irian Scott Port Chalmers

[Abridged] I WOULD like to apologise for making the statement in my August 9 column that chief executives of organisations mentioned in my column receive free car parks. In fact, since Dr Sue Bidrose has been Dunedin City Council CEO she has worked hard to remove any perks for the staff. She pays market rent for her park.

The point I was making is that those who decide about our parks and cycleways, for the most part elected officials, do not pay for their own parking. The Mayor of Dunedin receives his park as a result of the Remuneration Authority saying he is deserving of same.

Hilary Calvert ................................

BIBLE READING: The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. — Colossians 1:15.