Free speech on war is under attack in Canada
October 3, 01 The Editor Toronto Sun Toronto, Ontario The Sun has gone completely over the top in attacking the Minister of Multiculturalism Hedy Fry and UBC assistant professor Sunera Thobani for the short speech the latter made at a meeting attended by the minister. Two articles, one editorial, a near-hysterical column by Linda Leatherdale, a nasty letter to boot- all in two days, to shut up Thobani for good and to punish Hedy for NOT walking out of the meeting as soon as Ms. Thobani opened her mouth. (Yet Hedy Fry has made no bones about disagreeing with the speaker's position on fatal flaws in U.S. foreign policy.) And still, The Sun has not seen fit to publish those dastardly comments so that letter-writers could actually read them before they join in on the attack! If you are planning to scream blue murder when someone dares to point out the not-so-angelic track record of the U.S. in the world and to label her, among other things, "anti-American" (the worst of crimes, it seems), please AT LEAST show us what in her speech was factually false. If you cannot or will not do that, then we know that you practice the crudest kind of censorship to intimidate those who dare to think differently in times of national and international crisis. Marjaleena Repo Toronto (416)466-6533 XXXXXXXXXXXXXX(TWO) October 3, 2001 Thobani 'rant' called hateful B.C. Premier, Liberal senator voice disgust Mary Vallis and Mark Hume National Post, with files from The Vancouver Sun and The Canadian Press TORONTO and VANCOUVER - Gordon Campbell, the Premier of British Columbia, yesterday condemned a leading feminist's controversial speech on U.S. foreign policy as "hateful, destructive and very disturbing." In a speech to a Women's Resistance conference in Ottawa, Sunera Thobani, a women's studies professor at the University of British Columbia and former head of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, said "the path of U.S. foreign policy is soaked in blood" and is linked to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The 500 women in the audience interrupted Ms. Thobani with cheers and a standing ovation, but her remarks were widely condemned. "I think Ms. Thobani is dead wrong," Mr. Campbell said. "I think the only people that will be cheering her will be those who propagate the kind of hate you saw her talking about. "The comments she made were hateful and destructive and the very liberties that allowed her to say what she did are what the fanatics and the terrorists have in their crosshairs." Mr. Campbell added: "When I hear someone say that Americans are bloodthirsty and vengeful, that's disgraceful. It's clearly not the case and those sorts of words are motivated by one thing and that's her own hate." The federal government contributed an estimated $80,000 to fund the conference, at which Ms. Thobani was a keynote speaker. Landon Pearson, a Liberal Senator who also addressed the conference, joined Ms. Thobani on the podium but did not applaud her remarks. "I thought it was a manipulative rant," she said during an interview yesterday. "First of all, I don't think this is the moment to come out with an anti-American rant. Secondly, I don't think you use that kind of language. You don't talk about a blood-stained foreign policy. That's the same kind of language that the terrorists use, for heaven's sake." A conference organizer said Ms. Thobani's travel expenses were covered in the conference budget. Barry McBride, UBC's vice-president of academics, said Ms. Thobani had every right to express her views. "Free speech is a cornerstone of university culture," he said in a statement. "Assistant Prof. Thobani, as a social critic, is encouraged to express her views ... This is the stuff of democracy, a core value that our society seeks to protect in its struggle against terrorism." During her address, Ms. Thobani said the United States is "the most dangerous and most powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence." She said she empathized with the suffering caused by the Sept. 11 attacks. "But do we feel any pain for the victims of U.S. aggression?" she asked the audience. Yesterday, she told Global Television she did not regard her comments as controversial. "I do think there should be a public debate in this country before we engage in any kind of war," she said. "It seems like there's really a closing down of space for voices which are dissenting to this Bush administration's agenda and to me that's very worrying for what that means for Canadian political life." It was reported a security guard had been posted outside Ms. Thobani's class on campus but she said she had asked for the protection not for herself, but for her students. Kal Holsti, a UBC professor of political science and an expert on U.S. foreign policy, said his colleague got her facts wrong and misrepresented the United States' position. "The Americans have made some mistakes, there's no questions about that. But under no circumstance would I say that what the Americans have done is the moral equivalent of what Osama bin Laden has done." Joe Wai, an architect and member of UBC's board of governors, said people must judge for themselves how appropriate Ms. Thobani's remarks were. John Manley, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the speech as "simply outrageous." Stockwell Day, the Canadian Alliance leader, said the Prime Minister should inform the U.S. government that Canada repudiates Ms. Thobani's messages. "Who's going to trust us as neighbours, friends and allies when we pay people to attack another nation which has already been deeply, deeply wounded?" asked Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women of Canada, a conservative women's group. "Taxpayers are funding these extremists to attack a country which is on its knees." Ms. Thobani came to Canada from Tanzania as a doctoral student in sociology in 1989. She obtained landed immigrant status in 1993, the same week she was elected president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, a position she held for three years. A spokeswoman for NAC yesterday refused to comment on the speech, saying she had not heard it. THE END ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrHhl.bVKZIr Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
