In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States in September, many academics who have spoken out against the American government and its foreign policy are finding there is little tolerance of their views.

"Emotions are understandably running very high given the death of thousands of innocent people and the worldwide crisis that's followed," noted CAUT president Tom Booth.

"But there's a mood out there that if you don't have anything good to say about the U.S., you should just keep your thoughts to yourself."

Booth says the chill that has set in since Sept. 11 is disturbing because now is the time when a diverse perspective of views is most required.

"It's at moments of crisis like these that we need to debate an appropriate response to world events," he said.

"I'm concerned we don't use the crisis as an excuse to throw away academic freedom and freedom of speech."

But many academics are saying the current political climate is putting these freedoms to the test.

In Canada, University of British Columbia professor Sunera Thobani faced a wrath of scorn in the media for comments she made during a speech critical of U.S. foreign policy.

Speaking on Oct. 1 at a conference in Ottawa on women and the criminal justice system, Thobani said that while she feels the pain "every day" of the thousands of dead and missing in the terrorist attacks, she wonders why most North Americans feel little pain for the "victims of U.S. aggression."

"Today in the world, the United States is the most dangerous and the most powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence," Thobani said in her address. "From Chile to El Salvador to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of U.S. foreign policy is soaked in blood."

Thobani's comments were quickly denounced by politicians and media commentators as "atrocious," "idiotic," "outrageous," and "hateful."

Despite facing considerable pressure to reprimand Thobani, UBC publicly defended her right to express her views, no matter how unpopular they may be.

Barry McBride, the university's academic vice-president, said that "the cornerstone of a university is the ability to speak out on important issues. The university is a place where there must be a free exchange of ideas, and I hope people understand that."

At campuses in the U.S., incidents of intolerance toward dissenting voices are growing.

At the City University of New York, trustees drafted a resolution saying that professors who spoke at a teach-in Oct. 2 had "with their selfish, tasteless and unjustified conduct, brought shame" to the institution.

Meanwhile, the president of the University of New Mexico said he will "vigorously pursue" disciplinary action against a professor who jokingly told students that "anyone who can blow up the Pentagon gets my vote." And at California State University at Chico, a professor who criticized U.S. foreign policy during a campus vigil was heckled and later received a barrage of hate mail from across the country.

In yet another incident, the library administration at the University of California at Los Angeles has slapped a long-time employee with a five-day suspension for sending an e-mail critical of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Jonnis Hargis, a librarian at UCLA, replied to a colleague's e-mail distributed to all library employees shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The message contained an electronic transcript of Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair's 1973 glowing tribute to the U.S. originally written near the end of the Vietnam War.

In the original broadcast, Sinclair is highly critical of those opposed to U.S. foreign policy and the war in Vietnam, and praises the Americans for their humanitarian and economic aid to countries in distress.

"They will come out of this thing with their flag high," Sinclair declared.

"And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of these. Stand proud, America."

Hargis says he was offended by the "jingoistic, chauvinistic, just over-the-top patriotism" in the transcript and sent back an e-mail in which he characterized Israel as an "apartheid state" operating outside of international law and criticized the U.S. bombing of Iraq.

"We call it 'collateral damage,' except when it happens to us," Hargis wrote. "So who are the 'terrorists' anyway?"

The library administration moved quickly to suspend Hargis, claiming his e-mail "demonstrated a lack of sensitivity that went beyond incivility and became harassment."

Worried by these and other incidents, the American Association of University Professors issued a statement recently arguing that faculty members have the right to express their own opinions.

General secretary Mary Burgan says it is time to stand up to "those who believe that thinking out loud in colleges and universities is so subversive that it ought to be stopped."

"As a rational species," the statement reads, "we must imagine causes, motives, remedies. And that is good. That is what we do as citizens in America. That is what faculty do as professionals."