I appreciate the strong editorial in the CAUT Bulletin (“Universities Are Betraying Their Central Mission,” March 2009) defending free speech on campus at a time when it is under serious assault. This is precisely what CAUT should be doing under these circumstances.

There are deliberate attempts to shut down Palestinian solidarity on our campuses, which fit into a broader picture of erosion of free expression your authors identified. Posters have been banned, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have called on universities to shut down Israeli Apartheid Week, a series of student-run forums on Palestine.

Free speech struggles often revolve around difficult cases and strong disagreements. The free speech and equity agendas need to be reconciled in ways that are often challenging. We cannot make advances in equity simply by silencing voices that offend us, nor can we make advances in free speech by ignoring the ways open expression is organized around inequality, privilege and silencing.

Our campuses need to be places where people try to work through these challenges, and banning Palestinian advocacy does not advance this development. Indeed, free speech around Palestine needs to be normalized on our campuses.

It is precisely through modeling the normalization of contentious expression that our campuses can serve their role as laboratories of ideas and interchange. It is important to see an editorial in the Bulletin supporting free expression, even of difficult and contentious issues.

Alan Sears
Sociology
Ryerson University

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