These people are not serious
Part the umpteenth
There used to be a handful of freedom of expression institutions left in Canada actually fit for their original purpose, and they were beacons. But I’ve been watching lately how even they get gradually eroded and give up on their central mission, while pretending this is not the case and that they’re just doing what they’ve always been doing.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, of all organizations, is now challenging the New Brunswick government for adding some changes to Policy 713 that adds a liberty to the teaching and counselling professions: the liberty to not be forced to compelled speech when referring to students under 16 who insist they want to change their name and pronouns and be treated as the opposite sex without their parents knowing. I know a couple of Ontario teachers (and an 11-year-old who is part of a class full of kids who call themselves furries) and they tell me it’s very hard to question student self-identification, no matter how detached from reality it is.
From this surprisingly fair-minded CBC report:
It is no longer mandatory for teachers to use the preferred pronouns or names of students under 16.
A student who refuses parental involvement would be referred to a school psychologist or social worker to develop a plan to inform the student's parents "if and when they are ready to do so."
The revisions also fog up the previously mandatory requirement to let male teens who identify as girls play on girls’ teams. (I mean, let’s face it: the reverse is not gonna destroy anyone’s chances at fair sport participation, so it’s about male teens in female teams.) The policy now vaguely leaves room for this being negotiable, and dependent on context.
So what does the CCLA do? They are announcing a legal challenge because the policy does not force a lie on everyone involved in child’s schooling. The under-16s, who can’t purchase alcohol, cigarettes or pot, can’t vote, can’t apply for driver’s license or credit card without parental supervision and consent, can’t do any number of things because they are under-freaking-16, should have the non-negotiable right to demand of everyone they spend their days among to lie about their sex, and without parents knowing anything about it. This is the CCLA’s mission now. The press release is classic of the genre, with the straight-faced use of the “2SLBGTQIA+” acronym.
And PEN Canada? I’m not sure about it anymore either. They have been conspicuously absent from pretty much all of the freedom of expression discussions happening in Canada.
Look at what they’re concerned about. What would Ukrainian institutions do without PEN Canada events drawing attention to their predicament? It’s a very outward looking organization which is not particularly into what’s been happening at its doorstep. They have a gala in September, which will be hosted by the politically right-on Garvia Bailey. You can also see on their home page an opinion piece about “Meta silencing Canadian journalism”. (Insert a raised eyebrow emoji here…) They still co-sponsor I see the TMU’s Centre for Free of Expression’s series of online chats but the Centre itself is slowly inching towards safer and more international topics, Chinese interference, whistle-blower protection, “western media fanning fears of Islam”, privacy legislation, and fragmentation of democratic societies. Like all Canadian institutions, the Centre too steers clear of the third-rail topics that affect greatly the freedom of expression, academic inquiry and association: trans politics, and indigenization of institutions. Robert Wintemute deplatformed by the TRA heckler’s veto at McGill when he tried to talk about LGB going their own way from T? Not a peep. Government officials threatening to outlaw what they call “residential school denialism”? Historical profession in Canada terrified of questioning the word “genocide” for how Canada came to be? Various Ontario school boards and school libraries removing insufficiently correct books like Harry Potter or Tin Tin, one even burning them in a “cleansing” ceremony? Mandatory DEI statements in academic hiring? No, but here’s another conversation on Putin.
What kinda broke my heart though today was the Toronto Public Library What’s at stake? series of public talks about freedom of expression. First event: What's at stake when states, provinces or even prison officials ban books or limit prisoners' communication with the outside world? Safe topic, tick. The Warrior Librarians of Ukraine. Oh, here we go. Tick. Third event, Cory Doctorow talks with someone about generational divides, opposing viewpoints and the risk of media-induced polarization. OK… Tick. Cory Doctorow talks with a Facebook whistleblower about… badness of Facebook. In 2021, Haugen publicly disclosed her identity as the anonymous Wall Street Journal source in an investigative series, "The Facebook Files: A Wall Street Journal Investigation." The investigation included the social media platform's negative impact on youth, misinformation, weaknesses in its response to human trafficking and drug cartels, and revealed how Facebook's algorithm favoured anger and outrage to keep us doom scrolling. Few things are safer and more welcome in any public forum now than criticizing Facebook. Big-ass tick. Final event: Norman Finkelstein. With Christian Parenti, investigative journalist and Professor of Economics at John Jay College, about their shared experiences facing institutional repercussions for both their personal views and theoretically-based work, and what they consider to be the reasoning and implications of this backlash. Perfectly important but Finkelstein’s criticism of Israel etc. does not incite passions to the point of cancellability any more. This too is a pretty safe event.
How about the TPL programs some actual freedom of speech topics? Can you imagine Frances Widdowson talking about her job loss and her academic work in one of these? Christopher Dummitt on the homogenization of historical profession in Canada? A conversation on criminalizing anyone who has questions about the “ground penetrating radar findings” and the ensuing hysteria? Amy Hamm on the BC Nurses Union hearing against her (to resume in October… the process is the punishment, as is often the case) for her insufficient sex denialism on Twitter? How the school boards approach the weeding of pre-2008 books? Retroactive and posthumous editing of published authors? And if you want to cover the US topics, which Canadian institutions really really like doing, then why not get Greg Lukianoff of FIRE, who will easily tell you that the numbers of academic workers who’ve lost jobs due to expressed opinion or political preference long ago surpassed the McCarthy-era red-scare numbers?
What about therapists who understand their job as open-ended and not immediately affirming of client’s fantasies - are they going to go to jail for “conversion therapy” of trans-identified youth? Do religious parents with children in public schooling have absolute right never to hear the word “homosexual” uttered in front of their children - and do gay rights organizations have a right to demand that all schools wave the Progress Flag, which I myself would reject, on esthetic grounds to begin with?
Who programmed this and where do they live? Not among the rest of us, that much is clear. I have a feeling that the management that runs these program in TPL only consume American media, and conclude that the biggest threat to freedom of speech in Canada comes from the Big Bad Right. I mean, come on. COME. ON.
Truth!