Canadian teaching assistant in trouble for presenting both sides of gender debate

A RECORDING has been leaked of a teaching assistant being interrogated for presenting both sides of the debate over gender pronouns.

LAURIER Universityhasapologised after audio was leaked of staff members interrogating a teaching assistant for presenting both sides of an argument about gender pronouns.

Lindsay Shepherd is a graduate student and a teaching assistant at the university in Ontario, Canada.

During an undergraduate tutorial, she played a video of a debate between two university professors, Jordan Peterson and Nicholas Matte, that aired on Ontario’s public broadcast channel.

As a result, Shepherd was called in by her supervisor Nathan Rambukkana, Professor Herbert Pimlott and Adria Joel, the university’s manager of gendered violence prevention.

Peterson, one of the debaters, is a tenured professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He shot into the media spotlight after voicing his opposition to political correctness and Canada’s Bill C-16.

Bill C-16, which aims to protect individuals from discrimination based on their gender, was passed by the Canadian parliament in 2016.

Peterson says Bill C-16 violates free speech, because it would punish him for not using someone’s preferred gender pronoun. He has amassed over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Shepherd recorded her meeting with Rambukkana, without his knowledge. It is available for listening online.

To call this scandalous is barely to scratch the surface: From secretly recorded meeting between Wilfrid Laurier U grad student/faculty/admin https://t.co/J2lhaWKX5C

— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) 19 November 2017

In the recorded audio, Rumbukkana objected to Shepherd’s decision to air Peterson’s “problematic” opinions. He described Jordan Peterson as an alt-right figure and said his views are in violation of the Canadian human rights code. Joel said Shepherd was in violation of Laurier’s gender and sexual violence policy.

Rumbakkana told Shepherd she had created a “toxic climate” and an “unsafe learning environment.” He compared Shepherd’s decision to play a debate involving Peterson to “neutrally playing a speech from Hitler or Milo Yiannopoulos.”

Shepherd was accused of targeting trans students and “invalidating” their identity. “I don’t get why I’m being seen as transphobic, by virtue of me just exposing people to an idea,” Shepherd, who was reduced to tears, said.

“I can see how it might challenge their existing ideas. But for me, that’s the spirit of the university.”

She added that she personally disagrees with Peterson, but wanted to present both sides of the debate. “This is something that’s being debated in current society, and I don’t feel the need to shield people from what’s going on in society,” she said.

Re: those claiming I have a right-wing agenda: Unfortunately, you have missed the point. Freedom to circulate ideas and debate current affairs is everyone's issue. I am a leftist. But I do not represent the leftism of Rambukkana/Pimlott, who believe in shutting down opposition.

— Lindsay Shepherd (@NewWorldHominin) 16 November 2017

Shepherd insisted she remained neutral during her tutorial, to which Rumbakkana replied: “that’s kind of the problem.”

Rambukkana said he will sit in on Shepherds tutorials from then on. The meeting ended on a discussion about the possibility of Shepherd losing her position as a teaching assistant.

Since the audio of the meeting was leaked, Rambukkana has made a public apology to Shepherd. “I should have seen how meeting with a panel of three people would be an intimidating situation and not invite a productive discussion,” he said.

Moral of the story: A university must be repeatedly publicly shamed, internationally, in order to apologize (oh, but keep the task force & investigation). Even then, ambiguous about free speech. Also, make sure to secretly record all meetings or they won't take you seriously.

— Lindsay Shepherd (@NewWorldHominin) 21 November 2017

Rambukkana admitted Shepherd is right to say that “making a space for controversial or oppositional views is important, and even essential to a university.”

The President and Vice-Chancellor of the University also made apologies. They announced the establishment of a task force “to delve into these issues.”